Hawaii goes from ‘finish’ to ‘finished’ with this loss

Remember when the mantra for this new-hope University of Hawaii football season was enthusiastically pledged in one word?

When T-shirts proclaimed it from the preseason simply as: "finish."

Well, even any faint hope of a winning season for these Rainbow Warriors can now be summed up just as succinctly:

Finished.

Nevada put an exclamation on UH’s lengthening futility, rallying from a 10-0 deficit for the next 26 unanswered points in a 26-18 victory Saturday night.

The Wolf Pack so thoroughly dominated the second half that much of the smallest homecoming crowd in 16 years, 23,249, was resigned to UH’s sixth loss in eight games and headed toward the exits with 5 minutes, 46 seconds left in what was remarkably then still a 19-10 game.

Never mind that UH would be one successful onside kick, a touchdown and 2-point conversion away from tying the game, with 40 seconds left, on retro night too many people had too little confidence in the current ‘Bows doing anything about it.

One more loss mathematically eliminates UH from bowl consideration, not that anybody holds out hope any longer.

On a night when team buses arrived in Halawa with a rainbow arched over Aloha Stadium, when the ‘Bows wore retro kelly green uniforms with rainbow piping and the Nevada place-kicker missed a 47-yard field goal by hitting the right upright and then missed an extra point by clanging the left upright, UH had hope. And a 10-0 lead to open.

But after trailing at the half, 10-6, Nevada moved the ball with impunity in a second half in which they kept possession for 24 minutes and 26 seconds of the 30 minutes.

"The second half was unbelieveable," Norm Chow said. "What was the possession time? Anybody have an idea."

Unfortunately nobody had an idea how to break up the Wolf Pack’s monopoly.

UH was unable to slow down a Nevada running game that averaged 4.7 yards per carry in the second half and was masterfully, if not at times magically, run by quarterback Cody Fajardo.

So slick was his sleight of hand that defenders dived at fakes and spectators were left wondering where the ball was.

Mostly, though, they just ran it down UH’s throat.

"We needed to make some plays of our own," said linebacker Simon Poti, who made plenty with 10 tackles.

Meanwhile, the UH offense was doing its own disappearing act. On the rare occasions that the ‘Bows actually got the ball, they could do little with it but confound.

In its first three of four second-half possessions, UH punted twice and was intercepted.

In the space of one 55-second segment, UH receivers dropped three passes.

"It is definitely frustrating," UH quarterback Ikaika Woolsey acknowledged. "Honestly, the team, especially the offense, we came out really flat in the second half. It seemed like a lot of people didn’t have a lot of energy. And I take full responsibility for that, being a leader."

"We couldn’t handle prosperity, I guess," Chow said.

One more, they couldn’t finish what they started.

As the ‘Bows walked slowly, one well-worn, hole-ridden T-shirt said it all:

"Finish."

Reach Ferd Lewis at flews@staradvertiser.com.