Warriors' defense making its points

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist

Remember when the idea was to find ways to keep the University of Hawai'i defense off the field?

Recall when coaches and fans alike used to be worried that the Warriors couldn't win if the defense was spending too much time out there?

Well, it sure wasn't a problem last night.

In fact, the best thing the Warriors had going ... and going .. .and going for them against Texas-El Paso was a defense with both an attitude and the midas touch.

In a 66-7 triumph that produced both the most points and biggest margin of victory in head coach June Jones' three years, it was the defense that set both the pace and the table for the Warriors' third victory against two losses.

On the way to the defense either scoring or setting up 31 of the Warriors' first 52 points, it got so that many of the 31,005 in attendance at Aloha Stadium didn't want the defense to leave the field.

Amid three interceptions returned for touchdowns, two fumble recoveries that set up scores and enough thundering hits to make a crash dummy video, there came to be a rooting interest in the offense taking care of its business and getting off the field so that the defense could hurry back and make something else happen.

And, on this night, rarely did the UH offense or defense disappoint.

Perhaps not since the Noga Era, that once-upon-a-time period of the 1980s when one or more of the Noga Brothers, Niko, Al or Petelo, roamed the Western Athletic Conference, has the defense been such a fireworks show unto itself.

That it would go into highlight film production now hardly seemed likely three weeks ago at Nevada. But the Warrior defense has followed its longest day with back-to-back, statement-making performances against Southern Methodist and UTEP. It has forced five turnovers in each to take the biggest hand in the turnaround of a team that had been 1-2 and struggling.

Perhaps the tone for this one was set early when the drummer who leads the pre-game ceremonies lowered a shoulder to each UH defensive starter that ran out the tunnel.

From then on, it was the Warriors that did the hitting. And it got so lopsided so quick last night at 31-0, with 11 minutes, 32 seconds left in the second quarter, that you half expected referee Frank White to step in and declare it a technical knockout.

At one point, after the third turnover, a UTEP tight end ran off the field, shoulders shrugged and palms up, as if to say to his sideline, "What can we do?"

Indeed, there was little the bumbling Miners could do to answer.

Except, perhaps, teach their quarterbacks to tackle better.