No. 18 Utah State routs Hawaii

Losing your starting quarterback in the second quarter to injury often leads to a bad ending.

Not so for No. 18-ranked Utah State.

By the time top Aggies quarterback Jordan Love figured out his Saturday night was done about five minutes before half, the Aggies already had this Mountain West Conference football game well in hand en route to a 56-17 victory over Hawaii before a sparse Aloha Stadium crowd of 17,262.

The loss dropped the Rainbow Warriors to 6-5 for the season and 3-3 in conference play. Utah State is 8-1 overall and 5-0 in the conference. For the second consecutive week, the Aggies went all-in over the opening 15 minutes, scoring four touchdowns in the first stanza in back-to-back games for the first time in school history.

That was more than enough against a shell-shocked Rainbow Warriors squad that dropped its fourth game in a row and in need of the open date that awaits it next weekend. Hawaii still has to win one of its two remaining games to be bowl eligible. The Warriors’ best chance will be two Saturdays from now when they play host to Nevada-Las Vegas. If they fail in that conference encounter, they will get another chance on the road vs. San Diego State in the regular-season finale.

Setting that aside, Hawaii isn’t playing particularly well and is not really deserving of such a bid based on its past four games, which UH has lost by a combined score of 195-82. Love led the four-touchdown barrage to start the game by completing 10 of 13 passes for 127 yards and one score. He appeared to get hurt on an option play at the UH 10 midway through the second quarter. He was replaced by Henry Colombi, who did an admirable job, completing nine of 11 passes for 48 yards in leading Utah State to four second-half touchdowns.

With Utah State leading 28-3 at the half, Colombi came in and took the Aggies up and down the field for four touchdowns in the third quarter to seal a nearly done deal just 15 minutes into the game. Running back Darwin Thompson also took part in the rout, carrying the ball 13 times for 141 yards and three touchdows, including a 26-yarder to start the second half on which he broke seven tackles along the way.

He also scored on a 1-yarder midway through the third quarter to make it 42-11. That short run was set up on a 25-yard scamper by Colombi, who appeared to score on the play, but Utah State’s hurry-up offense went too fast for the replay officials to take a look. No matter, Thompson took it in for his third score of the game against a UH defense that struggled to tackle anyone.

The UH offense was equally ineffective, as quarterback Cole McDonald struggled to an 18-for-45 performance for 331 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. The wideouts struggled to catch the football against a stout Utah State defense that challenged UH all night with blitz packages and tough man-to-man coverages.

Hawaii went for it on fourth down a half-dozen times against the Aggies, converting only two, including one of 54 yards for a touchdown from McDonald to John Ursua on their opening drive of the second half. The try for 2 was successful to make it 35-11 Utah State with 9:17 left in the third quarter.

But this night belonged to the Aggies, who scored again on a 37-yard run by Gerold Bright to extend Utah State’s advantage to 49-11 with 4:51 left in the third. Bright carried the football 16 times for 121 yards and three scores as the Aggies ran up 601 yards of total offense while limiting Hawaii to 390. Bright’s third score came at the 3:16 mark of the third quarter to make it 56-11.

Hawaii countered with a touchdown of its own, this time on a 38-yard scoring pass from McDonald to Devan Stubblefield, but the try for 2 failed to make it 56-17 with 43 seconds remaining in the third quarter. By the time the fourth quarter began, most folks had left the building. They didn’t miss much as neither team scored in the final period.

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