The Wyoming football team ran and ran and then ran away to Friday night’s 31-7 victory over Hawaii at War Memorial Stadium in Laramie, Wyo.

Of the Cowboys’ 393 yards, 281 came on a wear-’em-down ground game.

“The biggest thing was their physicality running the football,” said UH coach Todd Graham, whose Rainbow Warriors finished with a split in this season-opening, two-game road trip.

Under a full moon, the Warriors made too many penalties, could not secure enough passes, and had difficulty leveling the playing field. The Warriors advanced across midfield three times, and only once in the red zone, in 12 possessions. Nine of the Cowboys’ drives ended in UH territory.

“Sometimes you get knocked down.” Graham said. “That’s what happens. We got knocked down. We just didn’t make the plays we needed to play.”

This was not a matchup that was on the initial books. UH was supposed to play a West-against-Mountain game against Air Force. But Air Force already had too many commitments when the Mountain West, of which UH is a football-only member, announced an eight-week schedule. By winning the nationally televised game, the Cowboys reclaimed their power running game — and this rivalry’s Paniolo Trophy. The Cowboys also put to rest the previous week’s upset loss to Nevada in overtime.

“We all wanted to make a statement tonight,” Wyoming running back Xazavian Valladay said. “We know we didn’t have our best performance, didn’t put our best foot forward, last week. Coming into this game against Hawaii, we just had to make a statement. No matter what came across, what adversity we faced, we had to be 1-0 (on Friday night).”

The Cowboys were without quarterback Sean Chambers, who suffered a season-ending injury in last week’s third play. But Levi Williams, a 6-foot-5, 240-pound redshirt freshman, eased into the role of facilitator of a spread offense that plays behind a line averaging 6-5 and 317 pounds per blocker.

Williams was 9-for-18 for 112 yards with no picks or scoring passes. He attempted only six passes in the second half, entrusting the offense to the 1-2 punch of Valladay and Trey Smith. Valladay ran for 163 yards and Smith, who began his career at Louisville, added 89 yards.

Valladay and Smith each scored two touchdowns. Valladay had multiple running lanes, but his favorite was up the middle after guards Eric Abojei and Logan Harris cleared a pass with crossing blocks.

“It was just a power football game,” Graham said, adding, “it was a war. I thought our guys responded very well. Obviously, we got to playing too many snaps and weren’t able to generate points. That was the difference.”

It was difficult start for the Warriors. The Cowboys took the opening kickoff, then drove 62 yards on five plays for a 7-0 lead. Valladay covered the final 18 yards with his weave into the end zone.

On UH’s ensuing possession, Chevan Cordeiro attempted to throw a pass into the right flat. But the ball slipped from his right grip and bounced forward. The Cowboys recovered — and maintained possession when the referees upheld the turnover call.

Six plays later, walk-on freshman John Hoyland converted a field goal from 30 yards to make it 10-0.

Along the way, Eugene Ford, who had two picks last week, left with an apparent leg injury. Donovan Dalton, who had trained all week to play free safety, moved over to fill in for Ford at the hybrid position known as “bandit.” Sterlin Ortiz, who was not on the two-deep chart for two weeks, entered as the free safety. The Warriors’ usual No. 1 free safety, Kai Kaneshiro, was ineligible for the first half after being whistled for targeting last week.

Despite not finding a rhythm with the passing game or replicating last week’s 323 rushing yards, the Warriors remained in the fight. Near the end of the first half, Cortez Davis sacked Williams on a corner blitz on a third-and-goal play, and Hoyland missed on a 36-yard attempt.

The Warriors then drove 77 yards to set up a second-and-goal from the Wyoming 3. Dae Dae Hunter, aligned as a right wideout, sprinted across the formation on a jet sweep, took the handoff from wildcat quarterback Calvin Turner, and went around left end for the 3-yard scoring run to close UH to 10-7.

But the Warriors could not sustain the momentum in the second half. And the Cowboys made sure to play keepaway with the ground attack. Smith’s first touchdown run, from a yard out, extended the Cowboys’ lead to 17-7 with 4:22 to play.

Last week, the Warriors tallied 84 plays. They managed only 57 against Wyoming. The Cowboys controlled the ball for 38 minutes, 15 seconds.

Cordeiro was 11 of 26 for 110 yards. A completion to Zion Bowens covered 43 yards.

“This will make us learn, make me learn,” Cordeiro said of his first loss in six UH starts. “We’ll be better.”