The toughest thing about last night's game for the University of Hawai'i football team might have been deciding when its 44-9 rout of Eastern Illinois was officially over.

When the Warriors roared out to a 21-6 first quarter lead?

When the UH defense stuffed the Panthers three-and-out on the first series of the third quarter?

Or, when head coach June Jones pulled starting quarterback Colt Brennan and several starters with 3 minutes, 29 seconds left in the third quarter for Inoke Funaki and the reserves?

Our vote: seven months ago, on March 2, when UH officials signed the contract.

So much for challenges. Indeed, it was everything you expected with an out-manned Division I-AA opponent on hand. Which undoubtedly had something to do with the meager announced turnout, 22,480, at quick-to-empty Aloha Stadium.

This one, which enabled the Warriors to return to .500 (2-2), was over in a hurry — and not just because it was the fastest UH game (2 hours, 54 minutes) in a decade. If this had been a pugilistic contest, veteran boxing referee Abe Pacheco, who was on the timing crew, would have stopped it about the time Jones called his first running play of the game, 5 minutes and 20 seconds into the action and UH on its way to a 14-0 lead. Indeed, on this night the biggest challenge for anybody from Hawai'i might have been the Pepsi QB Challenge where a fan tries to throw a football through a target for a year's supply of the product.

And some actually wondered if UH would suffer a letdown after the tough loss at Boise State.

Like the open date after Alabama, it was everything UH needed at the right time in a 13-game season. Which, in this case, is heading into the thick of its Western Athletic Conference schedule with Nevada next week, followed by back-to-back conference road games at Fresno State and New Mexico State.

It gave the Warriors a chance to all but empty the benches in the best AYSO everybody-plays fashion, employing 60 players — including nine receivers, eight of whom caught passes — on what was, fittingly enough, Family Night so everybody could see them play.

"It was good for the younger guys; guys who needed to get some playing time," said defensive end Ikaika Alama-Francis. "It was good to see those guys shut 'em out in the second half."

Free safety Leonard Peters, whose first quarter interception could have well been the nail in this one, said, "You hope things will just get rolling like a snowball for us."

The only real question last night was whether Brennan would match Nick Rolovich's school record for touchdowns (6) in a half. And the answer was: No.

He had 369 yards passing and five touchdowns in the first half — one TD short of Rolovich's school record. If not for an interception with 11 seconds left in the second quarter, one of his few ill-advised adventures of a 30-of-41 (409 yards) passing night, Brennan might have tied the record.

It was left to Brennan to put the whole exercise in perspective.

"At the time I didn't know I had a shot at the record," said Brennan, who only learned of it later. Not that he said it would have mattered much. "Everyone talks about that one game Nick had against BYU (in the 72-45 victory in 2001) and what a thing it was," Brennan said. "If there is any record that he had in that game that I want to chase, I want it to be done in a big-time game against a big-time opponent in a big-time environment. Something like (this) wouldn't get me. But if it was Boise State, Fresno State or somebody like that and I got the opportunity, then it means something different."

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