Cougars maul Warriors
It was an intriguing matchup going in: A slumping Brigham Young team hosting an overachieving Hawaii squad.
But the Cougars took the mystery out of it early, scoring the game’s first four touchdowns on the way to a 49-23 rout after two disappointing losses. UH (6-2) is now 0-10 on the road against BYU (4-3), and will have to wait until at least next week’s home game against Nevada to clinch a bowl game spot.
Six-foot-nine defender Corbin Kaufusi was all over the field for BYU, with eight tackles including two sacks.
Last week Hawaii started a freshman quarterback, Chevan Cordeiro, and got a win. This time it was BYU freshman Zach Wilson‘s turn.
Wilson looked like a seasoned veteran in his first career start. Meanwhile, Hawaii’s offense, with the return of quarterback Cole McDonald after a missed game due to injury, was off-key throughout the first half.
Hawaii started the second half with two three-and-outs by the defense sandwiching the Warriors first touchdown, a 2-yard run by Dayton Furuta. It looked like UH could make a game of it. But then a muffed punt return by Justice Augafa gave BYU the ball in Hawaii territory, and the Cougars regained the momentum with a touchdown to put their lead back to 25 points.
Furuta scored again, this time on a 20-yard shovel pass from McDonald, and the score was 35-17 late in the third quarter.
But the Cougars scored again early in the fourth quarter as Wilson’s pass to Aleva Hifo went for a 24-yard touchdown, and never lost control of the game, even after McDonald’s 17-yard touchdown strike to John Ursua for UH’s final score. A 2-point conversion attempt that would’ve turned it into a 17-point deficit with 7:08 left failed.
That muff by Augafa pretty much killed any chance of a comeback in the 2nd half, considering the momentum we had at that point in the game. However, this game is not on him. We came out flat to start the game. Our offense struggled in the beginning, and when you dig yourself that big of a hole to start a game, you don’t leave yourself any room for error. It’s alright, not a conference game. We’re still 3-0 in the MWC, and 1 win away from bowl eligibility. The season goes on, now focus on Nevada! Let’s go bows!
The warriors have no one to blame but themselves for this disappointing loss on National TV (sigh) Let’s rewind back to the 1st drive of the game… We decided to go for it on 4th and 2.. false start on J.R.Hensley… now it’s 4th and long… momentum killer.. sucked the wind out of the Offense and obviously have the Homecoming Homecrowd something to cheer for ! We just didn’t have “it” today, for whatever reason. Offense was abysmal and lackluster while special teams continues to aid the other teams Offense by gifting them short fields to score easily. Just calling it how it is. Yes, this loss doesn’t count in the grand scheme of things, it’s not within the conference. But it HURTS the programs reputation, image, recruiting, and credibility on the national stage. UH could’ve made history but now we are just the same ‘ol “high flying offense” that can’t win on the road, on the bigstage, again the Big Boyz.
Heh. Anybody see my right-before-the-game-started prediction over at that other terrific, intelligent Hawaii Warrior World blog covering Warrior football, Court Sense? Note the time stamp:
You can go over to look at it for yaselves
For I am . . . THE WATCHER!
More like Cougars maul and then devour Warriors!
Why can’t we recruit players like Corbin Kaufusi?????? That guy was a monster.
Just hoping the Warriors win on Saturday. I think it’s a tall order because of the remaining five games, Nevada is not the win that I feel will take it to 7 wins. My guess our best chance is against UNLV.
Well, H-Man, we haven’t lost at home this season yet. So. Will probably the Warriors’ 7th win.
It needed to be in Provo, though. The Warriors’ best chance to have broken their own curse of sorts.
I’ll probably be retired (and not even in, say, 40s yet) next time they play each other.
Sad. Oh well. Hawaii coaches’ decision to lose that one.