AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP) — Ty Gangi's worst moment in the game was fleeting, and no match for the best that was yet to come.

Gangi threw for four touchdowns, three of them after a demoralizing pick-6, and Nevada held off a late Air Force rally to beat the Falcons 28-25 on Saturday.

"Ty is a senior and he's been in a lot of tough games, had ups and downs," Nevada coach Jay Norvell said. "But he just continued to believe in himself and our team and that was really important, to play through that adversity."

Gangi completed 24-of-33 for 259 yards with scoring passes of 40 and 23 yards to Elijah Cooks, 29 yards to McLane Mannix and 30 yards to Brendan O'Leary-Orange. Nevada (3-2, 1-0 Mountain West) withstood Zane Lewis' school-record 99-yard interception return in the second quarter to win its conference opener and beat Air Force (1-3, 0-2) for the first time in three trips to Falcon Stadium.

"I've been taught and I've learned through this position that you have to have a short memory," Gangi said. "No matter what happens, even after throwing for a touchdown, you have to have a short memory, come back the next play and play every play and just really move on to the next play."

The steely approach helped Nevada snap its eight-game road losing streak and marked Norvell's first win away from home since he became Nevada's coach before the 2017 season.

"Hopefully, this is the first of many and we keep that rolling," Gangi said.

Nevada's defense also did its part, digging in to turn back the Falcons in the final minutes. Donald Hammond III, who had replaced starting quarterback Arion Worthman midway through the third quarter, drove the Falcons deep into Nevada territory but threw incomplete into the end zone under pressure on a 4th-and-8 play from the 11-yard line with 1:16 remaining.

Nevada ran off most of the clock before deliberately taking a safety and kicking the ball back to the Falcons with 10 seconds left to play. Hammond got off two passes before time expired — both fell incomplete.

Air Force coach Troy Calhoun said he liked the way his team fought back in the second half.

"Obviously, there was a clear difference between the two halves," he said. "You've got to play well for an entire game and no way did that happen."

Trailing by 14 at the half, Air Force opened the second half by driving to the Nevada 26 before stalling and settling for a 43-yard field goal by Jake Koehnke.

Nevada answered with another pass by Gangi, connecting for a second time with Cooks to rebuild the Wolf Pack's lead to 28-10.

Hammond replaced Worthman at quarterback and led the Falcons to their first offensive touchdown of the day, completing a 2-yard scoring pass to Marcus Bennett and narrowing Air Force's deficit to 11 points late in the third quarter. He finished off a second drive with a 9-yard scoring run that pulled Air Force to within 5 points with 6:48 remaining after Nevada stopped a 2-point conversion try.

Postgame notes – Air Force

-The 28-25 win for Nevada marked the first road win under head coach Jay Norvell and the Pack's first road win since it beat UNLV in Las Vegas on Nov. 26, 2016.
-The Nevada defense held Air Force (came in averaging 402 yards of total offense per game) to just 250 yards of total offense. It was the lowest amount of total yards given up by Nevada since it held UNLV to 110 in October of 2011.
-Nevada's defense also held Air Force to just 154 yards rushing, when the Falcons had been averaging 288.3 rushing yards per game.
-Sophomore Elijah Cooks opened the scoring with a 40-yard touchdown reception. Cooks has caught a TD pass in two consecutive games. He added a second TD catch in the third quarter, giving him the first multi-TD game of his career.
-Senior QB Ty Gangi was 5-for-5 for 69 yards and a touchdown pass on the Wolf Pack's opening drive of the game. He finished the game 24-of-33 for 259 yards and four touchdowns. It marked the third four-TD game of his career with the other two coming last season against Hawai'i and at Colorado State.
-Senior DE Korey Rush recorded two sacks in the first half, giving him 8.5 for his career and 4.0 on the year.
-The Wolf Pack defense held the Falcons out of the endzone the entire first half. The only Air Force score of the half came on a 99-yard interception return.
-Senior LB Malik Reed's strip sack in the second quarter was the ninth forced fumble of his career and gave him 17.0 career sacks, breaking him into the top 10 at Nevada. Senior LB Lucas Weber recorded the fumble recovery on the play, the first of his career.
-Reed added another forced fumble later in the game, and also recovered the ball on the same play. He finished the game with seven total tackles, 3.0 TFL, 1.0 sacks, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.
-Ty Gangi now has 44 career touchdown passes, passing John Dutton for 10^th all-time at Nevada.
-Sophomore McLane Mannix hauled in his fifth TD reception of the season in the second quarter, catching one from 29 yards out. He now has 11 TD catches in his career.
-Senior DB Asauni Rufus led the team with 10 total tackles on the day, giving him 303 in his career. He is now fifth all-time at Nevada, just three tackles shy of tying Brock Marion for fourth.
-Nevada's defense, which ranked 57^th in the nation in 3^rd down conversation percentage defense, held Air Force to 3-of-14 on third downs. Additionally, the Pack defense came in ranked ninth in the nation in team tackles for loss and recorded 12 today, led by Malik Reed's 3.0.
-Sophomore DB Tyson Williams earned his first collegiate start and finished the game with five tackles.
-Nevada led the time of possession for the second time this season at 31:07. Air Force possessed the ball for 10 minutes under their average.
-The all-time series between Nevada and Air Force is now 3-2, in favor of Air Force. This is the first time Nevada has beaten Air Force since 2013.