ESPN College Football

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- John Robinson got his first retirement present Saturday night: a 28-point fourth quarter.

The UNLV coach, who announced this week that he will retire at season's end, watched his Rebels overcome a sluggish start to score 35 unanswered points in the second half to beat intrastate rival Nevada 48-13.

"I thought Oh my God, will this ever end?" Robinson said of his team's slow first-half start. "And it ended. We got scoring and things kind of went our way. Once we got on a roll, we were pretty hard to stop."

"We just did not have a lot continuity in the second half," Nevada coach Chris Ault said. "We self-destructed. The first half was a good ballgame, but in the second half, they took control."

Dominique Dorsey led the Rebels as he ran for 141 yards on 21 carries.

UNLV (1-4) beat Nevada for the fifth-straight year and the Fremont Cannon, which is painted the color of the winning school in this matchup, the unofficial state championship, will remain red.

Earvin Johnson caught two touchdown passes from UNLV quarterback Kurt Nantkes, who went 11-for-19 for 128 yards, and Erick Jackson ran for two fourth-quarter touchdowns for the Rebels.

Travis Moore went 17-for-28 for 169 yards with one interception for Nevada (2-3).

Jeff Rowe filled in at quarterback for Nevada at times during the final three quarters, throwing for 151 yards on 15-of-24 completions with two interceptions.

Nichiren Flowers rushed for 105 yards on nine carries and scored a touchdown for the Wolf Pack.

Leading 13-6 at halftime, UNLV pulled away in the second half with two 1-yard touchdown runs from Dyante Perkins, the first coming with 8:41 left in the third quarter and the other with 12:51 left in the game.

The first touchdown was set up by a 41-yard run by Dorsey to the Nevada 10.

The Rebels broke a 6-6 tie in the second quarter when Nantkes found Johnson in the end zone from 11 yards with 2:14 until halftime.