Amazing Warriors refuse to lose
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
The magic is back!
On a night when the exultant roar of 35,074 rolled through Halawa Valley like thunder, and the stars shined as bright on the field as they did in the heavens, the University of Hawai'i football team revived the Midas touch of its 1999 championship season in a one-for-the-annals 38-34 comeback victory over 18th-ranked Fresno State.
The Warriors did it with a quarterback, Nick Rolovich, who, until a month ago, had been expecting to redshirt. They did it with a big-play defensive back, Nate Jackson, who had been in a motorcycle accident earlier in the week, and entered the game himself as an injury replacement, making two of the biggest plays. And they put it away with a wide receiver, Ashley Lelie, making a gravity-defying leap.
They would be among the most visible symbols of this team and how far its alchemy has taken it in the past four weeks. A team apparently with no problem finding ways to win or players to deliver them.
"The magic is definitely back," said senior guard Manly Kanoa III, pumping a tape-encased arm skyward. "This was just like '99 — except that we didn't need any overtime to beat Fresno this time."
No, this time the Warriors weren't going to leave anything to chance. Not here and certainly not now with a fourth consecutive victory awaiting them on national TV.
They had come too far for that, bounding back from 27-13 and 34-31 deficits and enduring the Bulldog taunts that had accompanied them.
What was a season on the brink barely a month ago, one seemingly headed toward mediocrity, now is a campaign alive with truly wondrous possibilities for a team that is suddenly 5-2 with five games, all at home, remaining.
A winning season? A bowl game appearance?
"This team is gonna do big things," Kanoa predicted.
Indeed, none of it seems out of reach for a team whose character and confidence have put all manner of things within its grasp, if only its mounting injury toll can be managed.
This was a 3-hour, 48-minute tale of two curiously disparate teams passing in the humid night. One last seen on a Sports Illustrated cover and in the Top 10 and now looking desperately for answers as it shuffled silently and surlily off to the visitors' locker room.
And the other, a team grasping at loose ends in September now seemingly with an answer for everything and a star in waiting at every turn these past four weeks.
"It is an amazing thing, (what's) going on right now," said Rolovich, one of the sorcerers.
So amazing that linebacker Chris Brown dropped to his knees on the confetti-covered Aloha Stadium turf and howled at the moon after the final gun. "This feels sooooo good," Brown roared.
Meanwhile, an embittered and, suddenly, embattled Pat Hill, the Fresno State coach, barked: "Only over here are they close. It is never close at our place."
No matter how compelling the evidence, some people, it seems, don't believe in magic.
