RENO, Nev. (AP) – Jeff Rowe passed for 234 yards and two touchdowns and ran for two more Saturday as Nevada rolled up 598 yards total offense in a 59-7 victory over an overmatched Sacramento State team from Division I-AA.

Freshman Drew Robinson rushed for 106 yards and a touchdown and Chance Kretschmer ran for 102 yards for the Wolf Pack (1-1), who sacked Hornets quarterback Ryan Leadingham six times and did not punt during the game.

It was the most points Nevada has scored since a 63-0 win over Cal-Poly in 1998, a vast improvement over a 38-21 loss at Louisiana Tech in the Western Athletic Conference opener on Labor Day.

“That’s what you call a good old fashioned butt whooping,” said Sacramento State coach Steve Mooshagian, a former assistant at Nevada.

“I tried to tell people it was going to be a different team. I know these guys,” he said.

Leadingham completed 9-of-17 passes for 78 yards and Tyronne Gross rushed for a team-high 42 yards for the Hornets (0-1), who suffered their eighth consecutive loss dating to last season.

Kretschmer, who led the NCAA in rushing as a freshman in 2001, rushed for 90 yards in the first half en route to his 14th career game rushing over 100 yards in the home opening debut for Chris Ault, back for his third stint as Nevada coach after serving as athletic director the last eight years.

“We had a tough week,” said Ault, who said he was embarrassed by last week’s performance.

“They laid a foundation to start this program moving in the right direction. It is about mental toughness,” he said.

Ault, the only active coach in the College Football Hall of Fame and Nevada’s winningest coach with a career record of 164-64-1, is now 18-2 in home openers. He said he couldn’t complain about the fact Mackay Stadium was only about half full with a crowd of 16,611.

“I’m not sure I would have come after Monday’s game,” he said. “I was so disgusted with Monday – the way I coached, the way we coached, the way we played. We backed down. Our guys had to step it up and play hard.”

Rowe, a sophomore from Reno, completed 20-of-28 pass attempts, including 11 in a row during one stretch before he left in the third quarter.

“I think as a team we came out fired up,” Rowe said.

Chris Barry had two sacks and Roderick Stallings blocked a punt to set up Robinson’s 25-yard TD run to put Nevada ahead 52-0 with 13:15 remaining.

Brad Treadway threw a 39-yard touchdown pass to Mel Cukovich for the Hornets’ only score with 2:13 left in the game.

Kretschmer said Ault challenged players during a hard week of practice.

“I think he just called people out more as individuals and made them step up to the ability that they could play. That changed a lot of people’s attitude,” he said.

Nevada’s opening drive was the only time it failed to score. After both teams missed field goals, offensive tackle Adam Kiefer recovered B.J. Mitchell’s fumble in the end zone and Damon Fine made the extra point to put Nevada ahead 7-0.

Rowe threw a 4-yard TD pass to Tony Moll, then ran 11 yards for a touchdown himself to make it 21-0 1:44 before the half.

The Wolf Pack got the ball back with 49 seconds left on their own 41 and Rowe threw consecutive passes of 20 yards to Caleb Spencer, 17 to Talib Wise and 16 to Trevor Brackett before he hit Spencer with a 6-yard pass for a touchdown and a 28-0 halftime lead.

His backup, Travis Moore, completed 4-of-5 attempts for 52 yards, including a 12-yard touchdown to Del McGee to put Nevada ahead 45-0 late in the third quarter.

Nichiren Flowers caught eight passes for 97 yards and Spencer had seven catches for 70 yards. Mitchell added 83 yards rushing on 15 carries, including a 7-yard touchdown.

Kretschmer, who is making his way back from knee surgery, said it was nice to be on the winning side of a lopsided game.

“I haven’t seen that since I’ve been here,” Kretschmer said.

“We wanted to establish the run and we got that done. I think we’ve got three great backs and any one at any time can be a game breaker,” he said.

The temperature was 93 degrees when the game started at 1:05 p.m.

“If you’re going to play two games in five days, you better be in shape,” Ault said. “That’s a testament to these guys.”