RENO, Nev. — — Preston Stone connected on a 35-yard touchdown pass to RJ Maryland with 1:18 left in the fourth quarter and Southern Methodist avoided an upset to open the season, defeating Nevada 29-24 on Saturday night.
A near four-touchdown favorite, SMU needed a fourth-quarter comeback to survive the first game of its inaugural season as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“I think as a collective we struggled in the first half,” Stone said. “The defense did a good job in the first half of getting stops. We (the offense) were stalling.”
He added: “Unfortunately for Nevada they played man against RJ, and they just can’t do that.”
Down 24-13, the SMU comeback started with 10 minutes left and the Mustangs pinned at their own 10-yard line. On third down and short, Stone connected on a 49-yard pass to Maryland. SMU finished the drive with a Brashard Smith 4-yard touchdown run and a two-point conversion to pull within 24-21.
On Nevada’s next possession, SMU defensive lineman Anthony Booker Jr. tackled Nevada quarterback Brendon Lewis in the end zone for a safety to pull the Mustangs within a point with eight minutes left in the game.
SMU began its winning drive on its own 17-yard line with 3:31 left.
The nine play, 83-yard drive ended with Maryland’s winning catch. SMU’s 6-foot-4 junior tight end and son of former Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle Russell Maryland finished the game with eight receptions for 162 yards.
Stone completed 17 of 30 passes for 254 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
Penalties plagued the Mustangs and forced them to play from behind into the fourth quarter. The Mustangs had 11 penalties for 125 yards, including one unsportsmanlike penalty for spitting that led to an ejection for cornerback Brandon Crossley in the third quarter.
“It’s not who we are and who we want to be,” SMU coach Rhett Lashlee said. “I will look at the film… anything out of character will be addressed.”
The penalty opened the door for the Wolf Pack to continue a 15-play drive and take a 24-13 lead with 3:23 left in the third.
“That’s probably the most undisciplined game we’ve played since I’ve been here,” Lashlee said. “Self-inflicted wounds that made it really hard on our offense in the first half to get anything going.”
Lewis led the Wolf Pack in its near upset, completing 14 passes on 26 attempts for 132 yards. He also led the Wolf Pack with 77 rushing yards and found success throughout the game on quarterback draw plays.
“I give a lot of credit to SMU,” first-year Nevada head coach Jeff Choate said. “That’s what a championship team does with their backs to the wall. They found ways to make plays with a veteran group like that. I really felt like there were a ton of positives to come out of this experience for our guys, but I think we have some strides to make in terms of competitive maturity.”
Nevada opened the scoring with Lewis’ 5-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jace Henry with a minute left in the first quarter. SMU responded with a 10-play drive to open the second quarter, capped by a one-yard run from L.J. Johnson Jr.
Nevada and SMU both made field goals in the second quarter before Lewis’ 10-yard touchdown pass to Cortez Braham Jr. with nine seconds left in the first half gave the Wolf Pack a 17-10 lead at the break.
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A recent Review-Journal letter to the editor mischaracterized Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act, also known as the Clark County Lands bill. As the former executive director of the Nevada Conservation League, I wholeheartedly support this legislation, so I wanted to set the record straight.
Sen. Cortez Masto has been working on this bill for years in partnership with state and local governments, conservation groups like the NCL and local area tribes. It’s true that the Clark County lands bill would open 25,000 acres to help Las Vegas grow responsibly, while setting aside 2 million acres for conservation. It would also help create more affordable housing throughout the valley while ensuring our treasured public spaces can be preserved for generations to come.
What is not correct is that the money from these land sales would go to the federal government’s coffers. In fact, the opposite is true.
The 1998 Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act is a landmark bill that identified specific public land for future sale and created a special account ensuring all land sale revenues would come back to Nevada. In accordance with that law 5 percent of revenue from land transfers goes to the state of Nevada for general education purposes, 10 percent goes to the Southern Nevada Water Authority for needed water infrastructure and 85 percent supports conservation and environmental mitigation projects in Southern Nevada. This legislation has provided billions to Clark County and will continue to benefit generations of Southern Nevadans. Sen. Cortez Masto’s lands bill builds upon the act’s success.
So here’s the good news: All of the money generated from land made available for sale under Sen. Cortez Masto’s bill would be sent to the special account created by the 1998 law. Rather than going to an unaccountable federal government, the proceeds would continue to help kids in Vegas get a better education, bolster outdoor recreation and modernize Southern Nevada’s infrastructure.
I know how important it is that money generated from the sale of public land in Nevada stay in the hands of Nevadans, and so does the senator. That’s why she opposed a Republican effort last year to sell off 200,000 acres of land in Clark County and other areas of the country that would have sent those dollars directly to Washington.
Public land management in Nevada should benefit Nevadans. We should protect sacred cultural sites and beloved recreation spaces, responsibly transfer land for affordable housing when needed and ensure our state has the resources it needs to grow sustainably. I will continue working with Sen. Cortez Masto to advocate for legislation, such as the Clark County lands bill, that puts the needs of Nevadans first.
Paul Selberg writes from Las Vegas.
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Las Vegas High’s baseball team claimed a 3-2 home win over Coronado on Friday.
Las Vegas (9-13-1) next hosts Rancho at 10 a.m. Saturday. Coronado (13-14) hosts Chaparral at 3:30 p.m. Monday.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Nevada’s jobless rate is holding steady, but the state is still adding jobs.
A new report from DETR shows February’s unemployment rate unchanged at 5.3 percent, with the labor force growing by nearly 3,800 people.
MORE ON FOX5: Nevada unemployment rate rises to 5.3% in January
Nevada now has about 1.6 million nonfarm jobs, up 2.2 percent over the past year and 1,500 more jobs than in January.
“This month’s report shows a strengthening labor market,” said David Schmidt, Chief Economist. ”Compared to the report for January, the pace of job gains in the past year increased from 1.9% to 2.2%, building on what was already the fastest pace of job growth in the country. While the unemployment rate remained stable, the labor force participation rate rose to 63.7%, 1.7 percentage points higher than the national level.”
In Las Vegas, employment ticked up by 1,100 jobs in February, about 0.1 percent, and is up more than 25,000 jobs compared to last year.
Reno added 1,000 jobs on the month, while Carson City shed about 200 but is still slightly above where it was a year ago.
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