The fans who remained in the rain could see it, and they applauded as fervently as they would’ve had Hawaii scored the final touchdown and completed the crazy comeback.

They appreciated the effort. It’s another loss, but this was different. Hawaii came back from what looked to be another depressing blowout in the making. With last year’s starting quarterback leading the way, the Rainbow Warriors nearly pulled off a monumental comeback.

But there’s no solace for the players.

Sean Schroeder, the one who had the most to feel good about — if it were allowed — repeated it several times.

"It hurts."

That’s what every football player has to say after every defeat, no matter how close you come to winning. In fact, they’ll often tell you that a 42-37 loss where you lead your team to 34 unanswered points after trailing by 39 is harder to take than getting crushed, like what happened to Hawaii against Fresno State last year, when it was 45-10.

This time it looked like it was going to be more of the same or worse when Schroeder came in off the bench, relieving the freshman, Ikaika Woolsey. Woolsey had just thrown a pick-six, and the score was 42-3.

Woolsey performed unevenly like you might expect a freshman starting his first game, but credit coach Norm Chow for making a bold decision to start the multi-talented athlete.

"He made some plays, and he’ll help us in the future," Chow said.

But it was Schroeder’s night.

"Sean Schroeder deserves a lot of credit he doesn’t get," the coach said.

Yes, he proved his toughness many times last year. But how could anyone have predicted that this would be a magical night for Schroeder?

This Schroeder didn’t stand there waiting for receivers to get open and take sacks. His passes got them open. He threw the ball where only they could get it. He threw it before he could get buried by the Fresno pass rushers.

And he did it over and over again, three TD passes in some of the most unexpectedly magical quarterbacking we’ve seen here since Saturday’s honorary captain Garrett Gabriel torched BYU in 1989, and again in 1990, the year Schroeder was born.

Of course we’ve seen many fine quarterbacks lead Hawaii to wins since then, but in some ways this win that wasn’t technically was just as impressive if not more.

This team needed something like this so badly. It needed hope, and that’s what it got.

It is somehow fitting that much of it came from Sean Schroeder, the player who took the brunt of the heat in last year’s 3-9 season that was worse than that.

Yes, Hawaii is now 0-4. But no one could question this team’s heart on this night.

"We go back to the drawing board," Schroeder said.

This time, as the Rainbow Warriors regroup, it should be less painful. The positives to build from abound.