RENO, Nev. - Nevada fought back from 10 points down to send Saturday night's game against Air Force to overtime, but it was the Falcons who came away with the win, 36-33 in two extra sessions.
Herschel Turner highlighted a career night with a 57-yard touchdown run with 1:49 left in regulation to tie it up at 27-27. The Wolf Pack (1-3, 0-1 MW) had a brief chance to end it in regulation when
Bryson Snelling intercepted Air Force quarterback Liam Szarka at the Nevada 47 with 17 seconds to go but
Carter Jones' Hail Mary at the buzzer was batted away.
The teams traded field goals in the first overtime, with the Wolf Pack missing a golden opportunity to walk it off. After holding the Falcons (2-1, 1-1 MW) to a field goal, Nevada looked to have gained a first down on third-and-one from the Air Force 16 and to be well on its way to driving for the game-winning touchdown. But an officials' review of
Dominic Kelley's run reversed the call of him being down by contact, ruling that Falcon linebacker Blake Fletcher had punched the ball out just before Kelley's knee hit the ground with the fumble being recovered by
Donnie Cheers on the Air Force 18, leaving a fourth down. The Pack went with the field goal to tie as
Joe McFadden connected from 35 yards out.
McFadden kicked his career-best fourth field goal of the game to start the second extra session but this time Air Force was able to finish its drive. The Falcons needed just five plays to win it, with Rocco Conti capping it with a seven-yard scoring run.
Falcon quarterback Liam Szarka carried for 12 yards on that winning double-overtime drive, capping a night in which he ran for 171 yards and two touchdowns and went 5-for-12 passing for 92 yards and another score.
Nevada linebacker
EJ Smith made 21 tackles in the contest, tied for the fourth-most in Wolf Pack single-game history and the program's first 20-tackle game since Asauni Rufus (24) and Austin Paulhaus (21) against the Falcons in 2017.
Dylan LaBarbera made a career-high 18 tackles while
Jeremy Naborne-Owens had a sack to highlight his 12 tackles.
Wolf Pack quarterback
Carter Jones completed 18-of-30 passes for 224 yards, connecting with nine different receivers led by six catches by
Damien Morgan.
Air Force looked to have the game in control when Szarka scored in an eight-yard run to make it 27-17 with 5:56 to go. But Nevada answered quickly with a field-goal drive with 3:45 to go, then got a defensive stop to set up the game-tying drive capped with Turner's scoring run.
Â
