HONOLULU — The game began with a best-case scenario. Hawaii drove down the field in five plays and quarterback Brayden Schager found tight end Caleb Phillips for a 24-yard touchdown.
The only problem: An offensive pass interference call on the Rainbow Warriors nullified the score and UH wound up getting no points on the possession.
It was emblematic of the problematic night — and the year — for UH, which could not overcome a mountain of self-inflicted mistakes in a 41-34 loss to Utah State on Saturday night at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex.
“It’s kind of been the story of our season,” Schager said. “We do something good and it gets called back. We’re not playing 11-on-11 football, as Coach (Timmy) Chang likes to say. We always got one guy making a mistake.”
Coming off a blowout defeat at Fresno State, UH (2-9, 1-5 Mountain West) got back to its tendency of dropping conference games in frustratingly close fashion. It was the fourth such game played within one score and fourth straight loss overall.
A non-sellout crowd of 8,862 tickets issued — there were about 7,000 fans in house — took it in.
“We can’t make as many mistakes as we did… and expect to win a game,” Chang lamented. He proceeded to tick off the errors: UH’s 10 penalties for 115 yards; it’s minus-four turnover margin; miscellaneous miscues; two explosive offensive plays by USU, and a muffed punt return.
Utah State (5-5, 4-2), the defending Mountain West champion, won for the fourth time in five games. The Aggies won their seventh straight in the series, including a 6-0 mark in MWC games.
The dagger was an Ike Larsen 36-yard pick-six of Schager with 4:33 remaining that put the Aggies up by 17. Larsen darted underneath the route of the intended receiver and was gone with his second snare of the night, pointing at the numerous USU faithful in the Diamond Head end zone as he ran straight to them.
UH scrapped to recover, getting a 69-yard Tylan Hines touchdown in rapid fashion.
UH then got a three-and-out stop of USU thanks to a sack of Cooper Legas by lineman Andrew Choi. Hines, a freshman, came within a yard of another TD on a 29-yard catch from Schager.
But USU stuffed running back Nasjzae Bryant-Lelei, twice, on runs up the middle. Schager spiked it and UH elected to take the three points of a field goal with 18 seconds left to get within a touchdown, knowing it needed to recover the ensuing onside kick, regardless.
But the Aggies recovered the Rainbow Warriors’ onside kick attempts on the final two scores.
“There’s probably some different plays we could’ve called down there instead of trying to wedge it in,” Chang said. “But we’re going to have to live with that. We did execute the field goal, didn’t execute the onside. With two of them, you wish you could recover one.”
The first-year coach credited his team for not giving up. UH clinched its first losing home record since 2017.
UH has two more games to head into the offseason with some semblance of progress, including next week’s senior night against UNLV (4-6, 2-4).
“For these seniors, it means everything. I went to send these guys off right,” Chang said. “They put their heart, their effort, their soul (into it).”
USU quarterback Cooper Legas was 16-for-25 for 238 yards. All three of his TD passes and all but 26 of his yards came in the first half. Running back Calvin Tyler Jr. added 113 yards and a score on 25 carries.
UH attained season highs in scoring, total offense (541). Schager threw for a career-high 306 yards on 23-for-46 passing with two touchdowns and three picks.
“I keep saying it every week, but it feels like we’re right there and we’re a few plays off,” Schager said. “A few little things that we gotta fix, clean up to get better. The hard part is we’re running out of games to do that.”
Starting running back Dedrick Parson had 101 yards on 16 carries, Hines added 97 yards on nine and Nasjzae Bryant-Lelei also scored. Parson had the muffed punt in the first half, allowing USU to score a field goal.
UH trailed 24-10 at halftime, with its bright spot the return of wide receiver Jonah Panoke from a collarbone injury. The fourth-year junior caught an 11-yard pass in the second quarter for his first career touchdown — his first score since catching the game-winning pass from Chevan Cordeiro for Saint Louis in the 2017 state championship game against Kahuku.
Panoke had five catches for 70 yards and Zion Bowens had five for 97.
Linebacker Logan Taylor continued to lead the Rainbow Warriors in tackles since stepping into the starting lineup at mid-season. He had 13 Saturday, including six solo. Safety Meki Pei and Choi each were credited with 1.5 sacks.
UH kicker Matthew Shipley matched his career long on a field goal with a 49-yarder in the first half.
Some more shots of the game:
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.