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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, November 2, 2008

Borel's big plays were spark Aggies needed

By Wade Denniston
Special to The Advertiser

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Although Utah State quarterback Diondre Borel amassed 223 yards passing and 87 rushing, he was sacked here by UH's David Veikune.

MEL OTA | Special to The Advertiser

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LOGAN, Utah — Diondre Borel wasn't going to let another one slip away for Utah State.

The sophomore quarterback knew he had to do something after Hawai'i got to within six in the fourth quarter.

Borel broke free on a career-long 61-yard run that set up a field goal by Peter Caldwell and USU went on for a 30-14 victory over Hawai'i yesterday at Romney Stadium.

"I was sitting there and I was like, 'Man, we need to make a play. We can't just let them back in the game like this,' because last week was kind of like that," Borel said. "We just made big plays, made a big play. We just took advantage of that and just kept putting points on the board."

Warriors quarterback Greg Alexander scored on a 9-yard touchdown run with seven minutes left to slice the deficit to 20-14, but Borel led the Aggies to 10 points on their next two possessions to put the game away.

A week ago, USU took a one-point lead over Fresno State with 38 seconds to go in the game, but the Bulldogs escaped with a 30-28 win after Kevin Goessling nailed a 58-yard field goal as time expired.

"We had some ups and downs in the football game like we knew we would," USU head coach Brent Guy said. "But we learned our lessons from last week and we finished the game in the fourth quarter like we needed to finish it.

"We made plays on defense and that made a huge difference. And then the offense when they had to, took the ball down, took time off the clock and scored to get separation."

Borel was 14 of 19 for 223 yards and two touchdowns. He was also the leading rusher in the game with 87 yards on 14 carries.

"I knew he was good coming into today's game," Hawai'i head coach Greg McMackin said. "They said he was good. We put pressure on him and did everything we could do, but he runs around and we couldn't tackle him.

"He is quicker than anybody else we have faced this year. I give him a lot of credit."

The Warriors did sack Borel four times on the day, including 2.5 times by end David Veikune.

USU tried to switch things up a bit when Sean Setzer replaced Borel early in the second quarter.

However, Jameel Dowling intercepted a pass by Setzer on the very first play of the drive.

"(Coach) told (Sean) he was gonna get in third or fourth series, try to do a two-minute drill at slow space," Borel said of the change. "He got in there and the ball got tipped. He threw an interception and then coach took him out, but it wasn't really his fault."

Borel was back in the game on the Aggies' very next possession and made his presence felt right away.

On the first play of the drive, Borel threw a 62-yard touchdown pass to Nnamdi Gwacham to give USU a 10-0 lead with 8:48 left in the first half.

"I told him before the play, before he called the play out, I was like, 'Just get ready,' " Borel said. "And I threw the ball and he made a good catch for the touchdown."

Then after Hawai'i made it 10-7 on a 34-yard touchdown pass from Alexander to Michael Washington with 6:20 remaining, Borel answered for the Aggies.

USU ate up the remainder of the clock and Caldwell capped the 15-play, 63-yard drive with a 34-yard field goal to give the Aggies a 13-7 lead at the half.

Borel threw a 23-yard touchdown pass to Robert Turbin to make it 20-7 with 1:26 left in the third quarter.