Rainbow Warriors find hope in a rally that fell just shy

On a rainy night they stood at their seats and cheered longer, lustier and later than they had in years at a University of Hawaii football game.

They ignored the elements and the odds, these hardy, hardcore remnants of the Aloha Stadium crowd, a fraction of the 25,256 who had made their way into the place 3 hours and 46 minutes earlier.

They disdained the exodus to the parking lot that had begun with 6:15 left in the third quarter when Fresno State returned an interception 56 yards for a touchdown to put the Rainbow Warriors down 42-3.

And what they saw in a UH team that clawed back to make a game of it in a 42-37 loss to Fresno State was hope.

Hope not only for a rally that would have broken the NCAA record for comebacks (35 points by Michigan State in a 2006 victory) but for something that surely seemed as much of a longshot, hope for the rest of this 2013 season.

The ‘Bows are still 0-4, one of 11 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision without a victory this season. But no longer are they without hope.

For the first time in coach Norm Chow’s tenure there was a feeling that things are starting to come together, not further apart. There was reason to think a corner had been turned and not just the one at Salt Lake Boulevard and Kamehameha Highway, either.

After a tough two quarters plus, these ‘Bows stopped beating themselves and looked for all the world like they might just beat the 25th-ranked team in the country.

The Bulldogs knew it, too. They clenched their hands and rubbed their chins when Hawaii took possession of the ball with just under two minutes left in the game.

Until this week 90 yards was an eternity for the the UH offense. But as they game wore on Saturday night negotiating it no longer took on the complexities of splitting the atom.

"I thought we could do it," said quarterback Sean Schroeder, who guided UH to five unanswered scoring drives. "I really did. I just put my head down and went for it."

So, too, did the crowd that beseeched him to go deep and prayed to the heavens as two Hail Marys came up short, the last one picked off as the clock expired.

Chow knew it, too, having called the plays in Brigham Young’s "Miracle Bowl" victory over Southern Methodist, the 1980 Holiday Bowl where the Cougars scored 21 points in the final 2 minutes, 33 seconds for a 46-45 victory.

A UH offense that had scored all of eight second-half points this season, found itself in the third quarter this time. It discovered a running game behind Steven Lakalaka and sure-handed receivers.

And an over-worked defense went the extra mile, forcing five turnovers to light a fire under the offense.

Afterwards the ‘Bows, to a man and coaches, said they wanted a victory. They maintained that the outcome was not what they wanted.

But the hope it inspired would be remarkable in its own right and clearly warmed both them and their faithful on this wet night.

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