SAN JOSE, Calif. – San Jose State picked up a 42-10 victory over North Dakota in the season opener for both schools Thursday at Spartan Stadium. It was also the debut for head coach Bubba Schweigert, who led a UND team up against an Football Bowl Subdivision opponent for just the seventh time in program history.

Unfortunately, the result was the same as the previous six against a foe from the highest level of NCAA football.

All five of the Spartans' offensive scoring drives were of eight plays or more as the home team controlled the game from the outset. SJSU had 406 yards of total offense, while allowing only 244 to UND.

The visitors got 55 of those on their final drive as senior running back Jer Garman scored UND's lone touchdown of the game on a 7-yard scamper with just over a minute to play. Finding the end zone provided a little boost for a team that will return to Grand Forks next Saturday for its home opener vs. Robert Morris.

“There were some good things that we can take from tonight,” Schweigert said. “We have to take this thing one day at a time and keep getting better. We also made some mistakes and a lot of times it was about what we were doing and not necessarily what our opponent was doing.”

Trailing 14-0 after SJSU converted its first two drives into touchdowns, UND had its first good chance to score on the visitor's third possession when the ground game spurred by quarterback Joe Mollberg and running back Cedric Simmons worked the ball down to the SJSU 22-yard line.

However, the Spartans came up with a stop on third down when Cleveland Wallace intercepted an underthrown pass intended for senior R.J. McGill. The only turnover by either team in the opening half would keep UND off the scoreboard for the time being and SJSU quarterback Blake Jurich and company answered with another methodical touchdown drive.

This one was capped by a 15-play, 81-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Shane Smith. The Spartans were 6-for-6 on third-down conversions in their first three drives of the game as UND seemed just a fingertip away from swinging the momentum the other way.

Mollberg got the offense going through the air on the ensuing possession, connecting on a 51-yard pass play to redshirt freshman Kyle Ruhe. It was the first career reception for Ruhe and moved the ball to the SJSU 39-yard line.

After a 13-yard gain by Simmons on the next play moved the ball to SJSU's 26-yard line, the sophomore was flagged for a chop-block penalty that ended up costing the team 15 yards. He quickly got 14 of those yards back on 3rd-and-23 to put the offense back into field goal range.

True freshman Reid Taubenheim would make good on his first career attempt, drilling a 42-yarder for UND's first points of the season.

The Spartans opened their next drive with a 51-yard completion of their own as Jurich found Hansell Wilson behind the UND secondary. UND would buckle down and come up with its initial third-down stop of the game and Austin Lopez, who was 28-for-33 during his career on field goals, missed a 40-yard attempt.

UND had just over a minute to work with on the clock, but after a penalty stalled the drive, Schweigert opted to let the clock run out and send his team into the locker room trialing 21-3.

The Spartans continued to contain the UND offense after the break and tacked on three more second-half touchdowns, including a 40-yard punt return by Tyler Ervin, to put the game away.

After Ervin's punt return, Jurich found Tyler Winston from 18 yards out for the duo's second scoring connection of the game. Winston had a game-high 10 catches for 96 yards and capped the home team's scoring midway through the final quarter.

Linebacker Will Ratelle led the UND defense with a career-high nine tackles in what was the junior's first career start. Ratelle and his defensive teammates limited the Spartans to just 154 yards in the second half after the home team mustered 252 in the opening 30 minutes.

Mollberg was efficient through the air, connecting on 14-of-20 passes for 126 yards, while also netting 26 on the ground. Simmons, who was with the SJSU program for 18 months earlier in his career, carried 13 times for a team-high 54 yards against his former team.

GAME NOTES: Captains for the season opener were seniors Brandon Anderson, Dwayne Pecosky, Will Ratelle and Alex Tillman … The 42-yard field goal by Reid Taubenheim was the first of his career … Senior Jer Garman's 7-yard touchdown run was the first for him since his true freshman season in 2011 when he had two … Junior Chris Brown had six tackles in his first career start and exceeded his total of five from his sophomore season … Cedric Simmons led the team with 54 yards rushing against his former team … Senior R.J. McGill had a team-high three catches for 21 yards in his first action in over a season-and-a-half … Fourteen of the team's 15 newcomers that traveled saw game action, including nine true freshmen … In the previous four seasons combined, only eight true freshmen played.