AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. » Quarterback Jeremy Higgins’ first college start in three years got off to a storybook-like start.

But it didn’t have nearly the happy ending he had hoped for.

"I just wish I could have finished stronger," Higgins said after the University of Hawaii lost its eighth consecutive game, 21-7, to the Air Force Academy on Friday night on ESPN2.

Higgins, a sophomore who supplanted Sean Schroeder as the starter, took an offense that hadn’t scored on its first possession in any of nine previous games to the end zone on a 10-play, 61-yard march for a 7-0 lead. He did it by converting on two key third-down passes before connecting with Clark Evans on a 26-yard TD pass.

"That first drive was pretty cool," said Higgins, who hadn’t started since his senior season at Saint Louis School. "It was exciting moving all the way down there like that for my first touchdown."

Higgins said he didn’t experience any butterflies until he got to Falcon Stadium.

"When I walked in there I could feel the excitement, then I felt the butterflies. But after the first couple of plays it all went away."

But the excitement pretty much ended there.

"I wanted to finish better, stronger," said Higgins, who completed 14 of 23 passes for 125 yards. He was sacked three times but was not intercepted.

"I mean, we have to play all four quarters," Higgins said. "In the second half especially we came out really slow, sluggish. We went three and out twice in a row and never got the momentum going.

"There were some mental errors on my part."

The Falcons took away a lot of UH’s deep-ball opportunities and applied a stiff rush with just three defenders.

Higgins said, "We had some opportunities to take advantage of what they were giving us, but we just couldn’t get it done."

Coach Norm Chow said, "He played all right. But we went two quarters without him moving the ball, so we made a change. We thought that could get us going."

Schroeder, who came in with 11 minutes, 45 seconds remaining, was without a completion in five attempts.

Asked who will start the Nov. 24 game against UNLV, Chow said, "I don’t know. Let me look at the tapes."

Higgins said, "I’d like to start again. but it is all up to the coaches. I’ll trust their (the coaches’) judgment."

Notes

The start of the scheduled 4:30 p.m. (Hawaii time) kickoff was delayed 12 minutes by ESPN2, which waited for the conclusion of the Villanova-Alabama basketball game. … There was no trademark Air Force flyover by the F-15s due to the lateness (7:42 p.m. Mountain time) of kickoff, an Air Force spokesman said. … Tyler Hadden attempted a 60-yard field goal into a slight wind in the second quarter and fell several yards short. The UH record is 56 by Jason Elam (1992) and Justin Ayat (2001).