Dec. 4, 2010

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RUSTON - Nevada quarterback Colin Kaepernick rushed for 155 yards and three touchdowns while Vai Taua added 162 yards and two scores to lead the 14th ranked Wolf Pack to a 35-17 win over Louisiana Tech before 18,562 fans at Joe Aillet Stadium.

With the victory, the Wolf Pack (12-1, 7-1 WAC) wrapped up a share of the 2010 Western Athletic Conference championship title with Hawaii and Boise State while Louisiana Tech (5-7, 4-4) came up one game short in pursuit of its second bowl appearance in the last three years.

Nevada led 21-17 early in the fourth quarter when Kaepernick made the play of the game with a Houdini-like escape of a would-be sack on a fourth-down-and-nine-play from the Tech 28-yard line.

With the Bulldogs blitz surrounding Kaepernick about 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage, the elusive signal caller escaped the grasp of a Tech defender, took off down the left sideline and then cut back to the middle of the field and raced virtually untouched into the end zone.

The score was the 59th career rushing touchdown of Kaepernick's career, tying him with former Nebraska quarterback Eric Crouch for the all-time NCAA Division I lead.

"I thought we did some good things in the first half, but in the second half they just lined up and whipped us," said Tech head coach Sonny Dykes."That's what great players do; they make great players. He's hard to tackle. He made good plays. He's a good football player."

The touchdown capped an 11-play, 73-yard yard drive and not only gave the Wolf Pack an 11-point lead at 28-17, but seemed to take the entire life out of the Louisiana Tech sideline and the Joe Aillet Stadium crowd.

Any realistic chance of a Tech comeback was severely crippled with the Bulldog offense went three-and-out on its next possession, forcing a punt.

Nevada then took little time scoring again, as Taua scored his second touchdown of the day on a six-yard run that finished off a six-play, 80-yard drive that took only 2:37 off the clock.

Tech opened the game strong as the Bulldogs marched 79 yards on nine plays and took a 7-0 advantage on a 20-yard scoring toss from Ross Jenkins to Eric Harper with 11:16 to play in the first quarter.

The score remained 7-0 until early in the second quarter when Nevada tied the game on a Taua one-yard plunge at the 13:00 minute mark.

Tech answered the score with a 12-play, 74-yard drive that took 3:59 off the clock as Jenkins gave the Bulldogs a 14-7 lead on a quarterback sneak from one yard out.

Kaepernick then directed another impressive drive as Nevada went 83 yards on 14 plays and tied the game with a five-yard run by the senior quarterback.

The Bulldogs had an opportunity to make a big play and take a halftime lead as senior wide receiver Phillip Livas took a snap out of the Wild Dog formation, raced over the left side and down the sideline for what appeared would be a 67-yard score.

However, Livas just did step out of bounds at the Tech 42-yard line and the Bulldogs were unable to score as the two teams went into the halftime locker room tied at 14-14.

Nevada came out in the second half and converted a couple of third down conversions on their opening drive before taking a 21-14 lead on a Kaepernick 1-yard score.

After Matt Nelson's 25-yard field goal at the 3:51 mark of the third quarter cut the Nevada lead to 21-17, the Wolf Pack turned to its ground game to control the football and the game. Nevada registered 247 of its 360 yards rushing in the second half.

"We didn't tackle in the second half like we needed to. We didn't play at the level in the second half like we should have," Dykes said.

"This program is the type of program that we expect to go to bowl games. I've been proud of some of the things our players have done, and we've had some seniors that have done some great things. You always want to play your best and as a coach when you team doesn't play their best, you're disappointed. We've got some good guys coming back next year so we will go back to work on Monday. We've got to learn and expect to win next season."

Jenkins finished the game 14-of-23 for 188 yards and one score while Taulib Ikharo caught four passes for 85 yards. Lennon Creer, who rushed for 252 yards in Tech's win over San Jose State last week, was held to only 49 yards on 18 carries.

Livas finished the game with 162 kickoff return yards. He ends his career with 2,758 kickoff return yards, which ranks first in Tech history and fell just 24 yards short of the Western Athletic Conference record of 2,782 by Cedric Johnson of UTEP.

Defensively, Jay Dudley recorded 11 tackles, Chad Boyd added 10 tackles and Jonathan Zeno had eight tackles. Matt Broha recorded six tackles and one sack, giving him 14.5 sacks for his career and moving him into third place in the Tech record books.