Hawaii Warriors vs. Rice Owls | Football | November 16, 2002

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HOUSTON- The true spoils that go with victory on the mainland?
Krispy Kreme.

The three-year doughnut against Rice is no more after Hawaii's 33-28 win yesterday, and one of the game's stars said the Warriors owe it to lack of Homer Simpson-like distractions.

"We weren't thinking of Krispy Kreme, we were thinking about the game, staying focused on the road. You can't get Krispy Kreme in Hawaii, but you can't get road wins at home either," said freshman receiver Nate Ilaoa, who caught 10 passes for 108 yards. "We come from a concept of taking it serious on the road."

Hawaii (8-2, 7-1 Western Athletic Conference) has long had a reputation of failure away from home. But, now, in coach June Jones' four seasons, the Road Warriors are 8-7 away from the islands; they finished this year's traveling show by hanging on to beat the Owls (4-7, 3-5), a team they had never knocked off in three tries.

"We set it as a goal to be able to win in conference games on the road and we were able to do that," said Jones, whose team, overall, has won five in a row and 11 of its last 13.

Does this mean UH will get some of the national respect many associated with the program crave?

"I don't really care about that, but it's good for us," he said.

"That's been the whole thing," Owls coach Ken Hatfield said. "Against UTEP we lose on a 59-yard field goal. Fresno ... hit a little 5-yard pass and then everybody runs into each other and the guy goes 77 yards."

Yesterday, it was Houston Ala's fourth-down tackle of quarterback Greg Henderson for a 4-yard loss on fourth-and-three at the Hawaii 11 with 31 seconds left.

"They converted a couple third down plays on the option, but the plays that hurt us were a screen, a reverse and a post pattern," Hawaii defensive coordinator Kevin Lempa said. "I bet they passed for more yards than they ran."

That's a bet he would lose (227 rushing, 183 passing), but only because of Marcus Battle's 60-yard touchdown run on a reverse with 6 minutes, 45 seconds left in the third quarter. The score got Rice back into the game at 23-21 after three consecutive scores by Hawaii -- a 28-yard Justin Ayat field goal and touchdown passes of 8 yards to Jeremiah Cockheran and 17 to Britton Komine from Tim Chang -- put the Warriors in control of the game.

Hawaii regained momentum with Ayat's 21-yarder and Thero Mitchell's 3-yard run for his second TD.

But Battle struck again, beating Millhouse and Hyrum Peters deep for a 54-yard TD pass from Henderson with 4:43 left.

Then a holding penalty (one of 11 flags for 99 yards against UH) negated a third-down pass completion from Chang to Komine that would have moved the chains, and Rice took over at its 17 with 1:52 left.

Ten plays and 78 yards later, Ala made the play of his life, in a city with which he shares his first name.

It was one of seven tackles-for-loss by the Warriors.

"Defensively, they did a great job," Manuwai said. "They stuck in there together. Scary, but as long as you see Hawaii up there with the 'W,' that's what it's all about for us."

On offense, the Warriors relied on short passing and running plays. They rarely tried to throw long.

"You've got to give them a couple different looks to throw them off," Chang said. "They know where we're going if we line up the way we have before. We have to play cat-and-mouse because they're so disciplined."

Chang completed 35 of 64 passes for 369 yards and the two TD passes.

They were mostly short passes to Ilaoa, who played superbly except for a fumble that set up Battle's touchdown catch.

"They started backing off a lot more, giving us a four-deep look," Ilaoa said. "They gave us some yards, so we tried to make a quick catch and add some yards."

Mitchell started the scoring as his 4-yard run capped an 11-play, 80-yard drive.

"I think they were overplaying our passes and Coach Jones had some strategies coming in to be effective with our run game and decided to use it," said Mitchell, who carried five times for 75 yards and now has seven rushing touchdowns. "It can be effective, good balance with our passing.

Mike Bass added 55 yards on 12 rushes, and Chang got the game's first first down on a tough 11-yard draw.

"Some of the things they were doing was giving us the run, so we had to take it," Jones said.

Rice fullback Robbie Beck had early success, staking the Owls to a 14-10 halftime lead with rushing TDs of 4 and 32 yards.

But, like last year, the team that led at intermission at home didn't hold on.

"It was like last year at Hawaii, when we won by making one more play than Hawaii," Hatfield said.

Mitchell said he hopes the Warriors don't revert when he and the other current seniors aren't around next year.

"To have two consecutive winning seasons on the road is a big credit to the staff and the players we have here," he said. "Hopefully, it will become a trend and start a change for how people think about our program."