HONOLULU — The hugs kept on coming.
Moments after the Hawaii football team completed a 31-16 victory over Nevada on Saturday night, one blue-and-silver-clad player and staffer after the next approached their former Wolf Pack member, UH coach Timmy Chang, to issue congratulations.
With a balanced offensive attack and a stingy defensive effort, the Rainbow Warriors (2-5) picked up their first Mountain West victory of the season and Chang got his first career win over a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent.
That it came against the program he spent the last five years with was bittersweet.
“There’s a lot of guys, a lot of coaches on the other side of the ball, lot of people on that training room, equipment, that you spent five years with,” Chang said. “Two children were born there, and that’s tough. I love that program over there and I’m very glad that our program won tonight.”
For the second straight week, UH managed to both establish a semblance of an aerial attack and stymie its opponent’s ground game. But while the Rainbow Warriors came up painfully short on the road against San Diego State, they parlayed those factors into a convincing, kneel-down win in front of a white-out crowd of about 8,000 (9,231 tickets issued) at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex.
A 48-yard first-quarter touchdown throw by Brayden Schager to a wide-open Zion Bowens kept the threat of the long ball in the collective mind of the Wolf Pack the rest of the way, contributing to running back Dedrick Parson’s season-best game of 136 yards on 24 carries and three touchdowns.
“It kind of boxed us in in what we can do,” Chang said of the lack of emphasis on run-and-shoot passing elements in the first four games of the season. “Now you’ve got some guys running by guys… It’s going to help.”
UH increasingly leaned on the run to control the flow of the game. Schager finished 13-for-25 for 173 yards with one interception.
Parson, who pinballed around to evade tackles, said all three of his touchdowns — from 1, 9 and 2 yards — were due to the blocking of the offensive line and the receivers. He has 10 rushing scores on the season, second in the conference.
“I was going back to having fun like when I was a kid. That’s the best thing you can do,” Parson said. “Sometimes I put too much pressure on myself.
“Today I just let it all loose and just played freely. I just let the game come to me today, and I had a good outcome.”
UH attained its most rushing yards (223) and points of the season and held its opponent to 16 for the second straight week.
Nevada, with a preferred running attack behind running back Toa Taua, was held to just 89 yards on the ground — just 23 by Taua on 12 attempts.
The bend-but-don’t-break defensive effort was embodied in 13- and 14-play Nevada drives in the second and third quarters that resulted only in field goals by kicker Matthew Killam.
After the Wolf Pack covered 75 yards on 16 carries on its first drive to score its lone touchdown of the game, UH held repeatedly on the final few yards of the field the rest of the night.
“Stopping them inside the 5 over and over and over, that’s a great sign,” Chang said. “That’s them committed to each other, them playing downhill, and that’s the mentality that we want.”
Linebacker Penei Pavihi said defensive coordinator Jacob Yoro and linebackers coach Chris Brown were in the players’ ears all week to follow up on emphasis on run defense that came out of what Chang called an “embarrassing” effort against New Mexico State on Sept. 24.
“We emphasized getting down and dirty,” Pavihi said of the mentality that held San Diego State and Nevada under 100 yards rushing. “Staying in your gap, knowing your fits, knowing who you’re playing with. Really take your emphasis on it on the bye week, and ever since then it kept getting better and better.”
UH put together its own long drive bridging the third and fourth quarters, 16 plays for 65 yards and over eight minutes consumed, capped by Parson’s hat trick touchdown for a 28-16 lead.
Defensive lineman John Tuitupou’s strip sack of 6-foot-9 Pack quarterback Nate Cox, recovered by Kolby Wyatt, allowed UH to tack on a 27-yard Matthew Shipley field goal and effectively sealed the outcome with 1:37 left.
Cox was 22-for-37 passing for 188 yards for first-year Pack coach Ken Wilson, who saw his team (2-5, 0-3) drop its fifth straight game after a 2-0 start to the season.
Chang and special teams coordinator Thomas Sheffield showed off some nerve in the second quarter with a punt fake deep in their own territory. Shipley took off for 18 yards from the UH 24 for the first down, although no points were gained on the drive. UH finished the game 4-for-4 on fourth down.
Left guard Stephen Bernal-Wendt suffered a knee injury on UH’s first drive and did not return.
After UH’s first defensive drive, linebacker Isaiah Tufaga was likewise knocked out with a knee injury.
UH now prepares to head to Colorado State (1-5, 1-1) next week in another reunion for Chang; Rams coach Jay Norvell was Chang's boss at Nevada.
Some more photos from the game:
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.