Warriors thrive in Aloha's spirit

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

For homecoming, the University of Hawai'i brought the heat.

UH slotback Britton Komine catches a pass from Shawn Withy-Allen before completing a 54-yard touchdown play. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

"We love playing at home," UH middle linebacker Chris Brown said. "Aloha Stadium is our house, and the fans are part of our family. We don't want other teams coming in here and trying to take over. That's like somebody coming in and sitting on your couch. Nobody comes into our house and takes over, not without us putting up a fight until the end."

The Warriors improved to 4-2 overall — they are 3-0 at home — and 3-1 in the Western Athletic. Nevada fell to 2-4 and 1-1.

Nevada entered as the WAC's leader in scoring defense, allowing 26.2 points per game. But the Warriors took little time in sabotaging that statistic, which came as little surprise. This season, the Warriors are averaging 54 points at home, 31.3 on the road.

"There's no place like home," said UH's Tim Chang, who completed 19 of 31 passes for 381 yards and two touchdowns. The Warriors rolled up a school-record 674 yards in total offense. John West, a reserve running back, scored three touchdowns.

Despite playing with a painful infection on his right knee, which forced him to down antibiotics Friday night, Chang jump-started the surge that went exactly to the script. Each game, UH coach June Jones scripts the first five plays the Warriors will run in each game, regardless of the situation. Jones gives those plays to Chang at the team hotel in Waikiki on the eve of the game.

Frustrated by the Warriors' inability to complete deep passes in the previous two games, Jones dusted off the "out-and-go" play, in which slotback Britton Komine and wideout Jeremiah Cockheran — both aligned to the right — run crossing patterns.

On the game's first snap, at the UH 28, Komine, who set up just to the left of Cockheran, ran his usual down-and-out pattern. But instead of continuing on that path, Komine cut up field, broke into the clear and hauled in Chang's pass. Komine ran the rest of the distance to complete a 72-yard play and give UH a 7-0 lead.

As he approached the line of scrimmage before the snap, Komine, who knew he would draw one-on-one coverage from a slower linebacker, recalled being "stoked. I knew I would probably get the ball. I knew I was going to be having fun."

Cockheran was able to help free Komine by running a slant pattern, drawing the left cornerback away from Komine's route. Cockheran then sprinted downfield and made a block for Komine at the doorstep of the end zone.

"I was trying to help out the team," said Cockheran, a junior college transfer from California who was making his first Division I-A start. "Our main plan was to spread the the field, because we knew what we could do against that team."

The play was so successful, the Warriors ran it three more times in the first quarter, including Komine's 54-yard scoring catch from Shawn Withy-Allen.

"Maybe Coach Jones felt we were conservative last week," Chang said, referring to the Warriors' 58-31 loss to Boise State. "We weren't conservative this week. We wanted to take our shots up top."

The Warriors also benefitted from slotback Chad Owens' breathtaking 50-yard scoring play. Owens caught a pass from Chang, pirouetted free from two would-be tacklers and, after a sprint, dived into the end zone. But Owens became entangled with cornerback Marlon McLaughlin and suffered a knee injury.

Owens sprained a medial collateral ligament and will undergo an MRI exam today. Jones said it does not appear Owens will be able to play in Saturday's game against Tulsa.

"I dove in, and the dude landed on my knee," Owens said. "It got twisted. Things happen. We'll see how it goes."

With the Wolf Pack defense backing up to protect against deep passes, Chang and then Withy-Allen had their choice of open receiver on slant patterns or screens.

That opened the way for the running game, which was without MIke Bass, who did not play because of a partially torn posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. But West stepped in, scoring on runs of 6, 2 and 2 yards, and Michael Brewster added a 4-yard touchdown run before leaving with a sprained ankle.

"It's all because of the O-line," West said. "The coaches and my teammates believe in me, and I took all of that and channeled it and exploded."

UH's defense, which struggled against Boise State, also was able to contain the Wolf Pack's mileage-plus offense. Strong safety Hyrum Peters scored on a 64-yard interception return, a turnover made possible when defensive end La'anui Correa intimidated Nevada's Zack Threadgill into overthrowing the tight end.

The Warriors, who lost 28-20 to Nevada last year in Reno, had 21 points by the game's fifth minute. It was 42-10 after the first quarter and 52-22 at the intermission, a lead that could have been inflated if Justin Colbert had not dropped a pass in the end zone as time expired in the second quarter.

"After the way they got up in the first quarter, it's tough to come back," Threadgill said. "It was a tough game, I tell you what. It's hard to throw when everybody's expecting you to throw. (The Warriors) played extremely well. They're a different team at home. I'm very impressed. They were ready to play."

UH linebacker Matt Wright said his teammates were playing so well on offense "I was cheering them on. When they're clicking the way they're clicking, it's a show you don't want to miss. Even on the sideline, when we were going over our (defensive) plans, we're looking over."

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