For a while, it was just exciting — like it used to be.

The Warriors looked like they could forget about the pressure of being the state’s team for a few minutes and, instead, enjoy playing a kids’ game.

“I think the emphasis was to have fun,” University of Hawaii quarterback Brayden Schager said, minutes after UH fell 41-34 to San Diego State at the Ching Complex on Saturday.

As coach Timmy Chang said he told his counterpart, Brady Hoke, afterward, “Hey, we put on a show.”

And so it was as the Warriors battled back from a 17-0 deficit, led 24-20 after three quarters, and were within a field goal of tying it, with the ball and a little more than five minutes left.

But then SDSU capitalized on the last of Hawaii’s many mistakes to take a 10-point lead with 2 minutes, 11 seconds left.

It proved to be insurmountable.

The Warriors would need two scores to tie or win; they got the one, the field goal, but an onside kick didn’t go UH’s way.

So much for the fun.

Chang even felt the need to apologize for choosing to kick the field goal — even though it was the right percentage move with the intent of winning the game. The result was the Warriors lost by seven instead of possibly two or three points, and there were people out there with an interest in UH finishing within six points of SDSU in the last college football game of the night.

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Maybe you have reason to be delusional to disagree, but Chang made the correct decision and did not need to apologize for it.

It is right, though, for the Warriors to be sorry for yet another slow start — especially after a bye week, when it’s reasonable to expect a team to be fired up and ready to perform at its best, maybe with some new wrinkles after an extra week to prepare for its opponent.

“Another slow start, which is really frustrating,” Schager said. “We got it going at the end of the first half. Once we get it going it’s pretty.”

That it is.

For a while, it was like the “June Would Throw” days. Field position, clock management, scoreboard — all that stuff be damned. We’re throwing, and we’re throwing deep, and we’re doing it on every down. Stop us if you can.

And there were enough times the Aztecs failed to do so where it looked as though the Warriors would come back to win like they did in their previous two home games — except now, it’s a conference opponent, not Albany or New Mexico State.

It would have been one for the storybooks.

Chang coached in a throwback UH long-sleeve sweatshirt in recognition of Bob Wagner, the UH coaching legend who died Oct. 3 and was also acknowledged with a moment of silence, and the presence of his wife, Gloria, and daughter, Christy.

“I wanted to wear the palaka (shirt) in honor of Wags,” Chang said. “But the only size I could find was too big.”

A Hawaii win would have been a perfect fit. Taking down one of UH’s old Western Athletic Conference rivals from back when Wagner was defensive coordinator and head coach in the 1980s and ’90s would have been especially sweet for fans of a certain age.

Ultimately though, the Aztecs’ opportunism and the Warriors’ slow start and miscues throughout determined the outcome.

It had become kind of a strange thing when Hawaii and San Diego State meet in football. Two schools with traditions of high-powered offenses have not generated that much against each other recently before Saturday.

The programs that brought you Marshall Faulk and Colt Brennan produced a 16-14 result last year, with the host Aztecs prevailing in a battle of two ineffectual offenses.

This one started out as a dud, with neither team managing a first down until beyond midway of the first quarter; UH didn’t get its first until three minutes after that.

Then, all of a sudden, Schager Bomb was not just clever word play, but a real thing, and UH football was fun to watch again. A cure for insomnia turned into a fascinating track meet. The only problem for the Warriors was that they dropped more batons than the Aztecs.

Defensive back Peter Manuma led UH with nine tackles and an interception, playing hurt much of the game.

“I just keep telling myself go play until it’s broke,” he said. “At the end of the day we’re playing a little kids’ sport. At the end of the day we didn’t play our best. … There were plays we should’ve made.”