Fresno State turned a scoreless game into a rout Saturday night, defeating Sacramento State 49-3 in its home opener at Valley Children\u2019s Stadium.<\/p>\n
Quarterback Jayden Mandal accounted for three touchdowns during a 32-point second quarter as the Bulldogs secured their first victory of the season and their first since joining the Pac-12.<\/p>\n
Driving the news: Neither team scored during the opening quarter, but Fresno State needed only seven seconds of the second to reach the end zone.<\/p>\n
Mandal connected with Rayshon Luke for an 18-yard touchdown before finding Ezekiel Avit for a 73-yard score on the Bulldogs\u2019 next offensive play. A successful two-point conversion gave Fresno State a 15-0 lead.<\/p>\n
Mandal added a one-yard touchdown run before Simeon Harris intercepted Sacramento State quarterback Jackson Sharman. Fresno State converted the takeaway into another touchdown when Bryson Donelson scored from 11 yards out.<\/p>\n
Manaki Watanabe\u2019s 51-yard field goal as time expired gave the Bulldogs a 32-0 halftime advantage.<\/p>\n
Player of the game: Mandal completed 23 of 26 passes for 316 yards and two touchdowns without an interception.<\/p>\n
The junior also scored on the ground and completed passes to 10 receivers. His 73-yard touchdown to Avit was the longest completion of his career and Fresno State\u2019s longest play since Matt Entz became head coach.<\/p>\n
The performance represented a sharp turnaround from Fresno State\u2019s season-opening loss to USC, when Mandal completed seven passes for 77 yards and threw an interception.<\/p>\n
By the numbers: Fresno State finished with 542 yards of offense, nearly doubling Sacramento State\u2019s total of 262.<\/p>\n
Donelson rushed for 102 yards and a career-high three touchdowns on 13 carries.<\/p>\n
Avit caught two passes for 103 yards and one touchdown.<\/p>\n
Josiah Freeman finished with six receptions for 100 yards.<\/p>\n
Fresno State gained 349 yards through the air and 193 on the ground.<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs did not commit a turnover.<\/p>\n
It was the first time Fresno State produced a 300-yard passer, a 100-yard rusher and a 100-yard receiver in the same game since November 2022.<\/p>\n
Fresno State also had two receivers surpass 100 yards in the same game for the first time since October 2022.<\/p>\n
The second half: Donelson continued the rout with touchdown runs of five and 56 yards during the third quarter.<\/p>\n
Sacramento State avoided the shutout when Grant Meadors made a 35-yard field goal, but the Hornets never reached the end zone.<\/p>\n
Watanabe added a 28-yard field goal during the fourth quarter to complete the scoring. He converted both of his field-goal attempts and all five extra-point attempts.<\/p>\n
Defensive stand: Fresno State held Sacramento State to three conversions on 13 third-down attempts and one conversion on four fourth-down tries.<\/p>\n
Martin Owusu and Maverick Noonan led the Bulldogs with six tackles each. Owusu added a 14-yard sack, while Harris recorded the game\u2019s only takeaway.<\/p>\n
Sharman completed 15 of 31 passes for 150 yards for Sacramento State, which fell to 1-2.<\/p>\n
Why it matters: The victory gave Fresno State its sixth consecutive win over Sacramento State and its sixth straight home-opening victory.<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs\u2019 49 points were their most against an FBS opponent since scoring 53 against Kent State in 2023. Their 32-point halftime lead was their largest since taking a 38-point advantage into halftime against Idaho in 2018.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next: Fresno State will travel to face San Jose State on Saturday at 8 p.m. on FS1.<\/p>\n
Although the schools are no longer conference opponents, they will continue their rivalry with the Valley Trophy at stake. Sacramento State will host North Dakota State.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresno State turned a scoreless game into a rout Saturday night, defeating Sacramento State 49-3 in its home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-462733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}