Rice bowls over Warriors, 41-29

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

HOUSTON — The cuts to the flesh will heal in the coming days. But for the University of Hawai'i football team, the bleeding of the spirit might linger for a while.

Rice's John Syptak sacked Hawai'i quarterback Tim Chang in the first half. Chang was sacked five times. Associated Press

"This is terrible," said UH linebacker Tanuvasa Moe, slumped on a bench in front of his locker, squeezing a blood-stained roll of athletic tape. "Any loss is terrible. But we came off a very big loss (in the opener to Florida Atlantic), and then we have another one. We're going to work hard and really see what's inside the Warriors."

The Warriors had their moments on offense and, in the third quarter, the defense was able to solve the riddle of the Owls' triple-option running attack. But the Owls presented too many problems — from fullback Ed Bailey's astonishing 234 rushing yards to quarterback Greg Henderson's multi-tasked leadership to an elastic defense that had a timely knack of snapping back the momentum.

Even after taking a 29-28 lead on Justin Ayat's 25-yard field goal with 10:12 remaining, the Warriors were uneasy, looking over their shoulder pads as Henderson went to work.

"When we were down by one, we were talking on the sideline about driving down and getting that go-ahead score," Henderson said. "Maybe we had a couple of lucky plays and a couple of lucky breaks. But we also had people who wanted to step it up and make plays and get us breaks."

In an 80-yard march siphoning nearly 5 minutes, the Owls took the lead for keeps, the last 8 yards coming on Henderson's-catch-me-if-you-can keeper.

The Warriors' next possession was extinguished when, on third-and-3 from their 17, right wideout Ross Dickerson was tackled for a 3-yard loss after catching a screen pass.

"I guessed wrong," UH coach June Jones admitted. "I thought they were going to (retreat into deep pass coverage), and they didn't. It was a bad call on my part."

After gaining possession at the UH 43 following Kurt Milne's 29-yard punt, the Owls drove for the touchdown to end the suspense, with Henderson again carrying for the final 4 yards.

"He's a running back in a quarterback's body," offensive left guard Greg Wilson said of 5-foot-10, 200-pound Henderson.

Rice's Clint Hatfield recovers a fumble by teammate Greg Henderson to preserve a Rice drive that led to a touchdown, giving Rice a 34-29 lead. Hawai'i's Leonard Peters, left, comes in on the play. Associated Press

Rice coach Ken Hatfield credits Henderson's running skills to his extensive weight training. Henderson can power clean 391 pounds — nine short of the team record.

"I love my iron," Henderson said.

Wilson said: "He's got powerful legs. If I could turn his legs into an energy source, I'd have a very low energy bill. I'd keep him right in my room."

The Warriors, for most of the game, were able to keep pace offensively. Tim Chang passed for 363 yards — he needs 6 more to surpass Philip Rivers at No. 2 in career passing yards — and three touchdowns. Running back Michael Brewster also contributed two touchdowns.

But the Warriors had trouble finding an offensive rhythm because of difficult field position (seven of their 11 drives started inside their 25) and the Owls' antsy movements out of 3-2 and 3-3 defensive alignments. Although the Warriors did not turn the ball over for the second consecutive game, Chang was sacked five times. Four of his passes were dropped in the end zone.

"They threw a lot of different things at us," Chang said. "They did a great job."

But slotback Chad Owens, who caught 10 passes for 91 yards, said: "We played well at times, but in our offense, 29 points is unacceptable. We should score every single drive. That's how I feel. Rice is a good team. You can't take anything away from them. But we have to find a way to get better."

Entering the last Western Athletic Conference game between the teams — Rice moves to Conference USA next summer — it appeared the Owls were in need of a confidence boost. Injuries to their starting left guard and center created a three-player shuffle on the offensive line. With Wilson moving to left guard, where he was positioned next to another senior, left tackle Scott Mayhew, and inexperienced Rolf Krueger at right tackle, the Owls made the easy choice of going to their left-handed offense.

"With me and Scott on the left side, I knew we'd get a lot of calls," Wilson said, "and we did."

In three previous seasons at Rice, Bailey, when he was summoned at all, was used mostly as a decoy. His dive runs drew defenders, allowing the quarterback to set up the option plays on the perimeters.

"If he gets 30, 40 yards," Mayhew said, "that's a good night for him. He busted out tonight. He did awesome."

Bailey said: "The big guys up front dictated what happened. I just ran behind those big guys."

UH had switched from its base 4-3 defense to a 4-4 last night.

"All during spring, our defense runs an eight-man front similar to what (the Warriors) ran tonight," Mayhew said. "We had great familiarity with that defense."

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8051.