HONOLULU — The Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex crowd roared its support and approval for a group of players on the turf field who could seemingly do no wrong.
Unfortunately for the Hawaii football team, that moment was during a timeout and those players were members of the Honolulu Little League All-Stars who recently blew past everyone to win the Little League World Series.
As for the Rainbow Warriors? Glory will have to wait for another day.
A defensive struggle of a first quarter, and another relatively small deficit at halftime, gave way to another runaway blowout at the hands of a visiting opponent as Western Kentucky of Conference USA prevailed 49-17.
WKU (2-0) scored 28 points off six turnovers by UH, which is 0-2 for the first time since 2016 and now heads to Michigan for what is expected to be a tall task in the Rainbow Warriors’ first road game under Timmy Chang. On Sunday the Wolverines opened up as a 48.5-point favorite.
“Probably up to the fourth quarter, I thought our defense played lights out,” Chang said. “On offense, there’s just too many mistakes. You can’t overcome mistakes in FBS football. You’ve gotta make sure you take care of the football. That’s probably the number one priority.”
UH quarterbacks, harried all night, threw five interceptions and no touchdowns, the most picks by the Rainbow Warriors since they faced Tulsa in the 2010 Hawaii Bowl. UH, which played three signal-callers including option QB Cammon Cooper, is still looking for its first passing score of the season.
Pitt transfer Joey Yellen, who appeared in the second half of UH’s 63-10 loss to Vanderbilt in the season opener, got the start after impressing Chang through a week of practice. But he would go incomplete on his first five attempts and finish 4-for-11 for 36 yards with an interception capping his night.
From there, he gave way to Brayden Schager, last year’s backup and the starter of the opener. But things didn’t get better as Schager was intercepted four times, including on a couple of deflected balls off receivers’ hands.
Schager finished 22-for-33 for 230 yards.
“I thought he did well besides some unfortunate things. We’re trying to throw that screen, that famous screen made by Hawaii… we threw it right to a blitz,” Chang said, adding Schager probably wanted another picked throw back that went over the middle and into triple coverage.
One of the picks resulted in a Juwan Jones 38-yard touchdown return.
“It’s shared culpability, that’s what coach (offensive coordinator Ian) Shoemaker always says,” Schager said. “There’s stuff everyone could’ve done better on those, myself included. I’ve got to continue to work on that and try to be better.”
UH also racked up more than 100 yards in penalties, including a targeting call on defensive back Ty Marsh that will keep him out for the first half of the Rainbow Warriors’ game at Michigan. There were also a pair of unsportsmanlike assessments.
“That’s not who we are,” Chang said.
The 9,346-seat Ching Complex was sold out, but the stands were about three-quarters full Saturday, in contrast to the packed house on hand for the lopsided opener against Vanderbilt.
As an omen for how the rest of the game would play out, UH’s Riley Wilson recovered a muffed punt return at the WKU 3-yard line. But penalties knocked UH back to the 23 and Matthew Shipley had to convert a 40-yard field goal for a 3-0 score that would stand until the second quarter.
UH still trailed only 21-10 at halftime for the second straight week. But from there, the floodgates opened again.
Through two games, UH has been outscored 70-7 in second halves. To cap off the night, UH return man Jalen Perdue fumbled UH’s last kickoff return upon getting hit and the Hilltoppers scored one play later.
“We’ve gotta play better,” Chang said. “Mistakes start to happen, and like you said, it snowballs.”
The Hilltoppers, coached by former UH assistant Tyson Helton, run a variation of the run-and-shoot offense.
WKU quarterback Austin Reed, making his first start against an FBS opponent, was 22-for-31 for 271 yards, three touchdowns and one interception by UH’s Malik Hausman. Reed also had a keeper score as WKU tallied 412 total yards of offense.
Kaleb Oliver came down with two picks for WKU.
“Great job by our defense. They had ton of takeaways, a bunch of critical stops,” said Helton. “They gave the offense great field position all night. … When you can win games playing great defense, those are the most enjoyable for me.”
Helton was at UH at the same time period, 2000 to 2003, under June Jones, that Chang played quarterback.
“It was great (being back),” Helton said. “I got to see a lot of familiar faces, a lot of old friends, and a great atmosphere. Loved being back here, and it makes it a lot better when you win, because that’s a long flight.”
UH running back Nasjzae Bryant-Lelei scored his first career touchdown on a 1-yarder in the fourth quarter. Bryant-Lelei had a team-high 15 carries for 64 yards while starter Dedrick Parson had UH’s other score on a 9-yarder in the second quarter.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.