University of Hawaii football team spoils Nevada’s perfect season

The victor was the spoiler.

In its best effort of the season, the Hawaii football team withstood Nevada’s power running attack for a 24-21 victory at Aloha Stadium.

In evening their record at 3-3, the Rainbow Warriors shoved the previously unbeaten Wolf Pack from atop the Mountain West Conference standings. The Pack are now 5-1 and in third place in a race that awards title-game invitations only to the two teams with the best winning percentages.

“It was great knocking off the No. 1 seed in our league,” said slotback Melquise Stovall, who was granted the postgame honor of smashing a rock symbolizing another break-through moment for the Warriors.

The Warriors snapped together season-long puzzles. The Warriors did not have a turnover for the second consecutive game and committed only one penalty of significance. They also conquered their so-so production (38%) on third down this season.

“Third down had been a nightmare for us,” Stovall said. But on this night, the Warriors converted at 64.3% in such situations. Chevan Cordeiro completed four of five third-down passes in a drive that extended UH’s lead to 24-14 and the clock-draining possession that led to three victory-formation kneels.

Cordeiro displayed courage and grittiness as a dual-threat leader. He was 26 of 32 for 246 yards and a 7-yard scoring toss to Calvin Turner. Cordeiro also gained 76 yards on non-sack scrambles and keepers.

>> PHOTOS: Hawaii upsets Nevada

With UH trailing 7-3 in the second quarter, Cordeiro was struck late — and hard — at the end of a 12-yard dash. On the next play, Cordeiro sprinted to his right and fired a pass to Turner, who caught it at the 4 and raced into the end zone.

“All season we believed in Chev,” Turner said. “He’s a great quarterback. It gives us great confidence to (see Cordeiro) take a hit and keep fighting. We believed in him from day one. We’ll keep believing in him. Everybody stands behind Chevan. We know what Chev’s going to give us. He’s going to go out and play hard and and play smart and do the right things.”

Several times, Cordeiro found the escape hatch after appearing to be trapped by the Pack. On one play, Cordeiro was flushed to the right, then fired back to Turner. On another, he rolled to his left, then threw back to Rico Bussey running a slant across the field.

After the Pack closed to 17-14 on Toa Taua’s 1-yard run, Cordeiro led the Warrior on a 75-yard scoring drive. On second-and-goal from the 2, Cordeiro faked a handoff, then split two defenders in a sprint to the end zone.

When the Pack again cut the deficit to three points, at 24-21, Cordeiro directed the game’s final drive. On fourth-and-6 from the Nevada 26, head coach Todd Graham stuck with Cordeiro instead of summoning the field-goal unit.

“We look at analytics and all that stuff,” Graham said. “In that game, at that point, I felt you’ve got to play to win. We felt like we had a pretty good play and felt good about making it. We thought the sprint-out pass had been there all night. We felt good about it.”

It actually was similar to Cordeiro’s earlier scoring pass to Turner. Once again, Cordeiro sped to the right and fired to a wide-open Turner waiting 3 yards beyond the first-down marker. “Our coach called a great play, and we executed it very well,” Turner said.

Five plays later, a pass-interference penalty against the Pack sealed the outcome.

Following the jubilant postgame celebration, Graham reflected on special-team units that dictated field position and a defense that subdued the nation’s fourth-best passing attack. In particular, the Warriors spent a week preparing for wideout Romeo Doubs, who entered as the national leader in yards per catch. Doubs’ eight touchdowns averaged 41.7 yards in length.

Graham, who makes the defensive calls, created a blueprint in which the Warriors set up a layered obstacle course against Doubs. The intent was to use man coverage early in Doubs’ routes, with a safety set deep for the double team. Graham said cornerbacks Cameron Lockridge and Cortez Davis had multiples duties. Lockridge played free safety, bandit safety and corner. Davis had seven techniques when guarding Doubs. Doubs, who was targeted an average of 11.6 times in the first five games, was thrown to only once. He caught a 10-yard pass on a crossing route with 1:45 left in the third quarter.

“The game plan was to take Doubs out of it,” Graham said. “We knew in doing that, they were going to have some run yards. Every time they ran the ball, we thought it was a good thing. I know we gave up too much run (208 yards) because of missed tackles. But I’m very pleased with our overall team and how we played tough.”