LAS VEGAS >>

In a casino city with a dearth of clocks, the Hawaii football team ran out of time on Saturday.

Time elapsed in the Rainbow Warriors’ 31-23 loss to UNLV at Sam Boyd Stadium, and there is precious little of it left in their out-of-mulligans chase for a postseason berth.

“It’s a loss, and every loss will make you sick,” slotback Dylan Collie said of the Warriors’ sixth setback in the past seven games that dropped their records to 3-6 overall and 1-5 in the Mountain West. “It’s just as tough as the last one. It’s a loss, and it sucks, and I hate ’em, and everyone in the locker room hates ’em.”

The Warriors need to win their final three regular-season games to meet the 6-6 minimum to qualify for the Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Eve. Though 5-7 teams have earned bowl berths, those cases are rare.

“You should be thinking about winning out every single day,” said Collie, who had a team-high eight catches for 85 yards and a touchdown. “It’s not a matter of mulligans. We lost football games, and we need to win football games. That’s our job. That was a tough one. We have to win out these next three, and I know we can do it.”

UNLV scored 21 unanswered points in the third quarter to take a 28-13 lead. In the fourth quarter, the Rebels spent 6 minutes, 45 seconds on a 10-play, 65-yard drive to set up Evan Pantels’ 32-yard field goal for a 31-20 lead.

But Alex Trifonovitch’s third field goal of the game, from 27 yards, closed the Warriors to 31-23 with 2:15 to play. The Warriors entered with one field goal, in the Aug. 26 opener, in five attempts. “I’ve done it a thousand times in practice before,” Trifonovitch said of his 3-point scoring. “I can’t worry if it’s a game-winner or the first points of a game.”

The Warriors forced the Rebels to punt, regaining possession at the UH 23 with 1:12 to play. The Warriors drove to the UNLV 42, where it faced third-and-10 with 19 seconds remaining. Against a moderate three-man pass rush, quarterback Dru Brown abandoned the pocket and pondered cutting back from the left side of the field to the middle, before running out of bounds after a 19-yard gain to stop the clock with seven seconds to play.

The final play was designed to send a receiver or two into the right corner of the end zone. “If everything was how you draw it up on the white board, you wouldn’t play the game,” Brown said.

The Rebels’ counter attack was to use nose tackle Jason “Pops” Fao to track Brown and obstruct the passing lanes with eight defenders. UH wideout Keelan Ewaliko initially ran a go route, but then improvised when Brown could not locate an unattached receiver.

“I noticed the middle of the field was completely open,” said Ewaliko, who broke across the end zone. “I took my chance. Dru extended the play.”

Brown said the pass “felt really good coming off my hand. Then I kind of lost sight of it, and it went over (Ewaliko’s) hand. It was a tough pill to swallow. If if were 3 inches lower, Keelan probably comes down with it.”

Ewaliko said the pass was “a little high, but I should have caught it. I felt like I touched it. And if I touched it, I should have caught it.”

There were other missed opportunities. The Warriors recovered an on-side kick to start the second half. “It had the perfect bounce, and I got the ball back for the boys,” said kicker Ryan Meskell, who recovered the football. But the Warriors netted 2 yards on that possession— they were deducted 10 yards because of a holding penalty — and punted.

Later, the Rebels scored on slotback Kendal Keys’ 10-yard catch, reclaimed possession on the ensuing on-side kick, then scored again on Lexington Thomas’ 3-yard run. Thomas rushed for 98 yards against the Warriors’ reconfigured defense. Because of a shortage of interior defenders — notably ailing defensive tackle Viane Moala, who did not make this road trip — the Warriors went with a three-man front. They used linebackers to move up to the gaps or the edges to create pressure, and rotated safeties as mid-level defenders.

The Warriors harassed but could not sack Johnny Stanton in 36 pass situations. Earlier this season, Stanton volunteered to play special teams as a way to get reps. He blocked a kick, earning a role as a reserve linebacker. But after Armani Rogers missed the Oct. 28 game because of a concussion, Stanton started at quarterback. Rogers passed the concussion protocol and practiced this past week. But Stanton earned the start against UH, and went 18-for-26 for 244 yards. Rogers played two series in the second quarter, absorbing two sacks and being picked off by linebacker Solomon Matautia.

The Warriors also were not whole on the offensive line. Center Asotui Eli and right guard J.R. Hensley did not make the trip because of ailments. Taaga Tuulima, a second-year freshman from ‘Iolani School, started at center. John Wa‘a, who also had been ailing the past week, opened at right guard. Wa‘a exited after the first series, but then returned when his replacement, Fred Ulu-Perry, left the game. When left guard Chris Posa had to be helped off the field, true freshman Brandon Kipper was summoned as a replacement. Behind the makeshift line, Diocemy Saint Juste rushed for 111 yards.

“We had new guys in there, and I’m impressed with how they played,” Saint Juste said.