Ferd Lewis: Aggies strike early and often in rout of reeling Warriors

If this had been a boxing match the referee would have been compelled to step in and signal a technical knockout in the first quarter.

But it wasn’t, so the University of Hawaii football team took the full brunt of 18th-ranked Utah State, pounded from pillar to post in its worst loss of the season, 56-17.

The fourth consecutive defeat of this rapidly deteriorating campaign sends the Rainbow Warriors, now 6-5 (3-3 Mountain West Conference), reeling into their first open date next week.

Whether that is enough time to address the growing list of questions that confront them remains to be seen. But after Saturday night even the presence of a sagging 2-7 Nevada-Las Vegas (0-5 MWC) next up on the schedule, Nov. 17, no longer assures the seventh win, a winning regular season and bowl eligibility that seemed a formality a month ago.

And the final regular-season game at 7-2 San Diego State, Nov. 24, would seem to hold even less hope.

The hardy remnants of UH’s smallest Aloha Stadium crowd of the season, 17,262, who stuck around for the second half, seemed as dazed by the one-sidedness of the evening as the players and coaches as they made their way to the exits.

You knew going in that it was a longshot for UH to take down the Aggies (8-1, 5-0), who have become the hottest team in the conference, if not the mid-major Group of Five.

But, for the Warriors on Saturday night, they might as well have been asked to split the atom for the depth of the challenge they turned it into.

Even when things appeared to be going right, Hawaii turned them into disappointment, from the first series of the game. Quarterback Cole McDonald lofted a 42-yard pass to Marcus Armstrong-Brown on the game’s first play from scrimmage and things quickly went south from there.

A false start, the first of 10 UH penalties, and three incompletions, some of which looked like miscommunication, disabled the drive before it even got going in what would be a symbolic beginning to a night of frustration.

The Aggies, who had an 11:20 p.m. plane to catch and played like it, scored five plays later. Faster than you could say Hawaiian Financial Federal Credit Union Field at Aloha Stadium they held a 28-3 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Not even the second-quarter departure of starting quarterback Jordan Love to an undisclosed injury and redshirt freshman Henry Colombi in long relief slowed down the Aggies, who combined to complete 19 of 24 passes for 175 yards.

For sure, UH’s poor tackling couldn’t, as two USU running backs, Gerold Bright (121 yards) and Darwin Thompson (141 yards) topped the century mark and scored three touchdowns apiece.

Meanwhile, McDonald, who was hit early and often, had his worst (percentage-wise) passing night, completing just 40 percent of his passes (18 of 45), with two interceptions, two touchdowns and 331 yards.

UH’s running game managed a meager 2.2 yards per carry, contributing to 2-for-14 futility on third downs and two of six on fourth downs.

Rarely has a Rainbow Warriors team needed an open date as much as this one. But, then, not since the 58-7 loss to Air Force that got Norm Chow fired in 2015 have the ’Bows been decked this badly at home, either.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.