Rainbows’ Rolovich era opens with 20-point loss to Cal
DAVID MCINTYRE / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER
Hawaii running back Diocemy Saint Juste runs for a gain in the first quarter of today’s game against California at ANZ Stadium in Sydney, Australia.
DAVID MCINTYRE / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER
Hawaii football players took the field for warmups before today’s game against California at ANZ Stadium in Sydney, Australia.
Mistakes on and off the field plagued the University of Hawaii football team in its 51-31 season-opening loss today against California in a nonconference game played at ANZ Stadium in Sydney, Australia.
Before kickoff, rookie Rainbow Warriors head coach Nick Rolovich suspended three key players — linebacker Jerrol Garcia-Williams, safety Daniel Lewis and tight end Tui Unga — because of disciplinary reasons. UH officials declined to say what led to the action or whether the players are still in Sydney.
Down two key defenders, Cal wore out Hawaii thanks in part to senior transfer quarterback Davis Webb. He threw for 441 yards and four touchdowns against an overmatched defense that yielded 630 yards. UH countered with 482.
Hawaii senior quarterback Ikaika Woolsey had his moments, completing 17 of 34 passes for 234 yards and one score. He also threw one pick as Hawaii committed three turnovers and a couple of costly penalties that led to points.
Hawaii tried a little trickery on the opening kickoff of the season with an onside attempt, but it was recovered by California at the Hawaii 48-yard line. The Bears had to convert a fourth-and-1 during the six-play drive but eventually scored on a 34-yard draw play by senior tailback Khalfani Muhammed. Matt Anderson added the PAT to give Cal a 7-0 lead with 13:56 left in the first.
The Rainbow Warriors drew even on an eight-play, 83-yard scoring drive of their own on which Woolsey found a nice rhythm of run and pass that culminated with a 39-yard pitch-and-catch from Woolsey to wideout Marcus Kemp, with Rigo Sanchez adding the PAT to make it 7-7 with 7:39 remaining.
Cal regained the lead on its next drive, moving 61 yards on 10 plays, including a key fourth-and-3 conversion that led to a 17-yard touchdown pass from Webb to Chad Hansen. Anderson added the PAT to make it 14-7 Cal at the 5:13 mark of the first.
The Warriors wasted little time scoring their second touchdown of the season, as Diocemy Saint Juste ran to the end zone on a quick trap play. He navigated the 53-yard run to perfection as Hawaii made it 14-14 on Sanchez’s PAT with 3:50 left in the first. Saint Juste managed 118 yards on 14 carries, including a 53-yard touchdown run, but he also put the ball on the ground twice.
Cal exited the first with a 17-14 lead the Bears wouldn’t relinquish on a 29-yard field goal by Anderson with 1:36 to go.
As high scoring as the first quarter was, with a combined 31 points, no one scored in the second until Anderson hit his second field goal of the game at the four-minute mark. The 22-yarder extended Cal’s lead to 20-14, but was something of a moral victory for Hawaii, Despite the grueling 18-play, 87-yard drive that took 7:12 off the clock, the Rainbow Warriors kept the Bears out of the end zone on a big third-and-5 play.
A fumble on the ensuing kickoff by Hawaii’s Keelan Ewaliko led to a quick-strike touchdown from Webb to Hansen. The 34-yard play was the second time the twosome hooked up in the game, as Cal extended its advantage to 27-14 with 3:43 left.
And the Golden Bears weren’t done yet against a tiring Hawaii defense. A combination of missed tackles, bad penalties and turnovers plagued UH in the first half and Cal took advantage. With seven seconds left, Webb bulled in from 3 yards out to culminate an eight-play, 85-yard back-breaking drive. Anderson made the PAT to give Cal a big 34-14 lead at the half.
It was more of the same in the second half.
Hawaii took the opening kickoff in the third and moved quickly up the field. Down by 20, the Rainbow Warriors needed points and in a hurry. The eight-play drive stalled at the Cal 25, setting up a 42-yard field goal by Sanchez to cut the deficit to 34-17 with 11:50 left. It was the first field goal of the season for the senior.
Cal responded with another physical drive that ended when Webb found Melqui Stovall all alone on a 14-yard scoring strike. It was the third touchdown pass of the game for Webb and Anderson added the PAT to make it 41-17 with 8:18 left.
The scoring drive was nine plays for 73 yards. Cal also had scoring drives of eight plays for 85 yards and 18 plays for 87 yards against a tiring defense in the first half. The UH offense did its part to keep the defense on the sidelines on the ensuing offensive series, once again moving the ball into Cal territory, converting a key fourth-and-1 one play to keep the chains moving.
It set up a 4-yard scoring run by Steve Lakalaka, who accounted for 58 yards on nine carries on the 15-play, 84-yard drive. Sanchez hit the PAT to cut the lead to 41-24 with 2:04 remaining.
The fourth quarter saw each team score some points. Anderson hit a 25-yarder, his third field goal of the game, to make it 44-24 with 10:08 left. Webb threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Veasy and UH running back Paul Harris had a 15-yard touchdown run to round out the scoring.
62 responses to “Rainbows’ Rolovich era opens with 20-point loss to Cal”
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already..yikes!
y u onside?
Oh my that’s a great start. Probably not a good time to mention that I’m both a Berkeley and a UHM alumnus.
Yeah, but are you Australian?
Yes, as underdogs from a weak league, UH is playing very well and embarrassing the Bears…..for now. I hope it ends well. If it’s not a blowout, UH walks away a winner.
get rid of the athletics and concentrate on getting the UH campuses on a good maintenance schedule and putting money towards banner programs like astronomy and oceanography…
“rytsuru” … please move to Kahoolawe …
You might be a great Warrior fan, but why not be a UH fan and help abolish this loosing program that will never draw the money or caliber players to make the team respectable. The days of the 70s and 80s are gone FOREVER.
We need to help people who can’t spell “LOSING” correctly. It’s not LOOSING.
Too many Heinekens
That was exactly the Vegas point-spread. I guess they know what they’re doing.
I can’t believe how accurate the point spread was which came down to 19 and half and sure enough, Cal wins by 20 pts. Can’t put anything pass the bookmakers!!
I second that.
I don’t, the vegas spread closed at 21, Hawaii did cover by 1 if you picked Hawaii you won.
the Vegas line has Michigan by 41. place your bets if your in Vegas
Half time UH 14 Cal 34
Jumping ahead but i sure hate to see what Michigan is going to do to them next wee
Started strong, just got to adjust and not make it any worse. Chances to win, not too good!
Sadly this is a continuation of the Norm Chow era. Penalties and turnovers had direct impact on last 3 scores for Cal.
It is not the coaches. It is the caliber of players available. Bottom line is that the quality players have Hawaii on the bottom of the list if at all.
Poor play calling, coaching, on the first play, did not get Hawaii off to a good start.
“LEEISH” … only that it’s Norm’s players that “Rolo” has to work with …
Unlike its fan base, these guys have not given up. They are still competing. All you bandwagon fans should just find something else to complain and whine about.
Are you watching the game? I would not call it competing.
These guys are outsized, slower and certainly do not have the depth of Cal, yet they are not rolling over. Guys are still getting after the ball. Turnovers and key penalties are the difference in this game. But you can go ahead and give up on these guys. I won’t.
Looks like they’re being rolled over, so what’s the difference?
It is not about giving up. It’s about being realistic. Someone has to tell them that they suck. Praising them is not good. I commend you for your loyalty but you have to win to be competitive and that is the bottom line.
EXCELLENT COMMENTS “ERADICATION” … BEAUTIFULLY STATED !!!!!
100% better than Chow!
Jus need D to step up!
Go BOWS!
I don’t know how you can say that. It’s still a loss, by pretty big margin with really bad penalties, turnovers, and missed opportunities.
First game New coach New system Pac 12 opponent.Get a life fool.
Who’s the fool for not seeing the obvious?
100% of zero is still zero – stop this program now; it’s a waste of money, facilities and energy.
“bsbsbsbs” … please join “rytsuru” in moving to Kahoolawe … you can be neighbors and bash UH football all you want …
The program bashes itself all on its own.
bsbsbsbsbs and rytsuru are allie sockpuppets. I thought that was pretty obvious.
How is making money a “waste”?
Offensive line is a bright spot – has protected well and opened up some nice holes. Running backs, as predicted, is a strength for UH.
Defensive line seems weak, no push at all and lots of bad tackling by everyone, seems slow overall.
Special team is a major disappointment, at least in this game.
Woolsey is, well, Woolsey. Some nice throws with overall game that’s mediocre at best. Unable to deliver in key situations. Getting the ball off faster with more zip than last year but still with lack of accuracy. UH is not going to win many big games (if any)with him as our starting QB.
“Oxtail” … I must agree w/ you about the O-Line and Special Teams which was supposed to be one of our strong points this year. They (ST) gave up way to many yards on kick off returns. A lot of the mistakes are correctable but the main thing is the team seemed to play hard and together. VERY DISAPPOINTED IN GARCIA-WILLIAMS, LEWIS, & UNGA … they let the team, fans, and State down … Disappointed in the loss but positives things to build on for the future.
I have to say that you have a point about the QB. He seemed to be slow going through his progressions which could be the reason for his lack of accuracy at times. I noticed when he did not have to go through his progressions he did well. If he had to go to a second or third option he lost his form and was consistently late releasing the ball. I admit that I am an armchair coach at times and tend to find fault rather than look for positive aspects of the overall team performance. I’d say this team has the potential to do better than last year but are far from being close to where we want them to be. I think Coach Rolovich has them moving in the right direction so far. O-line and running backs looked good. Defense needs work. Scoring 31 was a good sign. Giving up 51 was not. I was really disappointed to hear about the three key players suspended for the game.
our quarterback sucks. no deep threat because of his inaccuracy. opponents can just load the box and not worry about our passing game. if a change at that position is not made, we are in for the same pathetic record under chow.
3 players suspended for this game, they must have had a couple of beers and got back to there hotel late. Hawaii covers the spread.
Hats off to coach Rolovich for that. You are either in or out. Three is no room for attitude or arrogance. It’s either the coaches way or the highway.
I agree. Kudos to Coach Rolovich. The Rainbows might have won had the tree key players not been suspended, but Rolovich apparently felt team and player discipline was more important than winning. He is off to a great start as Head Coach.
At least the offense wasn’t outdated and struggling.
No discipline
Offense moving the ball and scoring, 31 points against a good team is nothing to sneeze about. And we didn’t score that much against a good team during the previous regime. Special teams were really bad, accounted to probably a couple of TDs against us. A good special teams would help us score by causing, not having, turn-overs and getting us good field position. Take away the turn-overs and the special teams and we would’ve been right in this game.
Smaller, slower, less talented players will always be struggling with penalties and turnovers – it’s time to stop the madness that is third-rate UH football.
Yeah except the other team scored 51points.
You are certainly optimistic but a lost is a lost whether by 1 or 100 points.
The offensive line was fantastic. I know its hard to start a young qb over a veteran but thats what winning programs do. Ikaika was marginal at best, he missed all deep passes and a critical three yard pass that would have extended a drive late in the 2nd quarter. That resulted in a punt and 7 points for Cal. Throughout his career he has shown that he will make great plays and then screw up something critical that contributes to a loss. He should have been near 70% with our o-line doing their job. Try someone else if you want to win!
we lost the game in the first half. second half each team scored 17 points, so if Hawaii can maintain the lead in the first half this season, we have a good second half team.
Don’t forget that Cal was playing a lot of their reserves by then.
no they did not use much of there reserves there QB, running backs offensive line played all the way till the end, and ended at the U.H. 1 yard line before they let the clock run out, there number one QB. webb and most of the staring offense was still in the game until time ran out and the game ended, I am surprise they left webb there number 1 QB in the game till the end.
That O-line didn’t give up much. I liked that. Some poor tackling that I hope can be improved upon. Running backs were productive. Passing was so-so. Don’t know if its the qb or receivers, but some of those passes stunk…yet made some good passes also. I’ll settle for a C- grade overall. I feel better about the offense this year. Just need some accuracy. Is that asking much?
Woolsey was 17 of 34 that’s 50% he has to do better job than that. saw a deep pass to kemp about 40 yards downfield where kemp was wide open but Woolsey under through him a little bit and the defender was able to knock the pass away, so Woolsey does not have the arm strength to go real deep.
Did you watch the game receivers drop a lot of balls. You want the Quarterback to catch the ball too.
I would say that the big numbers which CAL QB put up demonstrates UH’s DB’s need to do a better job. Too often CAL’s receivers were wide open. And in the end zone.
Don’t know what the three suspended athletes did, but do they think that because their athletes they can broke the rules and get away with it. If that’s the case their selfish and not thinking about the rest of the team. Glad Coach Rolo kept them out.
agree!!!
Blow out opener, now U o f Michigan on their own turf? Like last year, weak team playing power houses at the begining of the season…blow outs have to work negatively on their confidence that will shape their season. Who the H___? makes these schedules?
Shows that the AD doesn’t give a hoot about Football, doesn’t it. Just sacrificing the HC and the players for the money.
This year’s theme is about playing as a team for your teammates. Apparently those three players need to go back to grade school to understand that concept as they failed their team miserably. As for the coach, I believe he has the right idea. But the school has the wrong one in going against top football programs from the start. It would make more sense to go against teams that are in the same league. From there, with enough success and improvement, only then can we consider playing against the top notch teams. I do not for the life of me understand putting our players against teams such as Michigan right from the get go as that can only spell doom for our team. But the mistake was made and we can only hope for the positive in that what doesn’t kill them will make them stronger. As for those that are writing off the team this early in the season, they need to understand that UH does not get to attract top blue chip players who populate teams like California, Michigan or Notre Dame. These teams attract the best players because they are the players’ ticket to the NFL. Whatever that is left over is what UH gets to play with. And even then, if they do luck out, Notre Dame is out there to steal whatever slim pickings that we have. Take Manti Te’o, for example. On the eve of UH’s highly regarded prospect who made his commitment to UH, he was wooed over by Notre Dame. I think Rolovich has the right idea. It’s just being executed on the wrong format by going against top teams that have the luxury of blue chip players. I commend our players who played hard despite being out-manned by a team that has more talented players.