RENO, Nev. — Don Jackson ran for two touchdowns and Nevada’s defense allowed a lone field goal in the second half Friday night as the Wolf Pack beat Washington State 24-13.
Cody Fajardo passed for 110 yards and ran for another 100 to join Colin Kaepernick as one of only three players in school history to surpass 10,000 career yards of total offense for Nevada (2-0).
Connor Halliday passed for 389 yards but only one touchdown and was intercepted twice for the Cougars (0-2). In two games, he’s completed 78 of 113 attempts for 921 yards, but does not have a win to show for it after dropping the opener to Rutgers, 41-38.
Nevada never trailed after Kendall Jackson returned an interception 45 yards to set up fellow freshman Don Jackson’s 1-yard score late in the first quarter. Jackson also ran 2 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter and finished with 69 yards rushing.
The Wolf Pack held Washington State to 38 yards rushing on 18 carries and sacked Halliday four times to claim only their third victory over a Pacific-12 Conference team in the past 10 years, after beating Cal in 2010 and 2012.
Nevada opened a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter when James Butler scored from the 1 after Fajardo got loose on a keeper up the middle for 55 yards.
Duran Workman intercepted Halliday on the next series but after that Halliday led the Cougars on their only touchdown drive, going 80 yards on five plays. The drive was capped by Holliday’s 13-yard scoring pass to Vince Mayle to cut the lead to 14-7 midway through the second quarter.
Erik Powell’s 25-yard field goal made it 14-10 with 1:54 left before halftime.
However, Powell missed a 37-yard attempt on WSU’s first drive of the second half and was wide right again on a 39-yard try with 2:49 left in the third quarter.
Fajardo then led Nevada on a 14-play, 79-yard drive, capped by Jackson’s 2-yard TD run to go ahead 21-10 with 12:15 left in the game.
Jamal Morrow returned the ensuing kickoff 36 yards to WSU’s 40 and Halliday passed 19 yards to Vince Mayle before coach Mike Leach turned to Quentin Breshears to kick a 38-yard field goal to cut it to 21-13 with 9:32 remaining.
Howver, on the next series, Fajardo hit Hasaan Henderson with a 21-yard pass over the middle and Brent Zuzo made a 40-yard field goal to put Nevada ahead 24-13 with 4:25 left.
Kaepernick, now with the San Francisco 49ers, holds Nevada’s career record for total offense with 14,210 yards (2007-10) and David Neill is second with 11,145 (1998-01).
