Utah State linebacker Bojay Filimoeatu was simply tired.

Tired of the close calls, tired of the fourth-quarter miscues and tired of being on the short end of competitive games, Filimoeatu and the Aggies finally flipped the script on Utah State’s 2011 season with a pulsating 35-31 come-from-behind victory over Hawaii on Saturday night at Aloha Stadium.

Filimoeatu, who had one of Utah State’s three sacks, led an inspired defense that held Hawaii to three points in the second half.

The Aggies erased a 28-7 halftime deficit — the first time USU trailed at the break all season — when Robert Turbin scored on a 1-yard touchdown run with 14 seconds remaining.

"Fourth quarters our defense always lays down and we didn’t want to take it anymore," Filimoeatu said. "We finally delivered."

Utah State won its first conference game and improved to 3-5 overall, with all five losses coming by 10 points or less.

The Aggies opened the season losing a 42-38 heartbreaker at defending national champion Auburn and have also suffered through a 1-point loss to Colorado State in double overtime and a three-point loss at BYU in which the Cougars scored the winning touchdown with 11 seconds left.

"It’s been tough this year because we’ve lost five games really similar to that situation," Aggies coach Gary Andersen said. "I’m sure some people stayed up until halftime and closed their eyes and went to sleep, so there will be a lot of surprised people at home when they open up the paper in the morning and see exactly what happened."

The victory was even more improbable, considering backup quarterback Adam Kennedy engineered the comeback after starter Chuckie Keeton was carted off the field in the second quarter with a neck injury. He was taken to The Queen’s Medical Center and remained there Saturday night after the team returned to the mainland.

Kennedy, who had attempted a whopping five passes all year, was 8-for-12 for 163 yards and two touchdowns in his first meaningful playing time all year.

"He walks in here as a (junior college) quarterback and gets beat out by a true freshman and it’s not easy for anybody to handle that," Andersen said. "He stuck with it against a lot of adversity and was obviously prepared to walk in here and make some plays for us."

Kennedy was up to the task from Utah State’s opening offensive play of the second half, firing a dart to Matt Austin for a 25-yard gain.

The Aggies, who scored touchdowns on four of five second-half possessions, pulled to 31-28 on a 71-yard bomb from Kennedy to Stanley Morrison with 12:39 remaining.

Utah State got the ball back with 4:56 left and Kennedy, who was 3-for-5 on the drive, drove the Aggies 59 yards in 12 plays, with Turbin’s touchdown capping the stunning comeback.

"It was our night and it was this program’s night," Kennedy said. "I think this is going to get us over the hump."

Whether the Aggies can bounce back to make a bowl game, Andersen, 11-21 in his third year as head coach, acknowledged this was the statement win he’s been searching for.

"We’ve targeted the three teams in this conference (Hawaii, Nevada, Fresno State) since I’ve been here as the best teams," he said. "You have to knock one of those teams off if you think you’re ever going to make any statement of doing anything special as a football program in this conference."