The Hawaii football team entered Aloha Stadium with a self-styled "Warrior Walk" and exited with a strut in Saturday’s 54-2 rout of Lamar.

It was Norm Chow’s first victory as UH head coach as the Warriors evened their record at 1-1.

"It’s nice," said Chow, whose Warriors opened against Southern California two weeks ago. "These kids played awfully hard and awfully well. We made a lot of mistakes. We’re going to shore that up. I wish we could have played last week. We had a slow start. But once we started rolling, it was pretty good."

The Warriors dominated all phases in a performance that was marred by only a fumbled point-after snap that was parlayed into Lamar’s only points and two troublesome injuries. Nose tackle Moses Samia said he will undergo an MRI today for his injured right knee. Wideout Darius Bright said he suffered a sprained shoulder while catching an 8-yard scoring pass from Sean Schroeder, one of three touchdown throws from the Duke transfer.

But those were small smears in an otherwise picture-perfect evening.

"It was a good game coming back from that loss (to USC), a chance to get that taste out of our mouths," linebacker George Daily-Lyles said. "Man, it was a hard two weeks when you have a bye after a loss. That’s something that lingers with you. This (game) was all of that frustration coming out."

It was the Warriors’ special teams units that seized the tone. UH’s Scott Harding side-booted a punt that Lamar’s Mike Venson could not field. Will Gregory recovered the football after the ricochet and, a play later, Schroeder found wideout Trevor Davis open on a post route for a 16-yard touchdown.

The Warriors’ specialists scored two touchdowns and set up one of Tyler Hadden’s three field goals.

Late in the second quarter, Lamar’s Kollin Kahler attempted to punt. UH’s John Lister and Leroy Lutu Jr. attracted double blocks, opening the way for John Hardy-Tuliau to loop the traffic and block Kahler.

"I saw the punter, I saw the ball, I went up and got it," Hardy-Tuliau said.

UH cornerback Ne’Quan Phillips caught the ball in mid-bounce and, tip-toeing in front of the UH sideline, raced 21 yards for a touchdown and a 28-0 lead.

"I scooped and scored," said Phillips, a freshman from Florida. "I was excited to hear the crowd. It was my first college touchdown."

Mike Edwards then took the kickoff to open the second half, zigged left and zagged right en route to a 95-yard return for a touchdown, the Warriors’ first since 2008.

"I saw the hole," Edwards said. "Once I got the cutback, I got the lane. I thought a guy had an angle on me at the end. But when I took a peek in my rear-view mirror, I saw I had him."

Edward said his calves tightened during the final 10 yards.

"I continued to work through it," he said.

For Edwards, who has emerged as the leader of the Warriors’ secondary, the confidence is back. The word "swag" is cut into his hair.

Later in the third quarter, Nashon Davis fielded a kickoff in the end zone, ran 12 yards and was hit by a streetcar named Jared Leaf. UH’s Lance Williams recovered. Four plays later, Hadden was true from 31 yards.

"It’s all teamwork and Coach Demo," Williams said, referring to special teams coordinator Chris "Demo" Demarest. "He yells at us, but he’s teaching us. It’s all a learning experience."

Demarest said: "I challenge them all of the time. The expectations are high. They practice hard and they play hard. All of the credit goes to them. When (special teams) do good things, it helps the offense and the defense."

Indeed, the Cardinals had difficulty finding breaks. One of their kickoff returns was fumbled out of bounds at their 2 and, compounding their woes, they were penalized for holding. On another kickoff, they chose to call a fair catch.

"I heard there’s an invisible guy in the middle of the field before the game starts, and that’s momentum," Lamar quarterback Ryan Mossakowski said. "When that guy starts moving a little, it’s tough, especially when it moves away from you. When they had momentum, it was tough to stop."

The Cardinals had a conservative game plan: establish the run with Herschel Sims, an Oklahoma State transfer, and DePauldrick Garrett, and then open it up with Mossakowski’s play-action passes.

But the Warriors were able to apply pressure out of their four-man front, enabling the linebackers to cut off the underneath routes and the corners to play aggressive man coverages. Lamar averaged 1.6 yards on their 28 rushes.

Meanwhile, 6-foot-8 tight end Cory Soto managed two catches against layers of defenders. On one play, he was flattened in the open field by the 5-foot-9 Phillips.

"The bigger the better," Phillips said. "Size doesn’t mean anything."

The Warriors, meanwhile, had a similar offensive game plan. A succession of running backs — Will Gregory, Joey Iosefa, Sterling Jackson and Lister — followed power blocks on inside runs. When the Cardinals packed the tackle box, often sneaking an eighth defender near the line of scrimmage, Schroeder would throw over the top.

Schroeder completed 15 of 23 passes for 150 yards. An apparent interception was negated when he was hit late.

"It was a good test for our offensive line and our running backs when they loaded up the box," Schroeder said. "But it was part of our game plan. It opened up the pass."