Somewhere up in the heavens above Halawa, you figure Dick Tomey wore a knowing smile.
On a night when they paid touching pregame and halftime tributes to the late University of Hawaii football coach who died in May and whose initials were on helmets, it was left to the Rainbow Warriors to win the game the way Tomey used to preach it.
How many times in his 10-year tenure (1977-86) at UH did we hear his credo that no matter how arduous or imperfect the game: “You just want to have a chance to win it in the fourth quarter”?
In a season opener in which there were six turnovers to be surmounted, that’s precisely what the Warriors did by the skin of their teeth in a 45-38 upset of another of Tomey’s former teams, Arizona.
>> Click here to see photos of the game between Hawaii and Arizona.
Not until safety Kalen Hicks and wide-ranging defensive lineman Pumba Williams, coming from across the field, wrestled fleet Wildcats quarterback Khalil Tate to the Aloha Stadium turf on a 30-yard scramble at the 1-yard line as time expired was the improbable victory, built on 10 fourth-quarter points and a key takeaway, finally secured.
Not until Tate rose from their grasp and trudged straight to the locker room did the UH faithful among the assembled 20,572 dare exhale.
Then, celebrating receiver Cedric Byrd’s 14 catches for 224 yards and four touchdowns, they raised a din beyond their numbers, rattling the 45-year old, rusty stadium in a way that had been a Saturday night tradition in the Tomey years.
Four interceptions of starting quarterback Cole McDonald, who completed 29 of 41 passes for 378 yards and four touchdowns, and uncharacteristic fumbles by running back Dayton Furuta and Fred Holly II were recycled into 28 points by Arizona.
That allowed the Wildcats to hang around on a night when their bus to the stadium got stuck in traffic and their offensive rhythm arrived even later.
Not since a 48-20 victory in a 2007 game at Idaho, where quarterback Colt Brennan battled back from five interceptions, had UH managed to overcome six turnovers and win a game. Six other times in the interim they had succumbed in six-turnover outings, losing by an average of 25.5 points.
But the Pac-12 Wildcats, an 11-point favorite on Las Vegas betting lines, were no Idaho and came back from 21-7 and 35-21 deficits to tie the game.
Three times the Rainbows demonstrated their resilience, coming back from turnovers to score touchdowns.
But after the sixth — and last — turnover on McDonald’s fourth interception that allowed Arizona to tie the game at 35 with 51 seconds remaining in the third quarter, coach Nick Rolovich went to the bullpen, summoning redshirt freshman quarterback Chevan Cordeiro.
Cordeiro, the savior with fourth-quarter rallies to beat Wyoming and Nevada-Las Vegas last season, promptly guided the ’Bows 51 yards to set up Ryan Meskell’s 34-yard go-ahead field goal for a 38-35 lead with 10 minutes, 39 seconds left.
After safety Ikem Okeke picked off a Tate pass and returned it 49 yards to the UA 48, Cordeiro engineered a 48-yard march that concluded with a 30-yard touchdown pass for Byrd’s fourth touchdown.
It took every last second of the pivotal fourth quarter in a nationally televised contest that concluded at 2:22 Sunday morning on the East Coast, but the final quarter — and the game — belonged to the ’Bows.
A fitting tribute, indeed.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
