Bryant Moniz may give off a pleasant friendliness upon first glance, but don't be fooled, the sophomore quarterback has a killer instinct.

"STK ... shoot to kill," said Moniz to a passing Shane Austin after last night's 24-17 win over Navy at Aloha Stadium.

"That's kind of our motto between the quarterbacks," said Moniz, who passed for 366 yards and three touchdowns without an interception to keep the Warriors' bowl hopes alive.

"That's the main thing: that we won," Moniz said. "It doesn't matter what the stats are at all; That 'W' was all we wanted."

The 6-foot, 190-pound Leilehua graduate returned to action after missing last week's win at San Jose State with bruised ribs that he suffered two weeks ago against New Mexico State.

"He's a trooper," said Moniz's favorite target, Greg Salas. "If he's hurting, he won't show it ... he's just a hell of a player."

Late in the first quarter, Moniz opened UH's first scoring drive with a 31-yard completion to Salas and followed that with a 35-yard pass back to Salas that he floated over a Navy defender along the left sideline. Three plays later, Moniz found Kealoha Pilares in the far left corner of the end zone for a 24-yard TD pass to put UH ahead, 7-0.

After the Midshipmen tied it on a 53-yard Ricky Dobbs TD run, the Warriors got the ball back to start the second quarter. Moniz completed seven of his nine pass attempts — including six straight — on the drive, but UH had to settle for a 34-yard Scott Enos field goal to make it 10-7 with 8:52 before halftime.

Navy took it's only lead at 17-10 with 1:07 left in the second, but Jovonte Taylor returned the ensuing kickoff 55 yards and Moniz led on a nine-play, 44-yard drive that was capped by his 7-yard TD pass to Pilares in the back of the end zone. That score tied it at 17 at the half.

UH regained possession with 5:09 left in the third quarter. Moniz completed a 25-yard pass to Pilares on first down and later in the drive, on third-and-3, he found Salas for a 7-yard gain for a first down. Moniz took matters into his own hands three plays later, moving the chains on a scramble for 11 yards. Two plays later he threw a swing pass out to Alex Green, who took it 14 yards for the go-ahead score. Moniz was 5-of-6 on the drive, but the lone incompletion was a drop. He finished 32-of-44 passing.

"This offense is a repetition offense," Moniz said. "The more reps you get, the more you start to see things and this being my fifth or sixth game, I'm starting to get comfortable in the game situations."

UH quarterbacks' coach Nick Rolovich agreed.

"I think it works both ways," said Rolovich, a former Warrior quarterback. "I think the offense is taking to him and I think he's taking to this offense."

Rolovich said Moniz's progress is a sign of the work he puts in.

"He's picked things up a lot quicker than I did, but I don't believe that it's because I'm any dumber than he is or he's smarter than I am, but because he's put the effort in way more than I did," Rolovich said. "Me, as a player, I didn't (put in the effort), and I was lucky to get my second chance. Mo came in and has put forth his best effort ever since he's got here and that's the reason why he is where he is."

For the season, Moniz has now passed for 2,163 yards and 13 touchdowns against eight interceptions.

"That's kind of what we wanted to get to, where there's no hesitation in your read and you just trust it," he said. "That's kind of where I'm at now and it just feels good, you know, to kind of get us back to that offense of old ... Shoot to kill."

PILARES CATCHING ON WITH THE OFFENSE

While it was more of the same from Greg Salas (10 catches for 147 yards), wide receiver Kealoha Pilares was the Warriors' second-leading pass catcher against the Midshipmen last night.

Pilares, who had just six receptions for 84 yards and no touchdowns in UH's previous three games, broke out for eight grabs, 102 yards and two touchdowns.

"It felt awesome. This whole time I've been at wideout, I haven't been myself." Pilares said. "I'm really proud of the fact that I just kept my head in it, because it can be easy to get discouraged, but this week coach talked about how good things will happen if I just keep playing and I just really started believing that and I knew that my time would come and I'm glad it came tonight and that I was able to help my team win."

Pilares was moved from right slotback to left wideout after Rodney Bradley suffered a season-ending leg injury against Idaho on Oct. 17, which elevated Jon Medeiros to the first unit.

"I even told (Pilares) before the game, 'This is going to be your game,' and as soon as he caught that first touchdown pass, I just knew he was going to have a good game," said Medeiros, who along with Pilares was recruited by Navy.

Pilares, whose last touchdown catch came in the first quarter of the Oct. 31 game at Nevada, started the scoring last night with a 24-yard TD pass in the first quarter. His second touchdown — a 7-yard grab with six seconds before halftime — tied it at 17.

"He's such a great athlete and once you get the ball in his hands, he's shown what he can do with it, so getting him involved is something that we need to do and I'm glad we did," Salas said.

36,834 HELPED FAN WARRIORS' FLAME

Last night's turnstile count of 36,834 fans was the largest home crowd at Aloha Stadium since the 2007 season finale against Washington and the Warriors certainly felt the love.

"It was crazy! I love them," defensive tackle Tuika Tufaga said. "They were into it all game long and at the end, when everyone was standing, it was chicken skin, but it just made us want to fight even harder."

With most of the crowd at its feet, the Midshipmen marched to the Warriors' 39-yard line with about two minutes left to play. However, Marcus Curry was stopped for a 2-yard loss on first down and Dobbs was stopped for a 1-yard loss on the next play. On third down, linebacker R.J. Kiesel-Kauhane dropped Dobbs for a 10-yard sack.

On the game's final play, facing fourth-and-21, Dobbs was again sacked — this time by Blaze Soares — and time expired.

"That crowd was big and we really, really needed them behind us and they were with us 100 percent," Kiesel-Kauhane said.

HOMECOMING FOR FIVE MIDSHIPMEN

Five players that graduated from Hawai'i high schools returned to the Islands with the Midshipmen this week for last night's game.

Wide receivers Matt Shibata (Mid-Pacific), Bruce Andrews (Kaläheo), fullback Cyril Ontai (Kapolei), center Kahikolu Pescaia (Kamehameha) and slotback Aaron Santiago (Kapolei) stepped onto the Aloha Stadium turf once again last night.

"It was great seeing all the boys and to get a chance to come out here and play against them once more," said Santiago, who made his only tackle of the game on special teams in the first quarter. "Once I stepped out of that tunnel, I had some chills. It brought back memories from playing here in high school."

TAKING CONTROL OF THE THIRD QUARTER

After struggling for much of the season in the third quarter, the Warriors have now shut out its past two opponents in the period.

UH held San Jose State scoreless last week on its way to its third consecutive victory and did the same last night against Navy.

"It feels good, but it's the same thing as every week, we try to complete as many goals as we can," linebacker R.J. Kiesel-Kauhane said. "One of the goals was to hold them to 17 points and they were right at that all game. We play for something else, not just the third quarter. For us, this was do or die and we were able to come out with a victory."

It was the first time that the Warriors held a home opponent scoreless in the third quarter since the season-opener against Central Arkansas.

NOTES

The 111th Army National Guard Band performed with the UH Rainbow Warrior Marching Band in pregame ... UH Army and Air Force ROTC Color Guard presented the colors while Danny Kaleikini sang the National Anthem and Hawai'i Pono'i ... The 199th Fighter Squadron from Hickam Air Force Base did a F-15 fly over during the Anthem ... During halftime, Staff Sergeant Samuel Hesch sang God Bless the USA with the UH Marching Band's Kurt Cefra on a trombone solo and troops who recently returned from deployment marched onto the field during halftime and were honored by a rousing ovation from the crowd ...The Warriors wore green jerseys with white pants for the third consecutive home game ... UH is now 9-11-1 all-time against the military academies and 2-0 vs. Navy ... Since 2006, UH is 14-1 in the month of November.