Warriors' Owens makes many happy returns on special teams
By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Warrior synonymous with special teams returns had a happy one in Hawai'i's 20-19 win against Cincinnati last night at Aloha Stadium.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
Chad Owens returned to action for the first time since suffering a sprained right knee after a 50-yard scoring reception in a 59-34 win against Nevada on Oct. 12. Although admittedly not at full speed, Owens tallied 199 yards in kickoff and punt returns, including two that gave UH good field position for its first two touchdowns of the game.
Hawai'i's Chad Owens tries to pull away from Cincinnati's Antoine Horton at the end of a first-quarter punt return.
"It was a great comeback," UH receivers coach Ron Lee said. "He was a lot better than expected."
For good measure, Owens also had one reception for 23 yards.
"My cuts were pretty crisp, but my overall speed was not all there," Owens said. "But I was good enough to play and I hope it shows."
Despite the layoff, Owens was not gun shy. He took the opening kickoff from about three yards deep to the UH 20.
In the second quarter, when the Bearcats were pinned at their 1 and forced to punt, Owens returned Chet Ervins' 46-yard punt 21 yards to the Cincinnati 26. Six plays later, Thero Mitchell scored from the 1 to tie the game at 7.
Cincinnati punted after its next series from its 44. This time, Owens returned Ervins' 48-yard punt 38 yards to the Hawai'i 44. Five plays later, the Warriors repeated what they did on their previous series with Mitchell scoring from the 1 to give UH a 14-7 lead with 8:35 left in the half.
It got to the point where the Bearcats didn't want anything to do with Owens. Late in the game Ervins punted out-of-bounds away from Owens.
"They didn't want to kick to me," he said. "They knew I was a threat. But it feels good to get that kind of respect."
Owens said he played the week by ear. He said he felt better each day and pronounced himself ready. He said the waiting game was hard for someone who is very involved in UH's passing schemes and special teams.
"It was hard, but we won every single game that I didn't play," he said. "So that kind of made it a little easier (to take)."
Lee was pleased with Owens' effort.
"He stepped up," Lee said. "He's still not in playing shape, but by next week, he'll be able to play more."
Owens' night was sort of spoiled when a brawl broke out on the field during the closing seconds of the game. But when cooler heads prevailed, it was Owens making peace with Cincinnati defensive end Antwan Peek. With UH athletic director Herman Frazier looking on, as well as security and police in the vicinity, Owens and Peek wanted to make sure what happened on the field stayed there. The Bearcats do not leave until tomorrow and the players were afraid they might run into one another elsewhere.
"We wanted to squash whatever happened on the field," Owens said of his discussion with Peek. "We didn't want to have their guys going out tonight and running into some of our guys and something going down."
Peek was heard saying that he didn't want to see the bad blood carried outside the stadium, saying that someday some Warriors and some Bearcats might be teammates one day.
"We just tried to come to a truce," Owens said. "They lost, we won. They just have to accept that and move on. We just didn't want this to get out of hand because people could and will get hurt."
A Cincinnati spokesman said coach Rick Minter, as well as Bearcat players were not made available to the media after the game.
