Boise leaves University of Hawaii football team feeling blue

BOISE, IDAHO >> With thunderous purpose, the Boise State football team raced onto the field before Saturday’s championship game, 103 hammer-carrying Thors.

But it was the Broncos’ lightning-quick touchdown strikes — two in a 53-second span in the second quarter, two in 49 seconds in the third — that provided a 31-10 victory over Hawaii at Albertsons Stadium.

The 19th-ranked Broncos claimed their fourth Mountain West title in nine years of membership. For the Rainbow Warriors, their first championship-game appearance in the program’s history ended with the frustration of unfulfilled opportunities.

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

“There are a lot of plays we could have made,” said UH coach Nick Rolovich, referencing drives to BSU’s 5 and 2 that yielded no points. “The calls are on me. The kids played their hearts out. They tried their best.”

But being good was not good enough against the league’s marquee team and on a blue field where the Warriors have not won since … well, ever.

“This one hurts,” said quarterback Cole McDonald, who threw for 241 yards but none that were caught past the goal line. “Just couldn’t put the ball in the end zone when we had the opportunities. That’s how you lose.”

After a 3-all opening quarter, the Warriors appeared to take the lead when Ryan Meskell’s field-goal attempt from 21 yards was true. But BSU’s Avery Williams was offside, and Rolovich decided to swap the field goal for essentially a 1-yard penalty, setting up a fourth-and-goal from the 1.

“I didn’t think field goals were going to win the football game,” Rolovich said.

The self-styled “Froot Train” — 5-foot-11, 250-pound Dayton Furuta — was aligned in the backfield with McDonald. The plan was for Furuta and a lineman to reset the line of scrimmage, with McDonald following the path. But nose tackle Sonatane Lui appeared to lunge before the snap, canceling the intended gap.

“The refs didn’t call it,” McDonald said. “Just had to run the play anyway. I couldn’t get to our double team because the guy jumped offsides. It put us in a bad position.”

Then Lui and linebacker Riley Whimpey stopped McDonald about 9 inches short of the goal line.

“Coach (Bryan Harsin) always tells the D-line we’re the tip of the spear,” Lui said.

And while the Broncos were forced to punt on their ensuing drive, the lost scoring opportunity, Rolovich theorized, “was a big turning point.”

But Rolovich added: “I thought we had to play aggressive to win this football game versus this team.”

Offensive coordinator Brian Smith offered it was the right call to go for it on fourth-and-1. “Cole’s one of the best players in the program,” Smith said. “He’s great with the ball in his hands. He’s a physical kid. We had Furuta as a lead blocker for him, which we liked. We liked the matchup that we had. He just got short of the goal line and wasn’t able to finish it.”

Later in the second quarter, the Broncos drove to UH’s 36, where they faced a fourth-and-4. Jaylon Henderson, who ascended from third-string quarterback, rolled to his left. In these situations, the Broncos had showed a tendency to run short routes across the coverage. This time, slotback Khalil Shakir made a double move — out and up — along the left sideline. With the Warriors crowding the line to gain, Shakir snuck behind freshman Kai Kaneshiro for the 36-yard, catch-and-sprint to give the Broncos the lead, 10-3, with 1:07 left in the first half.

“They ran a double-break, which is a risk-reward-type play,” UH defensive coordinator Corey Batoon said. “They came out on the front end of that.”

The Broncos then held the Warriors’ next drive, using timeouts to freeze the clock, and got the ball back with 38 seconds left in the half. Two plays later, Henderson lofted a pass to wideout John Hightower near the right sideline. Hightower, who high-jumped 6 feet 8 in high school, soared to make the catch between cornerback Rojesterman Farris II and safety Ikem Okeke. Hightower stuck the landing, pirouetted free and ran the rest of the way to complete the 36-yard scoring play with 14 seconds to play.

“We kind of got stuck in between whether we play the ball or the man,” Batoon said, “and we kind of didn’t do, either. We should have been more aggressive in getting him out of bounds. If we make a play on the man, I don’t know if he’s going to be able to come down with possession. We got stuck in between where we were going to play the ball, and then at the last second try to change, and then it was too late. (Hightower) did a great job of keeping his balance and staying inbounds and then finishing.”

The Warriors tried to rebound after the intermission. But their drive to open the second half ended with consecutive incompletions — two were drops — from the BSU 5.

And then in the third quarter, the Broncos delivered another 1-2 combo. With the offensive line and tight end blocking to the right, Shakir took a pitch on a reverse and scooted around the left side for a 4-yard touchdown.

UH’s next drive was sabotaged when Lui stripped the football from McDonald’s grip. “I’m not looking around me,” said McDonald, whose focus is downfield.

Two plays later, Henderson scored on a 5-yard run to make it 31-3 with 18 seconds left in the third quarter.

The Warriors also short-circuited possessions with seven false starts, including one that came on the game’s final play.

“We had a lot of opportunities,” slotback Jason-Matthew Sharsh said. “We just have to make those opportunities count.”