The University of Hawaii never does anything easy.

Needing a victory against a team that had won only twice all year, the Rainbow Warriors rallied in dramatic fashion. Sophomore quarterback Dru Brown threw a 56-yard touchdown pass to Keelan Ewaliko and the defense made it stand up long enough to win 46-40 over the University of Massachusetts before an Aloha Stadium crowd of 19,402.

The heart-stopping win secured a berth in the Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Eve, despite the Warriors finishing 6-7 for the season. It will be their first postseason appearance since losing to Tulsa in the 2010 Hawaii Bowl. UMass finished the year at 2-10.

With the scored tied 40-40, Hawaii got the ball at its own 22 with 5:23 left in the game. The previous series for the Warriors was a quick three-and-out, so Hawaii needed to improve upon that to have any chance of winning. And that’s exactly what Brown and Co. did, as they went 78 yards on only three plays, with the big snap being a 56-yard touchdown pass from Brown to Ewaliko, but Rigo Sanchez yanked the PAT wide left, keeping the score at 46-40 with 3:52 left in the game. It was his first missed PAT of the year.

But would it be a costly one?

UMass took over at its own 25 and quarterback Andrew Ford quickly went to work, finding Andy Isabella for a 44-yard completion to the UH 31. From there, Ford completed two more passes to Isabella to the UH 20 with 2:38 left.

Three odd plays led to a 1-yard loss, setting up a fourth-and-11 at the UH 21. Out of the shotgun, Ford tried to hit Bernard Davis in the corner of the end zone, but the pass was out of bounds, giving UH the ball with 1:05 left. The Minutemen only had one timeout, allowing UH to run out the clock and get the win.

Brown hit 22 of 30 passes for 311 yards and five touchdowns. Ford countered with 24 completions in 38 attempts for 342 yards and three scores. Isabella caught seven passes for 134 yards and Jalen Williams hauled in seven as well for 133 yards.

Brown had several receivers he liked, including Dylan Collie, who had two touchdown catches for the night. Diocemy Saint Juste rushed for 122 yards on 14 carries and one touchdown as the offense did its part to win the game.

Up seven to start the final period, Hawaii quickly extended the lead on a 40-yard touchdown scamper by Saint Juste that was set up by a run by Ben Scruton on a fake punt. Scruton went for 14 yards around the left side on a fourth-and-7 snap. Sanchez added the PAT to make it 40-26 Hawaii with 12:55 left in the game. The running play ended an eight-play, 78-yard drive that began in the third quarter.

But UMass refused to go quietly, as the Minutemen began a long drive that included a fourth-down conversation along the way en route to scoring on a 1-yard run by John Robinson- Woodgett. He was stopped initially, but reached the ball across the goal line to break the plane. The extra point by Mike Caggiano, who had one blocked earlier, was good. The drive was 16 plays for 75 yards and took nearly six minutes off the clock to make it 40-33 with 6:57 remaining.

Hawaii started its next drive at its own 25 in need of first downs and one more score to put it out of reach. But a quick three-and-out ensued, giving UMass the ball at its own 35 with six minutes left.

Facing a tiring UH defense, the Minutemen went to work in need of seven points to tie and possibly eight to win. In 17 seconds, they had their opening first down of the drive with a 34-yard pass play from Ford to Williams at the UH 23.

Two plays later, Marquis Young went in untouched from 18 yards out to make it 40-40 with 5:29 left as Caggiano hit the PAT.