PULLMAN, WASH. >> In the end, the members of the Hawaii football team were left to wonder how fighting the good fight still left them bruised and discouraged.
In the end, it was crimson and turnovers, over and over, that U-turned UH drives into Washington State touchdowns.
In the end, the mistake-prone Rainbow Warriors suffered another road loss — 42-10 to the now bowl-eligible Cougars. The Warriors have lost 14 of 15 road games under third-year coach Timmy Chang.
“We’re 2-5, and we have to face that,” UH running back Cam Barfield said. “It’s not OK. We’re not OK being 2-5. It’s something we have to look at within the team. We have to look at ourselves, how we can get better each and every week.”
A crimson-clad crowd of 25,112 saw the Cougars take advantage of UH mistakes to win for the sixth time in seven games and meet the bowl-eligible minimum.
The Rainbow Warriors lost two fumbles, were intercepted and missed a make-able field-goal attempt — all of which the Cougars parlayed into touchdowns. In the fourth quarter, UH’s Tylan Hines was ruled to have stepped out of bounds just short of the line-to-gain marker on a fourth-and-2 rush.
“I felt I got the first down,” Hines insisted, “but the refs saw otherwise.”
The Cougars took over, with Leo Pulalasi’s 3-yard run capping a 47-yard drive to complete the scoring.
“We shot ourselves in the foot a couple times,” Hines said. “We’re going to get back to the drawing board.”
The Warriors were without key players, including ailing slotback Pofele Ashlock, wideout Dekel Crowdus and safety Peter Manuma. Defensive tackle Jamar Sekona exited in the first half with what UH announced was a leg injury. “It’s the next man up,” Chang said.
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It was the same replacement policy the Cougars activated after quarterback Cam Ward entered the transfer portal at the end of the 2023 season. After exploring the possibility of entering the 2024 NFL Draft, Ward opted to transfer to Miami, where he is a Heisman Trophy candidate. The Cougars then gave the keys to their offense to John Mateer, an under-recruited, third-year sophomore.
On Saturday afternoon, Mateer lived up to his Johnny Manziel comparison. Mateer was 23-for-27 for 295 yards. He accounted for the Cougars’ first five touchdowns, throwing three scoring passes and rushing for two more on option keepers. Mateer’s quick release and mobility made him a difficult target to hit.
“He’s a good player,” Chang said of Mateer. “He’s been good against every opponent he’s played against, seven opponents. He makes plays with his legs. He makes plays with his arm.”
The Warriors cut their deficit to 21-10 on a 17-yard scoring pass from Brayden Schager to Hines on a post pattern to open the second half.
“Trusting the scheme,” Hines said of UH’s 12th touchdown in 20 red-zone possessions.
Schager said Hines has “done a good job of winning one-on-one matchups. We tried to get him more involved this week. He’s a really good playmaker for us. He wants to be on the field.”
But the Cougars answered with a methodical 13-play, 75-yard scoring drive. Mateer covered the final 8 yards with an option keeper to make it 28-10 with 4:14 left in the third quarter. Mateer followed that with another touchdown run, this time basing it off a previous play. The Cougars sent a receiver across the formation on a jet sweep. Instead of a handoff, Mateer kept it and ran the other way for his second touchdown.
The Warriors showed an offensive spark in the opening quarter. With a new-look sliding pocket, the Warriors were able to give time to Schager to lead early drives. But all of the Warriors’ best work resulted in only a field goal in the first half.
The Warriors advanced into the red zone on their first two possessions. But after Schager absorbed a third-down sack, the Warriors settled for Kansei Matsuzawa’s 25-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead. It was their first opening-quarter lead in four weeks.
On their second possession, the Warriors faced a third-and-6 from the WSU 11. But Schager’s pass was tipped and sailed past Hines in the end zone.
“That was an unfortunate one,” Schager said. “The (defender) made a nice play. He dropped underneath and made a nice play on the ball.”
This time, Matsuzawa’s field-goal attempt, from 28 yards, was wide left.
The next two UH drives ended in turnovers. WSU nickelback Kapena Gushiken, a Kamehameha-Maui graduate, recovered the football on Nick Cenacle’s catch-and-fumble. The Cougars drove 44 yards, with Mateer’s 24-yard scoring pass to Cooper Mathers extending the lead to 14-3 with 8:26 left in the first half.
On UH’s ensuing drive, Buddah Al-Uqdah intercepted Schager at midfield. That led to Kris Hutson’s 9-yard dash on a shovel pass to widen the Cougars’ lead to 21-3 with 3:58 to play in the half.
“It’s responding to adversity,” Chang said of UH’s struggles, particularly in red-zone scoring. “That kick we missed in the red zone. And plays that can be made down there. When we watch the film, we can see where we could have scored, where we could have done better. … From there, it’s how you respond to adversity that matters.”
Schager completed his first six throws and was 10-for-11 at one point. He finished with 195 passing yards and a touchdown. He also absorbed three sacks, including one that resulted in a fumble.
“I felt we couldn’t get in the end zone,” Schager said. “At the end of the day, that’s all that counts. …. Moving forward, we have to work on our red-zone stuff and get the ball in there.”
Hines added: “It’s always frustrating when the win doesn’t go our way. There are always things to learn from. We can’t be in the negative mindset. We have to keep moving forward and get better.”
