How much did Saturday night’s victory over San Diego State mean to the Hawaii football team?

It brought fifth-year senior linebacker Solomon Matautia — all 6-foot-1 and 230 pounds of him — to tears.

“Not many times have I cried after a game,” the Campbell High School alum said. “Being on the field for that field-goal block and seeing them miss it I definitely started to cry.”

Matautia and the rest of the UH defense stood tall in victory after a 60-minute, punishing, physical football game ended with Matt Araiza missing a 48-yard field goal to send the Warriors to their first Mountain West Conference championship game, set for Dec. 7.

>> Click here to see photos of the game between Hawaii and San Diego State.

Chasing championships. It was a phrase uttered by Norm Chow eight years ago when he took over as head coach.

He won just 10 games in four seasons before his departure, but he did manage to sway a promising safety from the West side of Oahu to change his commitment from Oregon State and stay home to play.

UH won just three games that first year Matautia sat out as a redshirt, but it allowed him to gain an extra year of eligibility. Because of it, he will play on that blue turf one more time, with only Boise State standing in the way of that elusive conference title.

“We’ve never come close to (a championship),” Matautia said. “It just means so much to us to finally be able to do it. The work is not done yet. We didn’t win a championship, but we’re there and it gives us more motivation to keep working.”

The clinching win over the Aztecs was workmanlike for a UH defense that at one point in the season gave up 115 combined points in losses to the Broncos and Air Force in back-to-back weeks.

That the Warriors even get another crack at a Boise State team that hung 59 on them is due in large part to that same unit, which ended the conference season giving up 18 points in eight quarters against UNLV and SDSU.

The Aztecs were held more than 50 rushing yards under their season average and gained a measly 3.4 yards per attempt against a Hawaii defense that ranked 105 out of 130 FBS teams in rushing yards allowed per game coming in.

“We knew what it would come down to is who was the more physical team,” Matautia said. “Those (two) games we gave up (50-plus) points, we knew we needed to change things up. What better way to answer than with those (last) two games.”

They earned the trust of their head coach in the final minute against the Aztecs. Facing a fourth-and-2 on the Aztecs 49-yard line with 1:31 remaining, the ultra-aggressive Rolovich decided to punt it away and let his defense decide if the Warriors would chase a championship against the Broncos.

“I’m glad I punted on that fourth down. I was thinking about (going for) it,” Rolovich said. “(The defense) deserves a ton of credit not only for what they did tonight or what they did last week but for what they’ve been through as a defense. Guys could have folded. Guys could have pointed fingers. They went back to work and they got better.”