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Nevada Wolf Pack defeated Oregon State 42-37 on Saturday

Posted on by Vanessa
Nevada Wolf Pack defeated Oregon State 42-37 on Saturday

Nevada (3-4 overall, 1-1 conference) hosts Fresno State (3-3) on Friday night at Mackay Stadium.

Oregon State fans brought the orange, but on Saturday night they saw red.

Savion Red, that is. Red scored four touchdowns as Nevada beat Oregon State 42-37 at Mackay Stadium on Saturday night.

Nevada quarterback Brendon Lewis also scored 67 yards, helping the Wolfpack improve to 3-4 overall (0-1 Mountain West). Oregon State fell to 4-2.

Nevada coach Jeff Choate said it was good to finally break through and get a win after so many setbacks this year.

“This is an important win for our program because sooner or later you have to get your payday,” Choate said. “Continue to fight like they did in this game and make plays.”

Rushing was the theme as the Pack ran for 353 yards as a team and averaged 8.4 yards. Lewis threw for 69 yards on 5 of 12 passes.

The 353 rushing yards are the most the team has achieved since rushing for 408 yards against UNLV on November 29, 2014, and the 8.4 yards per carry are the most since an 8.95 average against San Jose State on November 9. October 2010 (367 yards on 41 carries). .

Red's four-touchdown performance was the Wolfpack's first four-touchdown game since Cody Fajardo on October 29, 2011 at New Mexico State and the first four-touchdown game since James Butler (three rushing, one receiving) on ​​November 29 2011 26. 2016, at UNLV.

Choate said Red has shown a higher level of maturity on the sideline and on the field than he did earlier this season.

The Pack was missing two starters on offense – Spencer Lovell (illness) and Josiah Timateo (ankle sprain).

Oregon State quarterback Gevani McCoy was 27 of 42 passing for 342 yards. The Beavers scored 214 runs as a team, with Anthony Hankerson scoring 154 of them and three touchdowns.

Come back

Oregon State led 24-14 late in the third quarter. But then Red scored two more touchdowns and Kitan Crawford had an interception and a touchdown to give the Pack a 35-24 lead. He said it was the first pick-six of his career.

Hankerson scored his third touchdown for Oregon State with 6:59 left to give the Beavers some life as Nevada led 35-30. The Beavers then recovered the onside kick to gain possession at their 46-yard line.

Lewis said the Wolf Pack never doubted themselves.

“We knew we could go out and get the job done,” Lewis said. “We feel like our record doesn’t really reflect who we really are. We played a lot of close games and a lot of those games could have gone our way.”

He said the pack takes a four-and-one mentality every game.

“We just have to have our backs against the wall,” he said. “We didn’t panic, nobody got nervous, everyone stayed awake.”

Lewis' 151 rushing yards were the most by a Wolf Pack quarterback since Cody Fajardo ran for 165 yards against Fresno State on November 22, 2014, and his 67-yard run was the longest by a Wolf Pack QB since Fajardo's 68 yards Run at Colorado State on November 9, 2013.

Lewis' 151 rushing yards and Red's 137 gave the Wolfpack two 100-yard rushers in a game for the first time since the 2020 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl against Tulane on December 22, 2020, when Devonte Lee ran for 105 yards.

Chubba goes wild

Chubba Purdy, one of Nevada's backup quarterbacks, reached three phases of the stat line. He caught a pass for 11 yards, ran on a QB sneak for 18 yards and threw a pass to Lewis for 18 yards.

Choate said Purdy was a really good athlete and if he hadn't been injured in the spring and summer, the quarterback competition would have been tougher.

Not ejected

Nevada linebacker Drue Watts was called for targeting, which resulted in an ejection, with 3:11 left to play. But it was overruled after a review.

An ejection would have meant he would have to sit out the first half of Nevada's next game.

Watts led the field with 13 tackles on Saturday.

First half

Oregon State scored on its first drive of an eight-play series, but Nevada answered on its ensuing possession as Red scored from 33 yards out. He added a seven-yard TD early in the second quarter to give Nevada a 14-7 lead.

Oregon State took a five-play lead and took a 17-14 lead into the break.

Nevada's Tory Daffin had an interception in the first quarter as the Beavers went for fourth-and-goal from the three-yard line, leading to a 14-point swing.

The Pack had four interceptions in the game. Kitan Crawford scored and Michael Coates Jr. scored in the end zone to end the game. He had one at the start of the game.

The four total turnovers marked the Pack's first four-turnover game since September 3, 2022 against Texas State (two interceptions, two fumble recoveries).

Nevada has more than doubled its takeaway total this season, entering Saturday's game with three and finishing the night with seven (all interceptions).

Coates didn't play football in high school and transferred to a junior college team in Mississippi to start his career before coming to Nevada.

“He just keeps competing; he has the perfect mentality for a corner,” Choate said. “He has the memory of a goldfish, which is exactly what you want in this position.”

Coates said he had planned to just knock the ball over on the final play, but when he saw it floating overhead, he hauled it in instead.

Proud of the effort

Choate said his goal is to bring a product to market that fans and the community can be proud of.

“There are certainly growing pains in this process, but this is an impressive win for us,” Choate said. “Beating a 4-1 team at home is great.”

Series story

Saturday's meeting was the fifth all-time between the Wolf Pack and Beavers and the first since Nevada's 37-35 win at Mackay Stadium in 2018. Oregon State leads the overall series 3-2.

In the teams' first meeting, the Wolf Pack traveled to Corvallis, Oregon, for a Thanksgiving Day game on November 26, 1903, which the Beavers won 15-0.

This year, the Beavers are playing a unique schedule that features Washington State as the only two members of the Pac-12. The teams have reached an agreement with the Mountain West to play eight games each against MW programs. The game is officially considered a non-conference game for the Wolf Pack.

Next

Nevada hosts Fresno State for homecoming Friday at Mackay Stadium at 7:30 p.m.

The Bulldogs (3-3 overall) lost 25-17 to Washington State on Saturday.

Nevada will consider Sunday as its usual Monday practice day to prepare for the short week.

Bicentennial celebration

Saturday's game marked a year-long celebration of the University of Nevada's 200th anniversary. The university opened in Elko on October 12, 1874 to seven students.

In 1885, Nevada Governor Jewett Adams signed a bill that moved the university to Reno, where it reopened in 1886 in Morrill Hall with 75 students enrolled.

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