FRESNO, Calif. >> The goal line at Bulldog Stadium was 2 yards away in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter Saturday night, obscured by a thicket of red Fresno State jerseys.
What Hawaii running back Steven Lakalaka’s penetrating brown eyes focused on through his face mask, though, was a season on the brink.
“It was like, ‘I’m not gonna be stopped. We’re playing for the season, for the seniors, for everything,’” Lakalaka would say later.
And “everything” was what Lakalaka put into it, pumping his powerful thighs like pistons to get through the defense and past its spiritual leader, linebacker Jeff Camilli, for the touchdown.
The score with 59 seconds remaining, kicker Rigo Sanchez’s go-ahead extra point and game-saving block of a field goal by Viane Moala as time expired allowed the Rainbow Warriors to emerge with a dramatic 14-13 victory and a lot more on a night when they brought a lot less than their “B” game.
The triumph gave UH a 5-7 record, provided its highest victory total since 2010, assured at least a share of second place in the West Division of the Mountain West Conference and kept alive the hopes of a bowl appearance with one regular-season game remaining.
But for a tense moment on a chilly night in the San Joaquin Valley it boiled down to a test of iron wills at the goal line, the latest chapter in an unyielding decadeslong rivalry where emotions boiled over several times and one ’Bow was ejected.
The Rainbow Warriors had come not just the 2,417 miles this week but a long way this season. And, now, after 11 games and 44,151 miles it boiled down to Lakalaka and Camilli, a former wrestler who was among the nation’s leading tacklers, one on one.
It was Camilli and the Bulldogs trying to avoid a numbing ninth consecutive loss and school-record 10th defeat of the season in front of their new head coach-elect, Jeff Tedford, and Lakalaka and the ’Bows trying to further distance themselves from their own disappointments, recent and past.
Camilli, a 6-foot, 3-inch, 272-pound senior, and Lakalaka a 5-foot-10, 210-pound senior.
“Me and him just went head on,” Lakalaka said. “I was just trying to keep pumping my feet. It looked like I needed just one more push there and I just did my best to finish (the play).”
It was Lakalaka’s second touchdown of the game and 12th — and biggest — of the season.
On a night when the ’Bows’ ground game was held to a meager 49 yards, Lakalaka got the toughest ones, 11 on four carries, the way he usually does, the hard way.
“We tell him on some of those (drives) that there is going to be one (carry) left for him,” coach Nick Rolovich said.
And what a carry it would be to close out the 12-play, 76-yard drive as he took the ’Bows’ hopes on his back and the ball into the end zone.
An apparent touchdown was foiled when cornerback Tyquwan Glass knocked the ball loose from receiver Marcus Kemp in the end zone. Then a roughing-the-passer penalty on the Bulldogs gave UH a first down at the Fresno State 9. Brown’s pass to John Ursua took it to the 2-yard line.
“Dru (Brown, the quarterback), the receivers, the O-line, they all did their jobs and it was my job to finish it,” Lakalaka said.
Never mind that pretty much everybody in the more than half empty Bulldog Stadium had a good guess who was getting the ball and where he would be attempting to go with it.
“My mentality was that it was ‘just a (couple) yards,’” Lakalaka said.
“That was pure will vs. will,” Rolovich said.
“That,” Rolovich said, “is what ‘Pride Rock’ is all about.”
On this night it was.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-48209.
