With a four-point lead, five seconds left in the first half, and the ball the length of a musubi away from the goal line, football players on the Hawaii sideline began chanting: “Push the sled!”
Quarterback Brayden Schager, in the middle of a scrum, found the end zone on a keeper for a touchdown that was the emblematic play of the Rainbow Warriors’ 27-13 victory over Air Force at the Ching Complex.
A crowd of 10,777 saw the 20-point underdogs conquer the Mountain West leaders to improve to 4-7 overall and 2-4 in league play. The Falcons, who had won their first eight games, fell to 8-2 and 5-1.
“We pushed the sled,” said slotback Pofele Ashlock, echoing what has become the theme of the modest two-game winning streak.
On recent Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the Warriors opened practices pushing weighted sleds. “Those are our mental-toughness days,” Ashlock said. “The sleds represent our mental toughness. We’ve got to push them over and over. They’re our road blocks. We’re pushing our road blocks. We put a huge emphasis on those sleds.”
With the sled situated behind their benches, the Warriors executed a deliberately paced offense, which mixed run/pass-option plays with the run-and-shoot, and detonated the Falcons’ triple-option attack. For the first time this season, the Warriors’ first drive resulted in a touchdown. Schager’s 5-yard laser to Ashlock was the last of a 12-play drive covering 75 yards.
With the Falcons aligned in a 4-2-5 scheme intended to challenge deep patterns, the Warriors played small ball, with Landon Sims and David Cordeiro being fed on draws and dives, and Schager throwing to receivers on hitches and slants.
When the Falcons overloaded the pass rushes, Schager found the escape hatch on scrambles. Relying on prorated 19.1-mph speed, Schager averaged 8.9 yards per non-sack run, including a 40-yard dash. Schager, who completed his first nine passes — the 10th was tipped — finished 22-for-29 for 176 yards and two touchdowns.
“That was not (the type of) game he was going to put up a lot of numbers,” coach Timmy Chang said. “You just don’t do that against a team like that. But he did what he needed to do. I wanted to shorten the game, and he made the plays he needed to make.”
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The Warriors amassed a season-low 58 plays. But they converted 61.5% on third down, and held possession for 30 minutes, 34 seconds. It was only the second time this season the Falcons lost the possession battle.
The Falcons entered as the nation’s rushing leader with an average of 284.2 yards per game. The key to the triple option is establishing the dive, with center Thor Paglialong teaming with a guard to create a crease. Dylan Carson scored on a 35-yard sprint up the gut to close the Falcons to 13-10 in the third quarter.
But the Warriors otherwise were able to clog the middle with a rotation of nose tackles. When the Falcons attacked the perimeters with pitches, the Warriors summoned an extra linebacker and moved up a safety.
“They do all that tricky stuff,” linebacker Jalen Smith said of the Falcons’ pre-snap motions and fake handoffs. “What they really love is the dive. If they can get that 3, 4 yards, they’ll keep running it. (Linebackers coach Chris Brown) made it an emphasis we’re going to stop the dive and make them do what they’re uncomfortable doing. And that’s what we did tonight.”
On Air Force’s second possession, quarterback Zac Larrier exited with an apparent injury. Larrier, who can run 100 meters in 10.68 seconds, is a threat on keepers and scrambles.
Jensen Jones, Larrier’s replacement, showed arm strength with a 65-yard completion to Cade Harris. But trailing 20-10, Jones was chased backward. Smith knocked the ball free from Jones at the Air Force 32, and safety Meki Pei’s scoop-and-score extended the UH lead to 27-10 with 11:04 to play.
Later, UH’s Chuuky Hines was penalized for interfering with Brandon Engel’s attempted fair catch. Replays showed that Hines did not touch Engel. On the next play, UH defensive end Elijah Robinson deflected Jones’ pass to the right side. Linebacker Noah Kema intercepted.
“That ball was hanging up there for a long time,” Kema said.
Later, Jones appeared to suffer a leg injury after scrambling 37 yards. Replacement Ben Brittain then threw a pass that UH safety Peter Manuma intercepted at the 3 and was tackled hard.
“I have to practice my returning after I get an interception,” Manuma said. “He hit me in the right spot and I lost my air.”
The Falcons’ final drive ended when cornerback Cam Stone intercepted Brittain at the UH 2 with 49 seconds left.
“Oh, man, I’m proud of them,” Chang said. “This was big. In my personal opinion, Air Force is the standard. They’re always going to win 10 games every year. That’s what they do. They win 10 consistently. The challenges they face in having to get kids in, recruiting, and to always win 10, they’re the standard. They’re unbelievable. And for us to win, that’s unbelievable.”
