Every football game, it seems, has special moments.
Here are three of them on special teams from Hawaii’s 31-28 victory over Oregon State this past weekend:
>> Oregon State was setting up for the potential tying field goal from 52 yards when UH safety Ikem Okeke was summoned as a kick blocker. Okeke aligned across the narrow space between the left guard and long snapper. At the snap, Okeke leaped through the gap, landed, then jumped again to nick the kick. The ball sailed wide left, preserving the Warriors’ three-point lead with 1:15 to play.
“He executed his assignment,” special teams coordinator Michael Ghobrial said. “He re-routed that kick just enough to go wide.”
Okeke was beckoned because of his speed (4.5 seconds over 40 yards) and gravity immunity (40-inch vertical jump).
“It was step, jump,” Okeke said. “You’re not allowed to get a running start in football anymore (on field-goal attempts). I was told (to) jump, make sure I brought my knees up to clear the people. I jumped, cleared my knees over them. … Once you jump over, you don’t have time to re-direct. … You have to jump (again) and look for the ball.”
Although Okeke played a hand, literally and figuratively, in the missed kick, he did not fulfill his primary aim. “My goal was to block the kick and have a scoop-and-score and go up 10 points on them,” Okeke said.
>> The Rainbow Warriors were clinging to the three-point lead when they were forced to punt with 12 seconds left. Between long snapper Wyatt Tucker and punter Stan Gaudion was a three-blocker shield of Emil Graves, Blessman Ta‘ala and Jonah Laulu.
Ta‘ala, who was aligned in the middle, yelled a final reminder. “I told the guys there were 12 seconds left on the clock,” Ta‘ala recalled. “I knew we had to cover down because (punt returner Jesiah Irish) was going to take it.”
Irish fielded Gaudion’s punt at the OSU 25 and burst upfield. Laulu, who was aligned as an edge setter, said: “When we punted it, nobody came and rushed us, so we had a free release. I saw somebody on the punt-return team was trying to defend me. I started running faster. My job was to stay on the outside and force everything back inside. I took a wide approach, then broke down to force (Irish) back inside.”
Ta‘ala, who is 6 feet 1 and 300 pounds, said he took a direct path toward Irish. “I didn’t want him to see me,” Ta‘ala said. “If he saw me, I’m pretty sure he would have made a cut. I made a hard tackle.”
Laulu said: “Blessman ate him up.”
That stop left OSU with too much ground (63 yards from the end zone) and too little time (four seconds remaining) to make a comeback.
>> After scoring touchdowns on its first three possessions, OSU was forced to punt. Daniel Rodriguez’s punt reached the 14, where Melquise Stovall scooped the football. Stovall lost 2 yards on the play, but the Warriors could have lost more if the ball had been allowed to continue to bounce.
The play reinforced the Warriors’ confidence in Stovall to make the right decisions and to cleanly field any type of punt. Stovall has become a shortstop who can track popups and field the short hops.
“The more opportunity we have to minimize the ball bouncing on the ground, that’s something we religiously work on,” Ghobrial said. “The football is shaped so oddly, you never know where it will bounce. (Stovall) is a sure-handed kid who makes smart decisions.”
Stovall said he strengthens his grip by squeezing fistfuls of rice in a bucket and catching a brick with only his fingertips. The decision making, Stovall said, “it’s all on judgment. Having years and times spent working on a craft, you kind of judge balls correctly. Some of those I can get, some of those I can’t. (Bouncing balls) are risky, but punt return is a risky job.”
From Okeke’s tip to Ta‘ala’s tackle to Stovall’s returns, Ghobrial said: “It was a good day on Saturday. We’re happy with the performance.”
