FRESNO, Calif. » On a night when almost everything else went wrong for the University of Hawaii football team, a large dose of trust got Tyler Hadden and the field-goal unit a career-best-tying 49-yard kick.
When holder Cayman Shutter bobbled a second-quarter snap from Luke Ingram, it looked like the field goal was doomed and would have to be aborted, one more bad break on a night full of them in what became a 45-10 thumping by Fresno State.
Until the final 3 minutes, 6 seconds of the Mountain West Conference game, the field goal was all that stood between the Warriors and an ignominious second shutout this season.
Shutter said he didn’t catch the snap cleanly, bobbling it, something that could have thrown off the precision of the 1.3-second process and Hadden’s rhythm. "I didn’t bring it down well," he said. "We’ve done this so many times, you can get a little complacent, I guess."
When that happened, Hadden said he had the option to call "fire" — the signal to abort. "But I’ve worked with Luke and Cayman for so long that sometimes we just have to trust in each other. So, that’s what I did. I just trusted that, somehow, Cayman would get it down for me and it would all work out."
Shutter said, "To tell the truth, I was a fraction of a second from pulling it (and calling fire) myself. But in the back of my head I just hoped that Tyler would trust me to get the ball popped up for him and carry on through."
Shutter said, "So, I tried to sweep it (the ball) up and stick it in the right spot for Tyler’s motion. Something told me that if I could do that, he wouldn’t abandon me and it would be OK."
Hadden, who was on his backswing, said, "Having worked with him for so long, I just trusted the ball would be there and tried to concentrate on making my kick."
Shutter said, "He did a good job, getting it through. He saved me."
Said Hadden, "He got it down, it went through, so we all did our jobs."
The 49-yarder, which matched one he had against New Mexico, came before 21 family and friends who had journeyed from Whitter, Calif. to see Hadden.
He also missed a 43-yard attempt.
Screwdriver incident memorialized
Fresno radio station KFIG brought a "golden screwdriver" rivalry trophy to award to the game’s winner.
The trophy is in remembrance of a 2002 incident at Bulldog Stadium where it was alleged a screwdriver was thrown at then-UH coach June Jones.
The incident has become part of the lore between UH and Fresno State although neither school official acknowledges the trophy.