ALBUQUERQUE, N. M. >> Is this what the bottom finally looks like for the University of Hawaii football team?
Please say that it can’t get any worse than this, the dejection of blowing the only game the Rainbow Warriors have led on the road since November.
Please assure us that across the street from the University of New Mexico’s infamous subterranean “Pit” basketball arena UH’s season of torment has finally bottomed out in a beyond bewildering 28-27 loss to the Lobos.
For on a night when it seemed the ‘Bows had finally turned an overdue corner, scoring and being well on their way to winning on the road, it turned out to be the darkest of dead ends.
Only the dejection of the fourth consecutive loss went deeper than the 2-5 overall record and 0-3 West Division cellar of the Mountain West Conference that it relegates them to.
After letting one get away last week at home against San Diego State, the ‘Bows needed to steal one on the road. Instead they gave it away.
Mathematically, we are told, UH could win five of its remaining six games to achieve its first winning season in five years.
But in the ‘Bows’ present fragile condition, physically and otherwise, is there really anybody but the most deluded who still believe that is even a faint possibility?
If so, they must not have watched UH self-destruct after leading throughout most of this one.
Even coach Norm Chow, who has unyieldingly preached the “relentlessly positive” mantra, lacked the words and energy. He seemed shellshocked and more drained than ever in a solemn locker room hallway so silent that the wheels of equipment carts echoed.
How do you make the longest game of this season, 3 hours and 30 minutes, seem longer?
You miss a chip-shot 22-yard field goal, commit a panoply of penalties and suffer an interception all jammed into the final 2 minutes and 14 seconds of prime time.
One of the penalties assisted the Lobos’ go-ahead drive, and three others, including consecutive false starts, sidetracked UH’s drive to retake the lead.
All the while UH left two timeouts unused.
In this the ending was a far cry from the first encouraging start ‘Bows had mounted since the season opener.
Despite the absence of their mainstay quarterback, Max Wittek, who was in street clothes with a knee injury; second leading receiver, Quinton Pedroza (leg); and running back Melvin Davis (shoulder), the Rainbow Warriors grabbed a 24-14 lead and parlayed it into a 27-21 advantage in the fourth quarter.
They did it with backup quarterback Ikaika Woolsey completing 10 of his first 16 passes, Paul Harris returning from the injured list with 125 yards and two touchdowns and do-everything kicker Rigoberto Sanchez making field goals of 49 and 47 yards.
Even a 100-yard Lobos kickoff return in the first quarter, the kind of setback that might have caused the wheels to come off earlier, didn’t seem to faze them.
Initially, at least.
“Then, we got too big-headed,” Harris said. “We got a lead and thought it was easy.”
Until it wasn’t.
Because it never is for this program.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
