Hawaii football takes first loss at Washington

Washington flung Hawaii down from atop the Pac-12 standings.

The Rainbow Warriors, who enjoyed success against the Power Five league in its first two games against Arizona and Oregon State, found no such fortune in Seattle on Saturday. The No. 23 Huskies proved too fast and potent on both sides of the ball in UH’s 52-20 loss at Husky Stadium.

Fifty-two was the most points allowed by UH since a 56-23 loss at UCLA on Sept. 9, 2017, and tied for the third-most in Nick Rolovich’s four years as coach.

Washington came out inspired coming off a disappointing 20-19 home loss to California last weekend. In UH’s first game in Seattle since 2011, the Huskies burned past the Rainbow Warriors repeatedly early and rolled up the first 38 points of the game.

Quarterback Jacob Eason, a transfer from Georgia, threw three touchdowns and no interceptions in guiding the Huskies (2-1) early, then helped close the deal when UH (2-1) rallied to within 18 points late in the third quarter. Running back Richard Newton was often the Huskies’ drive-finisher, with three touchdowns among his 23 yards gained, and was the game-finisher with two of those scores in the fourth.

Running back Miles Reed was UH’s most reliable option in the afternoon game, as he rolled up career highs of 70 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries. Quarterbacks Cole McDonald and Chevan Cordeiro switched off duties throughout the game. UH enjoyed some sustained drives under McDonald, but he also threw three interceptions to overshadow his one TD to Cedric Byrd.

Huskies defensive back Myles Bryant was a menace, with a sack of Cordeiro and two interceptions of McDonald. One of those he ripped right out of the hands of receiver JoJo Ward, the reigning Mountain West offensive player of the week.

Washington came out with a haymaker of a first quarter, rolling up 21 points, and followed with a 17-point second in scoring the first 38 points of the game.

McDonald had two ineffective drives, giving way to Cordeiro, who had two ineffective drives. McDonald re-entered. Kicker Ryan Meskell missed long field goals of 55 and 49 yards as everything was going UW’s way.

But UH got something to build off of heading into the half, as Reed scored from 9 yards out, recovering his own fumble at the goal line.

The Rainbows compiled a 93-yard drive to open the second half — required because of Melquise Stovall’s ill-advised kickoff return attempt — capped with Reed’s 7-yard run.

After nice stand by the UH secondary got the Warriors the ball back, McDonald followed with some fourth-down conversions and a 4-yard stirke to Byrd. But UH’s run came to an end at 20 straight points as McDonald was turned back on a 2-point conversion attempt. The Huskies sustained a drive bridging the third and fourth quarters, capped by Newton’s second scoring rush of the day.

The Huskies tipped McDonald’s ensuing pass for his third thrown interception and UW parlayed that into Newton’s third TD to seal the result.

Backups were inserted on both sides from there as UH prepared to return for next weekend’s homecoming contest against Central Arkansas of the FCS.