Hawaii knew what was coming from San Diego State but had no chance at stopping it.
Hawaii knew what was coming from San Diego State but had no chance at stopping it.
After absorbing a 28-14 loss on Saturday night in front of 28,543 fans at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, coach Norm Chow and the Rainbow Warriors said they also weren’t sure how to stop the bleeding.
“If I knew that answer, I wouldn’t be sitting here,” Chow said. “I think it was a bunch of little mistakes that you can’t have.”
The fourth-year coach blamed small errors, but they add up to a large problem. The Rainbow Warriors (2-4, 0-3 Mountain West) are now 4-22 in league play under Chow.
As expected, San Diego State (3-3, 2-0) came out determined to run the ball. It went to the ground on all seven plays on the opening possession of the game, and 75 yards later the Aztecs led 7-0 on the first of Donnel Pumphrey’s three touchdowns.
Quinton Pedroza fumbled on Hawaii’s third play and Pumphrey and the Aztecs needed only four plays to take a 14-0 lead.
“That was the difference in the game because the rest of the game was even,” San Diego State coach Rocky Long said. “There were some momentum shifts.”
Hawaii prepared all week for a physical battle up front, but the Aztecs imposed their will, with Pumphrey accounting for 148 of his team’s 218 on the ground. With its defense on the field for more than 36 minutes, the Rainbow Warriors allowed 402 yards.
“I wish I knew why we couldn’t stop their run,” Chow said. “We knew they were going to run and did that on the first two possessions. We even knew their first play of the game. We fell behind even though we knew what they were going to do.”
Hawaii ended a nine-quarter scoreless streak when quarterback Max Wittek found receiver Isaiah Bernard for a 52-yard pass, setting up Melvin Davis touchdown run in the second quarter.
But Hawaii turned the ball over three times and managed just 251 yards. Wittek was forced out with knee injury, but Chow said the senior wanted to return and anticipated he’d be OK.
Wittek finished 14 of 34 for 179 yards and two interceptions, adding a touchdown run after a San Diego State fumble to cut the deficit to 21-14.
“We just weren’t clicking tonight and I couldn’t tell you why, just not playing 11‐man ball,” said Davis, who finished with 51 yards. “At this point, it starts tomorrow and we get back to watching film. It felt good to get another touchdown but honestly I could have done more.”
San Diego State’s Max Smith was an efficient 11 of 15, connecting on a 58-yard scoring pass to Eric Judge.
Hawaii linebacker Julian Gener finished with a career-high 19 tackles, one for loss.
“I was just laying it out there. I had been going to the doctors and trainers for the last six weeks so it was good to be out
there,” Greer said. “I couldn’t really tell you what went wrong but we just have to take one game at a time, one down at a time, and just take care of business. Once we start to do that every down of every series we’ll be where we want to be.”
Asked where the Rainbow Warriors got from here, Chow said, “Albuquerque.”
Hawaii returns to the road to take New Mexico at 1 p.m. HST on Saturday.
“I love our guys, I love our guys’ effort,” Chow said. “You can say what you want. We just have to play smarter.”
San Diego St. 14 7 0 7—28
Hawaii 0 7 7 0—14
First quarter
SDSU—Pumphrey 34 run (Hageman kick), 11:44.
SDSU—Pumphrey 8 run (Hageman kick), 9:10.
Second quarter
Haw—Davis 1 run (Sanchez kick), 12:44.
SDSU—Judge 58 pass from Max.Smith (Hageman kick), 1:40.
Third quarter
Haw—Wittek 1 run (Sanchez kick), 7:13.
Fourth quarter
SDSU—Pumphrey 4 run (Hageman kick), 13:00.
A—28,543.
SDSU Haw
First downs 19 14
Rushes-yards 57-218 28-53
Passing 184 198
Comp-Att-Int 11-15-0 19-39-2
Return Yards 75 37
Punts-Avg. 9-42.1 8-47.9
Fumbles-Lost 3-1 3-1
Penalties-Yards 11-70 4-30
Time of Possession 36:17 23:43
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—San Diego St., Pumphrey 30-148, Price 16-60, Gordon 3-8,
Stamps 4-5, Max.Smith 3-0, Team 1-(minus 3). Hawaii, Davis 13-52,
Lakalaka 6-14, Woolsey 3-11, Team 1-(minus 1), Wittek 5-(minus 23).
PASSING—San Diego St., Max.Smith 11-15-0-184. Hawaii,
Wittek 14-34-2-179, Woolsey 5-5-0-19.
RECEIVING—San Diego St., Judge 4-92, Pumphrey 2-49, Hazely 2-18,
Price 1-14, Anderson III 1-6, Brunskill 1-5. Hawaii, Pedroza 4-41,
Torres 4-26, Collie 3-41, Bernard 2-58, Kemp 2-31, Lakalaka 2-(minus 1), ‘Unga 1-6, Stubblefield 1-(minus 4).