Posted on: Sunday, October 19, 2003

The Drive gives Warriors much-needed finishing touch

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

RUSTON, La. — They had come 4,035 miles just to get here and then spent the better part of a cloudless fall afternoon transversing an additional 558 yards on the grass at Joe Aillet Stadium.

Now, there were the toughest 80 yards of the season to date in front of them, a scoreboard that read: Louisiana Tech 41, Hawai'i 37 and the vocal part of somebody else's homecoming crowd of 19,128 shouting them down.

We didn't come all this way to lose, again," slotback Chad Owens said.

"We'd taken too many long, unhappy plane rides home already," quarterback Tim Chang said.

So these Warriors did what we've been waiting half a season for them to do and won a game in the fourth quarter with a touchdown drive that said as much about their resolve as their execution.

The best first-quarter team in the Western Athletic Conference found a 20-point fourth quarter finishing kick to go with its 21-point start out of the blocks.

On a day when two teams combined for 85 points and 1,261 yards, UH's last 80 yards and seven points were the most telling. Its final 2 minutes, 46 seconds of ball possession was the biggest in a 3-hour, 32-minute game and the season. The final 68 yards of Chang's career-high 534 yards and the last two catches of Owens' team-high 8 supplied the exclamation point on the day.

A team that had found ways to lose at Southern California, Nevada-Las Vegas and Tulsa finally found the way to the end zone and victory this time.

The deciding drive was suitable for framing, a collage of blocking, big plays and play-calling that ended with a screen pass to Michael Brewster that went 17 yards for the go-ahead touchdown.

Chang, who completed 6 of 9 passes for 68 yards on The Drive, two passes each to Britton Komine, Owens and Brewster, showed a comeback touch not seen since the San Diego State game last season. Chang's receivers and line found ways to underwrite it.

And, not a moment too soon for the Warriors who, coming in at 3-3 (2-1) had no margin for error in the WAC standings and very little wiggle room in the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl equation.

While the yards came quick and, at times almost effortlessly in this one, the victory did not.

Five turnovers (four of them on interceptions). An extra point that clanged off the goal post. An opposing running back, Ryan Moats, who, shades of Marshall Faulk, Ron Dayne and LaDainian Tomlinson, ran for 267 yards and two touchdowns on 34 carries. A quarterback, Luke McCown, who passed for 405 yards and three touchdowns.

The building blocks of yet another potential disappointment were all there for the Warriors. How many times before had any one of the above been enough to torpedo UH?

The game had, as most thought it would, come down to a shootout at the end. So, when the offense was preparing to go out on the field for the final drive, the game in the balance, "I told them this is what it is all about," head coach June Jones said. "That's kinda what I told them at the end there, that this is what we came here for. With six minutes left we had to go out there and put it in (the end zone) and win it."

Owens said, 'You could feel that were were going to get it done this time. The way we were going in the fourth quarter gave us confidence."

"We knew," Chang said, "this time we were going home with a smile on our faces."

On the longest of conference road trips to be had in college football, this one didn't meet a dead end for the Warriors.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.