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1. BLOCK THAT KICK
" Situation: Colorado 0, Hawaii 0, 13:38 remaining, first quarter, Colorado ball, fourth-and-4 at own 31
" The Play: Keelan Ewaliko comes in unblocked from the left and blocks P Alex Kinney’s punt. Ewaliko recovers at the Colorado 16.
" Impact: Hawaii scores three plays later and never loses its lead.
" Ewaliko: "I knew I had it right after I got off the line. No one touched me. I came off free, as soon as I got to the wall I saw the wall wasn’t even trying to block me. I shaved it tight and was able to get right in front of him."
2. GOING FOR TWO
" Situation: Hawaii 6, Colorado 0, 12:35 remaining, first quarter, Hawaii ball at Colorado 3, lining up for conversion attempt after touchdown
" The Play: WR Quinton Pedroza goes in motion to the right. He is wide-open in the flat and QB Max Wittek hits him for a 2-point conversion.
" Impact: Hawaii had just scored a touchdown with the same combination, as Wittek hit Pedroza in the end zone on a fade route for 11 yards. The successful 2-point try meant even if Colorado had scored a touchdown on its last-minute drive it would need a 2-pointer of its own to send the game to overtime.
" Chow: "We met as a coaching staff and I told (offensive coordinator) Don (Bailey) that’s what we’re going to do if we scored first — if they had scored first we probably would have matched them to stay with it — but because we scored first, Keelan did a great job blocking that punt and we said we were going to do it and we did it."
3. USING THE FORCE
Situation: Hawaii 8, Colorado 0, 12:18 remaining, first quarter, Colorado ball, first-and-10 at own 25
" The Play: DE Luke Shawley sacks QB Sefo Liufau for a 6-yard loss.
" Impact: Shawley’s first career sack sets up the second 3-and-out to start the game for the Colorado offense. Shawley finishes with a game-high 14 tackles, and he also shares another of Hawaii’s four sacks with LB Jerrol Garcia-Williams.
" Shawley: "I’m not a finesse guy, I’m a motor guy, so I’m just working out there. All credit to the team and to the coaches. Anything I was able to do was only because other people were doing their jobs out there."
4. LONG BALL
Situation: Hawaii 8, Colorado 7, 8:07 remaining, second quarter, Hawaii ball, third-and-5 at own 21
" The Play: Wittek hits WR Marcus Kemp on a post pattern. Kemp appears to be caught from behind at the Colorado 30, but he sheds the defender and sprints the rest of the way for a touchdown.
" Impact: After several series of sloppy play resulting in turnovers by both teams, Colorado finally scored. But Hawaii answers three plays later on the longest play of the game. Kemp ends up with 6 catches for a game-high 116 yards.
" Kemp: "It was the perfect coverage into the route that I ran. Right before the play you get excited knowing the ball’s going your way and you make the play."
5. HURRY UP
Situation: Hawaii 28, Colorado 20, 0:17 remaining, fourth quarter, Colorado ball, second-and-5 at Hawaii 12
" The Play: Liufau completes a 6-yard pass to RB Phillip Lindsay and what appeared to be a first down. But the game-clock does not stop, and the referee does not place the ball down in time for Colorado to run a play before it runs down to 0:00.
" Impact: The game ends, with Colorado six yards and a 2-point conversion away from tying it.
" Liufau: "The ref bobbled (the ball). I looked up and he bobbled it about six or seven seconds. But, you never want to put the referee in that position and I don’t blame him for our loss. You’d like that chance to kill the ball and take a shot at the end zone, but we just have to execute so that we’re not put in that position later."
