By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

If the University of Hawai'i football team winds up in the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl come Christmas Eve day — and it is tempting to begin decking the halls now — the Warriors might want to send a generous gift basket to Northwestern coach Randy Walker and linebacker John Pickens.

For while it was the Warriors' resilience and electrifying play that has them poised to clinch a bowl bid with a victory over Michigan State Saturday, the Wildcats helped open the door to making last night's 49-41 thriller of a UH win possible.

It was a couple of big mistakes that awoke the slumbering Warriors, helping rouse UH to its potential in a 28-point second quarter and its biggest win of the so-far 6-5 season.

While the Wildcats might want to contest whether slotback Chad Owens stepped out of bounds on his second touchdown reception of a five-touchdown virtuoso performance or if safety Leonard Peters trapped the ball on the deciding interception with 1 minute, 6 seconds remaining — both of which drew heated opposition from the purple and white — it probably shouldn't have come down to either.

Not when Northwestern was in the driver's seat 13-0 in the second quarter with an opportunity to drive a 16-0 — or even 20-0 — stake into the Warriors. Not when UH had all of 57 yards of total offense into the second quarter.

Indeed, the Warriors seemed on their way to a postseason-ending loss and the end-of-the-year banquet when the Wildcats poked UH with a stick, a turn of fortune they might have a long offseason to ponder.

Northwestern, a team that had found ways to win three of its four NCAA-record tying overtime games this year, committed two major mistakes that would set it on the road to defeat. One of omission and one of commission. Both generated a spark in a UH team desperately in need of one.

First, on fourth-and-1 at the Northwestern 45-yard line, Walker chose to have his team punt the ball away. This despite the fact the Wildcats had been averaging nearly 4.5 yards a carry and had, at an average of 6 feet 4, 312 pounds, the fourth-biggest offensive line UH has ever faced.

Instead, the Wildcats punted and it came back to haunt them two plays later when Pickens hit Tim Chang out of bounds and into a bench on the Wildcats' sideline to draw a personal foul.

The pain, however, would be Northwestern's as the incident energized the Warriors behind their quarterback. After turning the ball over twice on interceptions and punting on three consecutive series — two of them the three-and-out variety — these Warriors had their wake-up call and their mission.

And, with the majority of the 30,056 on hand lustily booing the incident, the Warriors had their crowd back in it, too. A lethal combination, it would turn out.

A night after the UH men's basketball team came roaring back from a 22-point deficit against Coastal Carolina, the football team staged its own wondrous rally.

The Warriors would score on that possession — driving 68 yards to do it — and, suddenly they were a new team and it was a new game.

With UH scoring on five series in a row in all plus a 76-yard punt return by Owens, the Warriors had found their purpose and the Wildcats had their hands full. Their hopes of an appearance in the Music City Bowl fading.

So, if these Warriors find themselves back at Aloha Stadium the afternoon before Christmas, the least they can do is look into the ESPN cameras and give a big wave to the folks back by the lake and say, "thanks, guys, we might not have been able to do it without you."

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