Iosefa’s pass sparks Warriors

Joey Iosefa contributed to Hawaii’s first scoring drive, both running and throwing the ball.

The sophomore running back attempted his first pass this season when he took the direct snap out of the wildcat formation on UH’s second play from scrimmage on Saturday.

He ran to his right, pulled up and threw a pass deep down the middle to Billy Ray Stutzmann for a 50-yard gain. The reception was Stutzmann’s longest of the season and came up 1 yard short of matching UH’s longest pass play of 2012.

"It was something we’ve been working on this week," said Iosefa, a quarterback in high school.

UH called for another Iosefa pass on the next play, but that fell incomplete. He went back to his normal duties and rumbled 18 yards to the 1 to set up Sterling Jackson‘s touchdown run.

Iosefa finished with 97 yards rushing, closing his sophomore season with 463.

"It was something special for us and it was something special for the seniors," Iosefa said of winning the last two games. "It was all for the seniors tonight."

Jackson’s turn comes around

The UH offense went into senior night with one honoree in the starting group in Jackson.

He made his first start of 2012 and second of his career, running for a season-high 68 yards. Jackson even scored the game’s first touchdown. He broke loose for a 29-yard run in the fourth quarter, his longest and UH’s second-longest of the season.

Hold on a minute

Fortunate to be down only 16 at halftime, South Alabama needed a quick score to get back into the game.

Quarterback Ross Metheny, who was only 11-for-24 for 111 yards and two interceptions before he was pulled, completed two long passes to Bryant Lavender for big gains on the Jaguars’ first drive of the second half.

Both gains were negated by holding penalties.

USA committed seven infractions in the game for 40 yards.

"We go throw a couple bombs for 40 yards and we have holding calls twice," South Alabama coach Joey Jones said. "We can’t make mistakes like that."

Hadden money from distance

Hawaii place-kicker Tyler Hadden closed out his sophomore season in style.

Hadden connected on field goals of 41, 42 and 40 yards in the first half, and made both of his point-after attempts.

"It felt good to finish strong, 100 percent," Hadden said. "We played for the seniors tonight. Two of our specialists are seniors (punter Alex Dunnachie, long snapper Luke Ingram). Luke snapped well all night and the protection was good up front."

For the season, Hadden was 13-for-21 on field goals, including 6-for-9 from 40- to 49-yard range. He was perfect on PATs, going 29-for-29.

UH loses battle, wins war

Hawaii won the game handily despite losing the turnover battle. A week after having no turnovers in its victory over UNLV, UH lost two fumbles and was intercepted twice against South Alabama.

Meanwhile, the Jaguars were also intercepted twice and lost one fumble.

"Crazy things seem to happen to us," said Warriors coach Norm Chow, referring to one of the interceptions of Sean Schroeder coming off of a ball deflected by receiver Scott Harding.

For the season, Hawaii was intercepted 13 times and lost 20 fumbles. UH picked off nine opponents’ passes and recovered 10 of their fumbles.