SPRINGFIELD, Mass. >>

About 5 miles north of here, off I-91, a small-town hospital worker bought a ticket that was announced this week as the second-largest winner in U.S. lottery history. Mavis Wanczyk, who has since called into work retired, is now $336 million wealthier.

The University of Hawaii football team will pass near Wanczyk’s hometown of Chicopee on its way up to McGuirk Stadium in Hadley today, as well as the store where she bought that life-changing ticket. Maybe UH athletic director David Matlin should ask the bus driver to stop so he can invest in a couple of scratch-offs.

The Rainbow Warriors, who hosted UMass at the end of last season, won’t be making big money off the Minutemen. But the visitors from Hawaii do have a realistic opportunity to start their season off with a victory on the field.

If this were like most other nonconference road season openers for UH, there’d be a good-sized payout in compensation for making a long voyage and likely going home with a lopsided loss. But UMass is not an elite program from a Power Five conference.

Maybe it doesn’t seem like that long ago. But it really has been a quarter of a century since Hawaii started the football season with a win on the road.

Since that 24-21 victory at Oregon — followed the next week by a 6-3 win at Air Force, spurring UH to an 11-2 season including Holiday Bowl and WAC championships — the Rainbow Warriors have opened away from the islands four times.

And they’ve come up empty on every occasion.

The fact that three of those games were at Alabama, Florida and USC has something to do with the outcomes. The other was also against a Power Five team, Cal, in Sydney last year.

So today’s rematch after Hawaii beat the Minutemen 46-40 last November offers a rare opportunity: It’s a winnable opener, even though UH is a long way from home — about 5,000 miles, give or take.

The 2006 Warriors lost at ’Bama by eight points as Colt Brennan threw a pass that was intercepted in the Tide end zone on the last play. In the three openers away from Hawaii since then, the opponents have outscored Hawaii 156-51.

Those are prime examples of what are known as body-bag games: Pick up big check, limp home.

This is not one.

Can you net a little (money)?

“Possibly,” Matlin said. “I think it’s a great (educational) opportunity for our players, including what (coach) Nick (Rolovich) has done by stopping at the (World Trade Center) 9/11 Memorial. I asked one of our players if this was the first time he’d been to the East Coast. He said, ‘No, this is my first time on the mainland.’ I think there’s a lot of value in it.”

The road losses to start the season — three involving long trips to the Eastern time zone or Australia — under four different head coaches set the stage for seasons that ended at 11-3, 7-7, 3-9 and 7-7. So, starting out as roadkill hasn’t been an indicator of how the season will develop.

Matlin is more concerned about a long trip in the middle of the season possibly causing a two-game road trip during the school year.

“I think it’s better to come here in August than October,” the athletic director said.

About 10 months ago this game was moved from the middle of the season to the beginning, a week before most college football teams begin play.

“Being able to move the game to August is better for the team than to have to travel in the middle of the season,” Matlin said. “Having the ‘week zero’ option helped us. That (NCAA) legislation benefited us.”

In its last seven openers — home, away or neutral — Hawaii has won twice. The victories occurred at Aloha Stadium, and both against Colorado, 34-17 in 2011 and 28-20 in 2015.

The line for this game opened with UH as a 1-point favorite, but now the consensus has UMass favored by 2. The Warriors were 3-3 in road games last year, not counting the Australia neutral site loss to Cal. That was Hawaii’s best road record since the 2010 WAC co-champions went 4-2 in away games, including the program’s most recent nonconference road victory, 31-28 at Army.

This is no body-bag game for the Rainbow Warriors. And that means there is a good chance Hawaii will win — much better than winning the lottery.

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