One second-half touchdown.

As the confetti whirled around a slow-to-empty sold-out Aloha Stadium and the tempered Senior Night celebration wound down, it was the incongruity of that lone second-half TD on the scoreboard that stuck with you the most in Oregon State's 35-32 victory over the University of Hawai'i last night.

It hung there hauntingly the way a full moon had for a brief moment earlier.

After nine weeks of pinball like scores. After more than two months of making it all look so easy, putting up 40, 50 and 60 points seemingly at will, the longest single-season winning streak in school history ended at nine games.

Not with a bold, last-gasp bullet but with a harmless short-hop bounce of quarterback Colt Brennan's pass in front of Jason Rivers on fourth down and 14 at the OSU 10-yard line with 2 minutes, 8 seconds remaining.

Only when Rivers began to pick himself up off the FieldTurf did it start to sink in among the faithful in a gathering of 46,683 that this most magical of runs was over for the now 10-3 Warriors.

Gone, too, most likely is their No. 24 national ranking, Brennan's best chance of being invited to New York next weekend as a Heisman Trophy finalist and the shot at being the winningest team in school history. All ended by the same Beavers who had halted Southern California's unbeaten run five weeks earlier.

The Sun Bowl-bound Beavers cherished this one, too, dashing to their fans in the corner of the north end zone to celebrate a seventh win in eight games and a 9-4 regular season.

The Warriors were let down by a rare piercing of kickoff coverage when Gerard Lawson returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter. They were hurt by a defense that curiously lacked its bite for three quarters and gave up telling big plays, including three touchdowns of 21 yards or more. But they were ultimately done in by an offense that was held to one second-half touchdown for the first time in more than a year. The Warriors' other second-half points came on a field goal and a safety.

On a night when the Beavers and their quarterback, Matt Moore, came ready to match the Warriors score for score, UH was unable to get in gear an offense that gotten it this far. They were unable to find and keep the rhythm that made them so feared at home.

And because they were, the Warriors never led in the game.

Only in a 21-point second quarter did the Warriors, albeit briefly, look like the offensive unit they had been these last months, the one leading the nation in passing, scoring and oohs and aahs.

As much the fans, including some waving an "In Colt We Trust" sign, implored the Warriors to snap out of it, they never really did.

While some fans in Section E posted a visible countdown to the NCAA single-season touchdown passing record, the Warriors didn't get that one either, with Brennan throwing two to come up one short of David Klingler's mark of 54 with the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl remaining.

Instead, while Brennan did complete 74 percent of his passes (37 of 50) for 401 yards and two touchdowns, he was also picked off twice and sacked a career high six times.

In the end, as the Warriors and their fans prepared to file out of the stadium, that lone second-half touchdown told the tale of this one.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.