By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

If somebody had said the University of Hawai'i offense was going to score a season-low 20 points, that Tim Chang would be sidelined twice by injury, the Warriors would drop two wide-open potential touchdown passes and leave another score on the goal line on fourth-down-and-inches ...

"I'd have said it was going to be a long night," coach June Jones said.

And, indeed, it was.

Only not the way that would have been feared. For what emerged from this night of humidity, adversity and overflowing animosity would be the Warrior defense's finest 3 hours and 33 minutes in a decade.

In a game where the nation's top team in total offense managed just half its 40-point average, a largely unsung defense answered the prayers of the majority of the 33,961 in Aloha Stadium in showing the Warriors the way to a 20-19 victory over Cincinnati.

Not even Ohio State held the Bearcats to less this season.

That No. 25-ranked Hawai'i extended its winning streak to six games, the school's second longest single-season run against college competition, would be testament to the determined manner in which the defense rose up and took control of the most perilous of situations ... The way in which it stiffened in crucial junctures.

Only once — and that was in the first quarter — did the UH defense give up a touchdown. Never did it surrender its resolve.

Three times the defense was forced to jump into sudden-change situations after turnovers, and only once — and then just for a field goal — did they give up any points. In 10 turnovers over six games, the UH defense has allowed but one touchdown.

And when the game was on the line and there for the taking in the final 9 minutes, 50 seconds of the fourth quarter, the defense halted the Bearcats on three consecutive possessions, all three plays and out.

"It was," Jones would proudly proclaim afterward, "the best heart and intensity the defense has played with since I've been here."

One by one, the offensive players stopped to offer congratulations and thanks to their brethren on the defense.

"Oh, man, did they save us," sighed offensive tackle Wayne Hunter.

"They were huge; just huge," offered running back Thero Mitchell. "I can't say enough about them."

Nor could the assembled faithful whose thunderous chants of "dee-fense ... dee-fense" greeted each appearance on the turf by Kevin Lempa's defensive unit.

"We knew from the beginning it (the defense) would be crucial," said defensive tackle Lance Samuseva. "The offense was in a bind and it was our job to come through."

Time and again it did until the defenders, bathed in sweat and saluted with the cheers of a grateful following, finally left the field.