SAN JOSE, Calif. — In the chill of the night, on a drenched field turned into poi, the Hawai'i football team kept its sweet dreams alive.

Led by a fast-and-furious defense and a quarterback who was stirred but not shaken after four interceptions, the Warriors rallied from a 14-point deficit with under 4 minutes left in regulation to produce a 42-35 overtime victory over San Jose State last night at Spartan Stadium.

Colt Brennan's 2-yard keeper with 31 seconds left forced extra play, and his 9-yard scoring toss to wideout Jason Rivers — on his league-record 75th pass — were the game's final points. Cornerback Myron Newberry's leaping interception — his second of the game — in the end zone punctuated the comeback.

"Who said we were dead?" said Adam Leonard, who suctioned a crucial fumble caused by fellow linebacker Blaze Soares in the final minutes. "Not us. We don't think that as a team."

"The dream is never dead," added slotback Ryan Grice-Mullins, who made a school-record-tying 14 catches. "No matter what the score is, no matter how many ticks are on the clock, the dream is never dead. We set our goals. We're going to continue our mission. We're not going to let anybody stop it."

The outcome enabled the 16th-ranked Warriors (7-0, 4-0 in the Western Athletic Conference) to clinch a postseason bowl berth.

"That was just one step," slotback Davone Bess said, referring to the Warriors' pretty-please wish of an unbeaten regular season and a Bowl Championship Series berth. An appearance in a BCS game would net UH about $4.5 million.

"We haven't eaten yet," Bess said. "This was just the appetizer."

To be sure, there were hunger pangs as the Spartans scored 21 third-quarter points to take their first 14-point lead, at 28-14. The Spartans' four touchdowns, to that point, were by two players — Dwight Lowery on punt and interception returns, and Kevin Jurovich on pass plays spanning 16 and 84 yards.

Meanwhile, the Warriors' four-wide offense struggled for stability on the muddy field. Brennan had difficulty with his footing. The receivers had to make cuts with caution.

"Our speed cutting was different on the worst field we could possibly play on," right wideout C.J. Hawthorne said. "It was tough."

The Warriors' offense relies on timing plays.

"When they're coming out of their breaks, they can't speed cut or else they'll slip and fall," Brennan said. "They have to come out under control. When they do that, you can't really throw the ball as hard. Little stuff like that made it hard. ... The elements are what they are. It's part of football."

James T. Callier's 8-yard run gave the Spartans a 35-21 lead with 12:33 to play.

When the Warriors' next two drives fizzled — one on an overthrown pass, another on an interception — the Spartan fans repeated their taunting chant of: "Over-rated! ... Over-rated!"

"We heard all of them," Brennan said. "Definitely."

In the UH huddle, Bess implored Brennan to listen to another mantra.

"I told Colt: 'Poise, poise, poise,' " Bess recalled. "He repeated that phrase. He was getting frustrated, but I told him: 'We're here for you.' "

Brennan said: "Obviously after four, five, however many interceptions I threw, I was flustered. I was frustrated. But that's why it's a team game. The team believed in me. They never, like, looked at me and said, 'Oh, he's screwing up.' They just said, 'We got you, Colt. We got you.' They said, 'Keep believing, Colt.' "

The comeback began after a Spartan punt was downed at the UH 3 with 7:18 left. Brennan mixed passes to Grice-Mullins and Bess.

"I knew I had to make plays," Grice-Mullins said. "You come my way, I'm going to make plays."

The Warriors closed to 35-28 when Brennan lofted a pass to Bess in the right corner of the end zone. Bess stretched his 5-foot-10 frame to the max to make an acrobatic grab, snagging the football with one hand before cradling it as he slid out of bounds with 3:53 to play.

On the UH sideline, defensive coordinator Greg McMackin gathered his players.

"We were all talking," McMackin said. "We knew we had to get the ball back for the offense, and they'd score, and we'd win the game."

The Spartans started the ensuing drive at their 40. Callier ran for six yards. His second carry was abbreviated by strong-side linebacker Soares, whose jarring hit forced a fumble. Leonard, who played with a soft cast to protect the fracture in his right hand, made the recovery at the Spartan 45 with 2:56 left.

"The coaches told me we needed a big play, and I went in there," said Soares, who missed the first four games of the season because of a shoulder stinger and hamstring injury. He played a total of 14 downs the previous two games.

"I saw the fullback coming at me, and I just had to whack him with all I could," Soares said. "I didn't go for the strip. I went for him. It was like poker. I went all in."

It was the Spartans' first lost fumble of the season.

"I'm not into picking that play out and making that young man in that play feel bad," San Jose coach Dick Tomey told reporters. "Maybe that's your job, but that's not my job. My job is to pick our guys up after something like that and let them know I love them and that I appreciate what they did."

That play, meanwhile, provided an emotional boost for the Warriors.

"We almost knew then, when you sit there and tell everybody, 'believe, believe, believe,' it just seems there's not a reason to believe," Brennan said. "But then all of a sudden, before you know it, an opportunity presents itself, and you're right there. That's what it's all about. We realized, 'Oh, my God, we can do this.' "

Brennan's 12-yard pass advanced the ball to the 2. With the line blocking to the left, Brennan ran to the right, raising the ball with his right hand as he crossed the goal line with 31 seconds left.

Dan Kelly, who has not missed a point-after kick all season, was true again.

"You can't ice the iceman," Kelly said, smiling. "It's just like any other kick. I did my job."

The Spartans won the coin toss at the start of overtime, and elected to defer, meaning they would have the second possession. Each team starts a drive 25 yards from the end zone.

"I knew if we'd gone to overtime, that we could win this game," Brennan said. "With only 25 yards to go to score, you know, with our defense playing the way it did, we knew all we had to do was go to overtime."

Brennan's 9-yard TD pass to Rivers made it 42-35.

The Spartans' possession was doomed almost as soon as it started when defensive tackles Michael Lafaele and Fale Laeli sacked Adam Tafralis for a 5-yard loss.

Tafralis' next pass was picked off by Newberry.

"I was thinking about it all the way," Newberry said. "I knew it was coming at me. I wanted him to throw it my way."

The play was challenged, but then the replay official confirmed it, triggering an onfield celebration.

"Even though we didn't play as good as this other team, we knew when to step it up and get the victory," Brennan said.

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.