After the Hawaii football team vise-gripped a 14-11 victory over San Diego State, after the alma mater’s “… thy honored name” was sung, cornerback Rojesterman Farris II dropped to his knee pads overcome with emotion.
Before entering the tunnel to the locker rooms, coach Nick Rolovich raised his hands and applauded what remained of the 21,592 fans at Aloha Stadium.
>> Click here to see photos of the game between Hawaii and San Diego State.
After a brief meeting, Rolovich headed to the coaches’ locker room, allowing his players to celebrate the Rainbow Warriors’ first West Division title in their eight years of Mountain West membership. The Warriors will represent the West against Mountain champion Boise State in the Dec. 7 championship game in Boise.
“To win our division is really big,” said Farris, a fifth-year senior from Florida. “I was here through the struggles, when we were struggling with (Norm) Chow and even when Rolo first got here. To actually get over the milestone, to conquer ‘Phase II’ … it meant everything.”
The outcome was sealed when SDSU kicker Matt Araiza was wide right on his second field-goal attempt from 48 yards with two seconds left. His first attempt, also sailing wide of the right post, was voided when Rolovich called timeout just before the snap.
“When he missed the second one, I felt relieved,” UH quarterback Chevan Cordeiro said. “All that hard work. … We’re not done yet. We have three more games to play.”
There is next weekend’s senior night against Army, then the Mountain West title game, then a bowl game. But refusing to let go of Saturday night, running back Fred Holly III said: “It’s like a dream come true. I was telling my teammates, my (2016 recruiting) class, ‘We’re the first class when Rolo got here. We came in with a vision to do something like this. It still has me in awe that it unfolded like that.”
This was how the West was won:
>> The quarterback duo: Cole McDonald gave the Warriors the lead, at 7-0, when he lofted a pass to slotback Jason-Matthew Sharsh in the right corner of the end zone with 3:43 left in the first quarter. It was the Warriors’ only possession of that period. Sharsh and slotback Cedric Byrd were aligned on the same side of the formation. Byrd slanted inside, Sharsh ran a corner route.
“The way we do it in practice, I knew it would be open,” Sharsh said. “Cole put the ball right there, and I made a play on it. It started in practice. Success is no accident.”
It was 7-3 at the intermission, during which Rolovich pondered putting in Cordeiro for McDonald. Instead, McDonald directed the first drive of the second half, then yielded to Cordeiro.
“Cole was cheering me on, telling me to do my thing,” Cordeiro said. “We couldn’t have done it in the first half without him. He’s a great teammate.”
Relying on elusiveness and quick releases, Cordeiro led the Warriors on a 14-play, 96-yard drive. The final 11 yards came on Holly’s scoring run, which was kept alive when he eluded a would-be tackler.
“They’re so good,” Rolovich said of his quarterbacks, who had identical statistics during passing drills the past week. “It’s hard (to pick one), and they make it hard on us. They’re both winners in my book.”
>> Beat the clock: The Warriors had eight full possessions. Following Aztecs punts, the Warriors’ drives started at the 8, 2, 7, 4 and 12.
“There’s no such thing as bad field position,” Rolovich told a reporter. “I don’t want to hear you say that. We got to play football in Aloha Stadium. That’s it.”
Holly said the Warriors embraced each situation.
“It’s looking at things in a positive way,” Holly said. “OK, if we get it at the 2, this can be a 98-yard drive.”
The Warriors had three drives that elapsed double-digit plays. They controlled the ball for 33 minutes, 52 seconds.
>> Restless defense: Sometime during the week, it was decided that if UH won the coin toss, it would defer the choice to the second and start the game on defense.
“Oh, dude, I was stoked,” defensive end Derek Thomas said. “We wanted to be on defense from the start. We wanted to set the tone from the first play.”
The Aztecs entered with an offense rooted in a grinding running game and complementary roll-and-screen passing attack. They exited with 318 yards, 4.8 yards per play, and settling for a field goal after advancing to the UH 10.
The Warriors entered under-staffed, with their best pass rusher, Kaimana Padello, unavailable for the second consecutive week with an ailment. Safety Kalen Hicks also did not play for the fifth game in a row. In the first quarter, strong-side end Mason Vegas departed with an injury.
But Thomas played for the first time in six games after recovering from an ailment. Thomas, who had a tackle for a loss, provided an edge setter. Safety Khoury Bethley, who had seven tackles, also helped in defending the run.
“We were getting creative at the end,” defensive coordinator Corey Batoon said. “When the bullets were flying, we made some adjustments on the sideline, trying to create a pass rush.”
On the Aztecs’ final drive, Thomas failed to secure a possible interception, and Ryan Agnew scrambled his way out of trouble for a 25-yard completion.
“They got the stop, and forced the long field-goal (attempt),” Batoon said. “It was one of those games. That is how championship games ought to be. It was well played on both sides of the ball. It was exciting at the end.”
