All season the University of Hawaii defense had done more than its share and mostly come up empty. But Saturday at Aloha Stadium the Rainbow Warriors got a full-team effort and big plays from both sides of the ball and finally came away with a win, and against an FBS opponent.

Safety Trayvon Henderson, who had two interceptions, and defensive end Beau Yap, whose five tackles included a key second-half sack, echoed each other with a team mantra:

Do your one-eleventh.

You get enough guys living that on both sides of the ball, and outcomes like the 38-28 win over Wyoming can become commonplace. It’s too early to start seriously worrying about the Mountain West Conference championship game or even the Hawaii Bowl, but yes, Hawaii is now 1-0 in the league.

And this was truly a real victory in every way … not a non-loss like the narrow decision against FCS opponent Northern Iowa last month.

The way Hawaii won Saturday was remarkable and speaks volumes about the team’s character. It was like a boxer who is staggered early but fights back to get a knockout in the late rounds. More injuries, more replacements stepping up. A displaced starting quarterback, Ikaika Woolsey, shining in relief after his replacement, Taylor Graham, is hurt. Overcoming an injury to running back Steven Lakalaka with emerging offensive weapons Diocemy Saint Juste and Quinton Pedroza.

UH overcame its own mistakes, losing the turnover battle but winning the war.

Wyoming isn’t very good, but the Cowboys are a Mountain West team, and UH secured its first league win since 2012, when it beat a reeling UNLV team. The difference then was that the season was coming to a close — a 3-9 season.

Beating the Cowboys was revenge for the entire squad, but especially for the defense that was pillaged last year in Laramie, 59-56 — when just one stop or one turnover could have made all the difference.

Hawaii was favored this time, but it was no easy venture for the Rainbow Warriors, who entered the game with a quarterback change, another top defender out for the season and a coach with a heavy heart due to the recent death of his mother and serious illness of his wife.

"This was a huge morale booster," Yap said. "For the team, but especially a relief for Coach (Norm Chow) and his family. To get this win, now he can relax and think about his family."

For most of the nonconference season, the offense had difficulty exploiting opportunities provided by the defense and special teams. And in this one the offense put the defense in some tough positions, but the Warriors responded, stopping Wyoming over and over again late, yielding just three first downs in the fourth quarter — seven in a second half that Hawaii dominated.

"As a defense we played all 60 minutes," Yap said. "Some mental errors cost us. But we played a full game to the end."

As always, Yap was quick to deflect personal credit. He and the rest of the defense have never pointed fingers; this time they did … to say how great the offense played.

"We’re a football team and we take pride in ourselves and we talk about that every day and how we have each other’s back," Chow said. "When the offense was sputtering our defense stepped up, then look what Ikaika did."

Yap described it all as a "clean slate."

Actually, it’s better than that. Even if it’s just for one week the Rainbow Warriors are atop the conference — and they showed they are truly a team.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.