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PROVO, Utah >> As fans were making their way to the parking lots outside LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday night, a fire alarm suddenly blared inside.
“A fire has been reported in the building … a fire has been reported in the building,” a sound system warned.
Alas, it was a false alarm, and the only victim on the premises was the University of Hawaii football team, whose hopes of finally winning a game at Brigham Young University went up in early first-half flames in a 49-23 loss.
After traveling more than 3,000 miles to get here, the Rainbow Warriors (6-2) suffered a 10th consecutive loss in Provo and missed an early opportunity to achieve bowl eligibility because their offense ground to a halt on the immaculately manicured grass field before it ever got started in the telltale first half.
The largest crowd to see UH this season, 52,354, and what was left of a late-night (10:25 p.m. Eastern time kickoff) TV audience must have wondered what all the fuss was about a Rainbow Warriors run-and-shoot that was unable to run (2.2 yards per carry average and a long of 8) and too often shot itself in the foot early.
By the time UH got its only first-half points, a 33-yard Ryan Meskell field goal with 4 minutes, 24 seconds left in the second quarter, it was trailing 21-3 en route to staring down a 28-3 halftime deficit from which it never recovered.
Of the first-half hole, coach Nick Rolovich said, “We brought our own shovel. We didn’t do much in that first half at all offensively.”
UH’s seven first half possessions were squandered on four punts, an interception, turning the ball over on downs and the field goal.
A UH team that started the season making an impressive habit of scoring on its first possession of games has, of late, reverted to being a slow starter. Against so-so competition that is something it can overcome.
But BYU, even at 4-3 now, proved to be several cuts above controlling tempo, pounding away with a 280-yard running game and suffocating UH’s once-prolific passing game.
Motivated to save their season and reclaim a home field where they had gone 3-6 over the past season and a half, the Cougars threw UH some curves on defense and then threw the youngest starting quarterback in its history, 19-year, 2-month old Zach Wilson, in for good measure.
All he did was pass for three touchdowns and run for another while completing 16 of 24 passes for 194 yards and an interception and spreading the ball among seven players who scored.
Meanwhile, UH quarterback Cole McDonald, who sat out the Wyoming game with an undisclosed injury, and his receivers struggled to find their rhythm. They hooked up on just eight of 16 pass attempts in a first half in which much of McDonald’s energy was expended trying to elude the Kaufusi family.
McDonald was sacked four times, three of them by the Kaufusi cousins — 6-foot, 9-inch, 285-pound Corbin and 6-2, 215-pound Isaiah. “They are great players and (some) big boys,” McDonald said.
When a ball bounced off slotback Cedric Byrd in the second quarter and nearly into the grasp of a BYU defender, Byrd pounded the turf in a frustration that could be felt throughout the UH ranks.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
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