UH's defense, punter deserve a big hand
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist
Too bad the NCAA doesn't permit colleges to pay their players because the University of Hawai'i defense and punter Mat McBriar would be in for some massive overtime this week.
They earned time and a half — and then some — in showing the Warriors the way to a 34-10 victory over San Jose State last night.
Instead, they settled for the well-earned applause of an Aloha Stadium crowd of 33,923 and several rounds of pats on the back from the rest of the team.
For on a damp night when the offense struggled for three quarters and threatened to self destruct, the defense and the punt team went beyond the call to assure the, now 6-2 (5-2 Western Athletic Conference) Warriors, a fifth consecutive victory.
It is a mark of this team and how far it has come in the last six weeks that even on an off-night it can still muster the elements to not only pull out a victory but turn it into a four-touchdown decision over what had, heretofore, been a Spartan team that had its number.
The longest single season win streak since 1984 came despite a glaring statistical imbalance that, on most other nights, would have all but assured the Warriors a loss. And, probably a lopsided one.
Consider, for example, the Spartans controlled the ball for nearly 40 minutes of a 60-minute contest. That San Jose ran off 87 offensive plays to the Warriors' 58. And that the Warriors had the ball just 2 minutes, 14 seconds in the third quarter with the game still very much up for grabs.
From the opening series, which resulted in a tone-setting fumble, the Warriors made this one tougher than it needed to be for the defense by turning the ball over a season-high four times (three fumbles and an interception).
But even on a night when the Warriors were forced to play without linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa, the WAC's second leading tackler, because of a strained right leg sustained in practice during the week, linebacker Chris Brown and what is rapidly becoming his defense of reknown, were mightily up to the task.
Let us count the ways: Travis Laboy had three tackles for losses, Kelvin Millhouse had two interceptions and Keani Alapa, filling in for Tinoisamoa, had a team-high 13 tackles.
And, at a time when field position was everything, McBriar put his foot into punts of 49, 50 and 61 yards, a 53.3 yard average, to help hold the Spartans at bay.
Three times the defense turned the Spartans away without any points and the only score they surrendered after a turnover came on a field goal. No easy task against a Spartan team that had scored 103 points over its two previous games, and had averaged 43.8 points in its last five games against UH.
And three times the UH defense forced turnovers of its own, two of them helping to jump-start the offense to scores.
On a night when there would be no paychecks, the UH defense and McBriar were nevertheless, big money performers for the Warriors.
