After a strong home victory against Toledo, the Fresno State Bulldogs traveled to Reno to face their first Mountain West opponent of the season, the University of Nevada Wolfpack. It would be a one-sided affair, however, with the Bulldogs dominating the entire game, especially on the defensive side and winning the game, 21-3.
Fresno State was looking for a victory that would cement them as a strong candidate for the West division title in the Mountain West. Nevada was coming off a close win against Air Force and they were looking to get another win in conference play.
The first quarter of the game was a defensive stalemate with both teams going up and down the field, but with no points being scored. The scoring opened up in the second quarter when Bulldogs quarterback Marcus McMaryion threw a 19-yard screen pass to running Ronnie Rivers for the opening touchdown of the game.
Nevada responded in the very next series with points of their own when Ramiz Ahmed hit a 41-yard field goal right down the middle to make the score 7-3. The first half of the game ended with both teams still very much in a very tough defensive game.
In the third quarter Fresno State found the scoreboard again, this time thanks to a 69-yard pass from McMaryion to Jared Rice that put the ‘Dogs in perfect scoring position. A 1-yard run by Rivers was all the Bulldogs needed to score the second touchdown of the night and make the score 14-3.
The third and final touchdown of the game would come in the fourth quarter, thanks to a 27-yard pass from McMaryion to KeeSean Johnson. This would make it a three score game with just under nine minutes to play in the game for Nevada.
Johnson extended his streak of consecutive games with a reception to 41 and moved into fourth place in Bulldogs football history in career receptions, passing Isaiah Burse.
The ‘Dogs defense grabbed three interceptions on the game, thanks to Kelly Anthoula and Juju Hughes in the first half and Mike Bell in the second half.
“It’s always nice to get a win and wins are hard to come by and Nevada is a really good football team and they are going to win a lot of games this year,” head coach Jeff Tedford said after the game to Fresno State Athletics. “It feels good to come away with a victory to open [conference] up, but we have a lot of work to do and if we are going to compete each week, we have to play better on offense than we did tonight.”
