On a remarkable night, everything went UH’s way

Now, that wasn’t really so tough, was it?

After eight beyond-frustrating weeks in which winning football seemingly took on all the complexities of splitting the atom for the University of Hawaii football team, the Warriors made it look elementary school simple in a 48-10 victory over Nevada-Las Vegas.

And coach Norm Chow’s elusive first victory over an NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision opponent wasn’t nearly as close as the final score.

This is the way it could — and maybe should — have been against New Mexico. Perhaps even Colorado State. But, somehow, it never was.

After huffing and puffing and coming up empty for eight consecutive losses, the Warriors finally ended the second-longest losing streak in school history — by halftime for all intents and purposes, as they led 31-0.

“Once the third quarter came (and UH was on the way to what would become a 41-0 lead) we started getting the feeling we were gonna win this one,” said defensive end Beau Yap, who had four tackles.

“It was great to get that feeling again. It had been awhile.”

It had been so long that a following that had dwindled to 22,070, the smallest home crowd for a conference game since 1998, felt compelled to stick around to savor nearly all 3 hours and 7 minutes of it.

“It felt real different tonight, I don’t know what it was,” Yap said. “The energy was a lot better. Maybe it was playing at home again in front of a home crowd and not having to travel again, but we were fired up.”

On “Military Night” when they wore special-made red, white, blue … and black uniforms with concepts such as “courage, duty, service and integrity” on the back  where individual names might have gone, the Warriors found a purpose, not to mention a rhythm and level of performance that had been lacking since that 54-2 skunking of Lamar, a Football Championship Subdivision opponent, Sept. 15.

Thank heaven — and MWC scheduling — for 2-11 UNLV, stumbling in here on its 13th consecutive game without a break. Of course this was much the same Rebels team that dumped UH 40-20 in the desert last year.

After suffering through seven consecutive conference setbacks in their inaugural Mountain West Conference season and anteing up handsomely on travel subsidies for the privilege, the Warriors finally got a return on their considerable investment, even if it wasn’t enough to avoid last place at 1-7.

An interception return for a touchdown, a punt return for a score, field goals, turnovers, third-down conversions, you name it, and just about everything that had tormented the Warriors since this bedeviling season began suddenly and totally went their way in one remarkable night.

An Alex Dunnachie punt that rolled, and rolled, for a career-best 73 yards pretty much underlined how things finally turned for the Warriors.

“Tonight we came out firing on all cylinders and we executed in every way possible,” Yap said. “And, that’s what we should have been doing all season.”

With just 2-10 South Alabama, the bottom team in the Sun Belt Conference, remaining, there is no reason it can’t continue for another week.

Now that the Warriors have proven winning doesn’t have to be that tough.

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Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.