There was disappointment and even some shock among the U.S. Naval Academy football team's ranks after its 24-17 loss to the University of Hawai'i last night.

But there shouldn't have been any lack of recognition of the tactics.

Not after the Warriors rolled up the Midshipmen's own game plan and smacked them over their golden helmets with it.

What the Mids have done to their opponents in an 8-4 season UH did unto them with its own superb time-consuming ball control and a save-the-day defense for a fourth consecutive victory.

"That was kind of our plan, just take their game strategy and flip it on them; try and keep their offense off the field," said UH quarterback Bryant Moniz, who accomplished it blending a monopolistic passing game and a change-of-pace running attack.

The combination and UH's defensive gem of the season, so far, sets up a bowl-or-bust Dec. 5 regular season finale against Wisconsin.

Win and the Warriors have a date with June Jones and his Southern Methodist team on Christmas Eve in the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl.

It has been a patient, painstaking march to 6-6 for the Warriors, who last visited the .500 mark at the end of September.

But last night, in front of the largest home crowd in more than two seasons, 36,834, the Warriors made urgency their mission in what would become their fastest game (2 hours, 46 minutes) in 22 years.

Not since a 28-7 loss to, would you believe, ground-hugging Wisconsin in 1987, has UH played four quarters in less time.

Back then UH ran the spread option — and the clock — and Ken Niumatalolo was one of the quarterbacks. This time Niumatalolo was on the opposite sideline as Navy's head coach watching UH hold the ball for a remarkable 28 minutes and 50 seconds. Most crucial would be the 15 minutes and 35 seconds of air UH took out of the ball in the second half.

"They did a good job of controlling the ball and keeping it out of our hands," said Ricky Dobbs, Navy's quarterback.

Consider UH burned 6 minutes, 8 seconds in setting up Scott Enos' 34-yard field goal in the second quarter. It exhausted 4 minutes, 32 seconds on what proved to be the game winning third-quarter drive where Moniz passed 14 yards to running back Alex Green for the touchdown.

"When they got it, they held it for a while, moving it up and down the field, something we should have been doing," Dobbs said.

And when the Warriors needed to score in a hurry they were able to do that, too. UH went 44 yards in 51 seconds to score on Moniz's 7-yard pass to Kealoha Pilares and tie the game at 17 at halftime.

For a team that has suffered time management issues this season it was a textbook demonstration in the finer points.

The most telling drive, however, came at the end of the fourth quarter and didn't even result in a UH score. But, in driving to the Navy 16 where the threat expired on fourth-and-1, UH left Navy, a team that would be without timeouts, with 84 yards to go and precious little time (5 minutes, 41 seconds) for the option to accomplish it.

"We couldn't get in the groove (offensively) at the end there," Dobbs said. "They put us in an uncomfortable position."

On this night turnabout wasn't just fair play, it was the Warriors' best play to save their bowl hopes.