SAN DIEGO - North Dakota needed 17 yards on a late fourth down to keep hopes of its first win over a FBS opponent alive, but came up inches short on what would be the visitor's final offensive play in a wild shootout at Qualcomm Stadium on Saturday. On the scoreboard, it would be eight points that UND fell short by as San Diego State held on for the 49-41 victory as both teams combined for over 1,000 yards of total offense.

"We were close, but I guess a consolation prize is not something that you want," UND head coach Chris Mussman said. "Our expectations are higher than that. We came in here and expected to win a football game.  A lot of people will not believe that, but after what you saw here tonight, I think that you can kind of believe that was what our focus was tonight."

UND senior quarterback Marcus Hendrickson turned in his second straight outstanding performance, passing for 434 yards and four touchdowns in the loss. The reigning Co-Big Sky Player of the Week connected with junior Greg Hardin for three of those scores as the duo thrived again, connecting eight times for 142 yards.

The 434-yard passing game by Hendrickson was the second highest single-game effort in UND history (515 by John Bowenkamp in 2002 vs. Augustana), while Hardin equaled his career-high with those eight catches and had a three-touchdown game for the second-straight outing.

Hendrickson needed to get his passing yardage to 435, however, to keep UND's late rally alive, but senior Mitch Sutton was forced out of bounds after netting 16-plus yards on a 4th-and-17 with a minute, 10 seconds to play. Mountain West officials reviewed the spot, but the call on the field was confirmed resulting in UND falling to 0-6 all-time against FBS opponents.

"(UND's) quarterback is amazing and then they have some receivers that are very difficult to cover," SDSU head coach Rocky Long said. "The biggest factor was if we played zone and rushed four, we couldn't even get close to the quarterback. So that means they are pretty good up front, too ... They had a couple receivers that are as good as we'll play against (this year)."

The Green and White showed a lot of resolve in a game that started with SDSU's premier defensive player, Leon McFadden, intercepting Hendrickson's first pass of the game and racing it back 28 yards for a touchdown.

McFadden, who was the preseason MWC Defensive Player of the Year, and the Aztecs forced a three-and-out on the ensuing UND possession. Katz quickly put the home team ahead 14-0 after he found Brice Butler on a 44-yard scoring strike. For Butler, it was his first catch in an Aztec uniform after transferring from Southern Cal.

After a seven-yard strike from Hendrickson to Hardin made it a 21-14 contest, the Aztecs added two more second-quarter touchdowns, while UND could only manage a pair of field goals by junior Zeb Miller to make it a 35-20 lead for SDSU at halftime.

The Aztecs built that lead thanks to the precision passing of senior quarterback Ryan Katz, who went 8-for-11 for 195 yards and three touchdowns in the opening 30 minutes.

However, it was a steady dose of the two-heading rushing attack of Adam Muema (124 yards) and Walter Kazee (105 yards) in the second half that carried the Aztecs to the victory. Those two accounted for 139 rushing yards after the break, while Kazee scored a pair of touchdowns. The Aztecs finished with 533 yards of total offense and 292 of those came on the ground.

The victory would not come easy though as Hendrickson and company never quit, pulling to within eight points on three different occasions in the second half.

The first came after Sutton found the endzone for the only ground score of the game for UND as the senior fought his way over the goal line on a 4th-and-1 just over midway through the third quarter. Kazee and the Aztecs quickly answered that score as he capped a five-play, 79-yard drive with a 10-yard touchdown run.

Hardin made it a touchdown and a two-point conversion deficit again on the first play of the fourth quarter when he took a crossing route 36 yards into the endzone, outracing two SDSU defensive backs along the way.

Hardin's third score of the game and seventh of the young season, put his squad at a 42-34 deficit. The Aztecs ground attack responded once again as Katz only completed three second-half passes. This time, Kazee found paydirt from a 1-yard out to cap a more methodical, nine-play, 75-yard drive that chewed up 4:20.

UND reached the 40-point plateau for the third straight game on their next drive as Hendrickson converted two third downs and a crucial fourth down before finding Tyrhe Ivery for a touchdown from 15 yards out. It was Ivery's first catch of the season and came at an opportune time with 6:17 left on the clock.

On their next drive, the Aztecs ran four minutes off the clock, but the UND defense was able to give its offense two minutes to work with after stopping SDSU on a 4th-and-9 from their opponent's 29-yard line. Long passed up a 46-yard field goal attempt to try and seal the win with a fourth-down pass from Katz that was off target.

UND took over from there, but two straight incompletions followed by the Aztec's second sack of the game left Hendrickson facing a 4th-and-19. He avoided the rush this time and escaped the pocket to his right where he found Sutton out of the backfield. The senior from Plover, Wis., caught the ball in stride and barreled his way towards the first-down marker, but an Aztec defender was able to knock Sutton out of bounds just inches short.

Katz took a knee on the next two snaps to run out the clock and give the home team a hard-earned victory.

UND will open its official Big Sky Conference slate back in California on Saturday when the team travels to play Sacramento State at 8:05 p.m. CT.

Game Notes: Seniors Seth Wisthoff, Jay Nelson, Ian McGurran and Ross Brenneman served as game captains ... Senior Marcus Hendrickson's 434-yard passing effort was the second highest single-game total in UND history ... Hendrickson has thrown for 12 touchdown passes in the last three games - UND only threw 12 total in 2011 ... Junior Greg Hardin equaled his career-high with eight catches for 142 yards and three touchdowns ... It was the third-straight, 100-yard receiving game for Hardin, who now has seven for his career ... The three-touchdown effort was Hardin's second in a row and third of his career ... Hardin now has 19 receiving touchdowns, which is tied for third all-time at UND ... He also moved into seventh on the all-time receiving yardage charts with 1,720 ... Through three games in 2012, he has 17 catches for 435 yards (145.0/g) and seven touchdowns ... Junior Clordion Kennedy made his first career start at free safety ... UND dropped to  0-6 all-time against FBS opponents - three of those losses are by eight points or less ... The 41 points scored were the most against a FBS opponent ... UND has scored 40-plus points in three straight games for the first time in its Division I era (66 vs. SD Mines, 45 vs. Portland State and 41 vs. SDSU; 50.7 ppg).