The University of Hawaii football team could not beat the clock — nor nationally ranked San Diego State — in Saturday’s 17-10 loss at the Ching Complex.
“It’s a kick in the gut,” coach Todd Graham said of the Mountain West Conference loss.
The Rainbow Warriors, who fell to 4-6 overall and 1-4 in the Mountain West, likely must win their three remaining regular-season games — two of which are on the road — to achieve bowl eligibility. “That’s the goal right now,” all-purpose athlete Calvin Turner said.
The Warriors attempted a late surge in front of 5,119 fans at the Ching Complex in their first home game without attendance restrictions in two years. But time expired on the Warriors, who could not make a fourth-down snap at the SDSU 18.
“I thought we snapped it with one second left,” quarterback Chevan Cordeiro said, but “they blew the whistle. There’s not a thing we could have done.”
In a hot-potato result, a video review confirmed that center Kohl Levao still had the football in his grip when the clock struck “0:00.”
It was a disappointing outcome for the Warriors, who held the Aztecs to 227 yards, an average of 3.8 yards per play. The Aztecs entered the game at No. 24 in the College Football Playoff rankings. UH’s defense allowed 10 points — Greg Bell’s 5-yard run and, after an Aztecs drive stalled, Matt Araiza’s 22-yard field goal.
The Aztecs’ second touchdown came on a fake field-goal attempt. Jack Browning, the holder, sprinted 13 yards around left end for a 14-7 lead with 9:43 left in the first half.
“We weren’t prepared for that,” Graham said. “We did a poor job with that. … To be misaligned on something like that is inexcusable. That was a tough play.”
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The Warriors were hurt with penalties. “We made a lot of mental mistakes, had a lot of flags, penalties and things that stalled a lot of drives out.”
But the Warriors managed to stay within reach. In the opening quarter, linebacker Darius Muasau smacked the football free from SDSU quarterback Lucas Johnson. UH’s Isaiah Tufaga recovered the ball at the SDSU 19. On the ensuing play, Cordeiro found Turner on a crossing pattern for the touchdown to tie it at 7.
Then in the final quarter, the Warriors drove to the 4. But Turner lost a yard on a carry, and Cordeiro could not connect on throws to Zion Bowens and Caleb Phillips. Matthew Shipley’s 11th consecutive field goal, this time from 22 yards, closed UH to 17-10 with three minutes to play.
On the UH sideline, the debate was brief on whether to attempt an onside kick. “I didn’t go for the onside kick because I didn’t need to,” Graham said. “We had three timeouts left, and we were playing really good defense. We went for the onside kick last week (against Utah State) because we weren’t playing good defense. It’s all about feeling like you can stop them, and I felt like we could stop them, and we did.”
Muasau said: “We practice this every week, (the) three-minute situation. Being able to rely on the defense and get a stop and put the ball back in the offense’s hands.”
The Aztecs were held to 10 yards on five plays before punting. But Graham had to use his allotment of three second-half timeouts to stop the clock.
The Warriors took over at their 32 with 1:11 to play.
“The biggest thing in those two minutes is you have to give yourself a chance,” Graham said. “There were two plays in the early part of the drive … we catch a ball and go back inside (as the clock continues to run). We just went over that on the sideline. You’ve got to get the ball out of bounds. That’s another eight, nine seconds. That’s big. About six seconds is a play.”
On that final drive, a personal foul on SDSU’s Segun Olubi gave the Warriors an additional 15 yards, and Bowens’ 12-yard grab on fourth-and-5 advanced the ball to the 23. Cordeiro then spiked the ball with 19 seconds to play. Cordeiro’s second-down pass sailed past Phillips in the end zone with 14 seconds left.
“We have 14 seconds left, we’ve got to throw the ball into the end zone twice,” Graham said. “You’ve got two or three plays there. I tried to communicate that.”
The Warriors went with an empty set, with four receivers headed to the end zone and Dedrick Parson as the check-down outlet.
With the four vertical routes covered, Cordeiro threw to Parson, who was tackled by Punahou School graduate Seyddrick Lakalaka at the 18. But the Warriors could not regroup quickly to get off another play.
“That’s a learning experience,” Cordeiro said.
In a what-could-have-been possibility, Graham said if the Warriors had scored a touchdown, they probably would have gone for the 2-point conversion instead of the extra-point kick and a shot at overtime.
“That was tough,” Graham said. “I thought we could take a couple shots in the end zone and score and then go for 2 and have a chance to win the football game.”
