RENO -- Fresno State's Ryan Mathews may not have been the fastest player on the field but he probably had the most fun.

The freshman running back overcame a bout with the flu to run for 171 yards and three touchdowns and the Bulldogs' special teams came up with two long scores Saturday to beat Nevada 49-41 in a Western Athletic Conference game that wasn't as close as the score indicated.

"I'm still a freshman, I'm just trying to have fun,'' said Mathews, who missed practice Thursday with the flu. He scored on runs of 3, 54 and 67 yards, the longest coming on the second half's first play from scrimmage to open up a 35-13 lead for Fresno State (3-2, 2-0 in the WAC).

"I was throwing up after that first long run. After that, I kind of got my second wind,'' Mathews said.

"My whole mind set when I get open like that is to get to the end zone. I'm not the fastest dude out there. I just don't want to get caught from behind,'' he said.

Fresno State totaled 307 yards rushing, including Lonyae Miller's 72-yard TD run to seal the victory with 12:35 left in the game. Earlier, Clifton Smith scored on a 67-yard punt return and A.J. Jefferson returned a blocked field goal 40 yards for another touchdown.

"We really felt we could run the football on these guys and we did,'' Fresno State coach Pat Hill said, adding that the special teams play was "just awesome."

"A great effort by everybody. Those types of things change games,'' he said. ``We didn't have the ball a lot. We had a lot of offense, but not a lot of plays. And that's all right.

"We're 2-0 in the WAC and headed to Idaho. I'm real proud of this football team. You could say this was a real good day. A great win.''

The worst news for Nevada was the loss for the rest of the year of starting quarterback Nick Graziano, who left the game with an injured tendon in his foot when he was sacked in the second quarter.

"His foot will be need to have surgery on Monday and yes, he will be done for the year,'' Ault said.

Graziano's backup, freshman Colin Kaepernick, completed 23-of-36 for 384 yards and four touchdowns for the Wolf Pack (2-3, 0-1 WAC). But two of the touchdowns came after the game had been decided.

It marked the first time in his 23-year coaching career that Ault lost to Fresno State in Reno, where the Wolf Pack's home record is now 17-4 since Ault returned three years ago.

``It was poor defensive football and special teams play was abominable,'' Ault said.

``There is no excuse for us to play that poorly. Offensively we had good scoring turnarounds. In the fourth quarter our offense did well. I thought Kaepernick did well. Fresno is a good football team they just flat beat us.''

Nevada pulled to within 35-20 on Kaepernick's 10-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Fragger with 9 minutes left in the third quarter.

But Smith ran 15 yards for his second touchdown of the game on the next series to put the Bulldogs ahead 42-20 with 2:36 remaining in the quarter.

The Wolf Pack threatened to score again when Mike McCoy took a 33-yard pass from Kaepernick to the 1 yard line, but two plays later nose tackle Jason Shirley forced Fragger to fumble and linebacker Ben Jacobs recovered it in the end zone.

Tom Brandstater completed 10-of-16 passes for 168 yards. Miller finished with 95 yards rushing on 12 carries for the Bulldogs.

Marko Mitchell caught nine passes for a career-high 135 yards and McCoy grabbed five passes for 116 yards for Nevada.

Trailing 21-13 late in the second quarter, Kaepernick scrambled 14 yards and dove into the goal-line pylon, but the touchdown was called back because offensive lineman John Bender was whistled for a 15-yard penalty for a hand to the face mask of a Bulldog defender.

On the next play, Mitchell dropped his second pass of the game and when Brett Jaekle tried a 46-yard field goal, Bulldog tight end Bear Pascoe blocked it. Smith came out of the pile with the ball and raced to the end zone for a 28-13 lead 1:45 before the half.

On Fresno State's first series of the game, Mathews carried three consecutive times for 16, 6 and 3 yards _ the last one for a touchdown and a 7-3 lead with 9:09 left in the first quarter.

A minute later, Smith returned a punt for a touchdown for the fourth time in his career. He also caught five passes for 74 yards.

``He's a great player,'' Brandstater said about the senior running back. ``Every chance we get, we want him to get his hands on the ball. Cliff played his best game very for us. He was making guys out there on defense look silly.''

Nevada managed to move inside the Bulldogs' 20 on Graziano's 43-yard pass to Mitchell, but Jacobs tackled Fragger for a 3-yard loss and Jon Monga sacked Graziano for a 3-yard loss. The Wolf Pack settled for another 36-yard field goal by Jaekle to pull within 14-6 12:05 before the half.

Kaepernick hit Mitchell in the back of the end zone for a 9-yard score to pull within 14-13 with 5:22 left in the first half. But Jefferson returned the ensuing kickoff 38 yards to Fresno's 46 and Mathews ran 54 yards for a touchdown to go ahead 21-13 at 5:04.