In a now-familiar theme, the University of Hawaii football team ran out of time and opportunities in Saturday night’s 41-34 loss to Utah State at the Ching Complex.
What remained of an announced crowd of 8,862 saw the Rainbow Warriors cut their deficit to seven points after Matthew Shipley converted a 19-yard field goal with 18 seconds left.
But Kyler Halvorsen’s ensuing onside kick ricocheted off one Aggie and then was claimed by another with 14 seconds to play. Cooper Legas took a knee as the Warriors’ please-please prayers were unfulfilled.
The Warriors fell to 2-9 overall and 1-5 in the Mountain West. Four of their league losses were by single-digit margins.
“They’re all tough, but this one was tough,” UH quarterback Brayden Schager said. “I keep saying it every week. It feels like we’re right there. We’re a few plays off. And (there are) a few things we have to fix and clean up to get better. The hard part is we’re running out of games to do that.”
The Warriors’ final home game is this coming Saturday against UNLV. They end their first season under head coach Timmy Chang against San Jose State on Thanksgiving weekend.
The Warriors were inadvertently generous in absorbing their seventh consecutive loss to the Aggies.
The Warriors appeared to score on their opening drive when tight end Caleb Phillips crossed the goal line after securing a pass from Schager. But the play was nullified after officials ruled slotback Tamatoa Mokiao-Atimalala ran a pick play — football’s version of a moving screen — to clear a path for Phillips. Two unsuccessful plays later, the Warriors punted.
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Later, usually sure-handed running back Dedrick Parson mishandled a punt. The Warriors made a red-zone stand, but kicker Connor Coles connected from 21 yards to boost the Aggies to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter.
Schager, a second-year Warrior from Dallas, was 23-for-46 for a season-high 306 yards. But he was intercepted three times, matching his turnover total of the previous seven games.
With UH trailing 34-24, freshman safety Ike Larsen jumped a route, picked off Schager and sprinted 36 yards for a touchdown with 4:33 to play.
“The pick-6 with five minutes left, that one hurt,” Chang said. “We’re still in striking distance down 10 with five minutes.”
Now down 41-24, Chang said, to “come back from a three-possession deficit is tough.”
But the Warriors did fight back. In his third productive game in a row, freshman Tylan Hines raced 69 yards for a touchdown. Television replays indicated he might have released the football from his grip as he approached the goal line, but the officials — and Hines — viewed it otherwise.
“No, I didn’t,” Hines said. “But I have to be aware of it.”
When the Aggies recovered the ensuing onside kick, the UH defense again was asked to make another stand. Due in large part to Andrew Choi’s sack, the Warriors responded with their fourth three-and-out of the second half.
Following a Utah State punt, the Warriors started what turned out to be their final drive at their 10 with 3:05 to play.
On fourth-and-1 from their 35, Parson ran up the gut for 5 yards.
On third-and-10 from their 40, Schager fired 13 yards to slotback Koali Nishigaya, who was placed on the active roster earlier in the week.
Later, Schager connected with Hines on a 29-yard play. Hines was stopped at the USU 1. Nasjzae Bryant-Lelei, who earlier scored on a 4-yard run, could not produce a hana hou. Bryant-Lelei was stopped for no gain, then tackled for a 2-yard loss. Out of timeouts, Schager spiked the football to stop the clock at 21 seconds. Needing a combination of a touchdown and field goal to tie it, Chang went with the sure odds, summoning Shipley for the field goal to cut it to 41-34.
“The enemy is the clock,” Chang said.
Of the failed comeback, Schager said: “It’s definitely frustrating. That’s kind of been the story of our whole season. We’ll do something good, and then it gets called back. Or I make a mistake, somebody makes a mistake. We’re not playing 11-on-11 football, as Coach Chang likes to say. We’ve always got one guy making a mistake, and a lot of times it’s me, a lot of times it’s other guys. It doesn’t matter. It’s always one guy messing up, and that’s going to mess up the whole play.”
The outcome overshadowed several significant performances. Wideout Jonah Panoke caught an 11-yard scoring pass, his first touchdown since the state high school championship game five years ago.
“It’s been a long time,” said Panoke, who was cleared this week after recovering from a broke clavicle. “It was nice to finally get into the end zone.”
Parson rushed for 101 yards and Hines for 97.
And after the Aggies amassed 300 yards in the first half — Cooper Legas threw scoring passes to wide-open tight ends Josh Sterzer and Broc Lane — the Warriors allowed only 74 yards after the intermission.
But the Warriors could not overcome self-inflicted mistakes, such as 10 penalties for 115 yards.
“You can’t make as many mistakes as we did — offensively, defensively, special teams — and expect to win a game,” Chang said.
