Wood grad Strong throws 5 TDs
Vacaville High grad Talton nails field goal attempt for Nevada against Fresno State
RENO, NEV. >> Carson Strong threw three of his career-high five touchdown passes to Tory Horton and Nevada beat Fresno State 37-26 on Saturday night in a key Mountain West Conference matchup.
Nevada (6-1, 6-1) kept pace with San Jose State (5- 0, 5- 0), which beat Hawaii 35-24.
Horton, a freshman from Fresno, caught a 17-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter and an 85-yarder early in the fourth. On third-and-10, he beat and then jumped over a defender in the end zone for a 32yard score with 5:32 to play.
Strong, the Will C. Wood grad, completed 23 of 39 passes for 354 yards. Horton finished with five catches for 148 yards. It marked Strong’s fifth game over 300 yards this season. For the year, he has completed 70 percent of his passes with 2,327 yards, 21 touchdowns and just four interceptions.
Strong fired a career-long 85-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, the longest in the MW this season and secondlongest by a MW signal-caller in the last two seasons.
On Monday, Strong was named the conference’s Offensive Player of the Week. He was just the second Mountain West quarterback to throw at least five touchdown passes in a second game this season, according to the MW website.
Fresno State’s Jake Haener threw a program-high 65 passes, completing 41 including a pair of touchdown passes. He surpassed Brian Burrell, who had 59 pass attempts against Nebraska on Nov. 13, 2014.
Keric Wheatfall had 113 yards receiving and a 19-yard touchdown catch for the Bulldogs (32, 3-2). Jalen Cropper added 107
yards receiving and Zane Pope another 96 yards with a 21-yard touchdown catch late in the game.
Vacaville High grad Brandon Talton hit a 49yard field goal to give the Wolf Pack an early 3- 0 lead. He is now 13 of 14 on field goals for the season.
Fresno State leads the all-time series 29-23-1, but Nevada has beaten the Bulldogs in back-to-back games.
Nevada will conclude the 2020 regular season with home game against San Jose State on Friday with a conference championship berth on the line. The game will be televised on CBS SportsNet.v The game was originally scheduled to be played in San Jose but had to be moved due to Santa Clara County’s restrictive order.