Saturday, October 10, 1998
Aztecs batter ’Bows
San Diego State runs its
By Paul Arnett
win streak to nine over UH, which
drops to 0-5 for the first
time in school history
Star-BulletinSAN DIEGO -- The one phase of the game Hawaii has been able to count on since Fred vonAppen put on the hard hat was knocked flat to the ground by San Diego State.
The Aztecs' offense blew through the Rainbows' defense with such a force in last night's 35-13 victory, all that was left for vonAppen to survey was a cracked foundation.
"Our defense stunk," vonAppen said outside a quiet UH locker room. "I was very disappointed. I don't have much of an explanation for it. Our coaching staff had the defense ready for their counters and zone runs, but we just didn't make plays.
"Coach (Ted) Tollner was patient with his offense. They found out what worked and stuck it up our heinies. We didn't tackle well at all. Their backs (Larry Ned and Jonas Lewis) were just running through us. They were shedding us too easily."
Lewis rushed for 112 yards and one touchdown. Ned added 111 yards and two scores as the Aztecs continued their dominance over the Rainbows. They wound up winning all nine games this decade in a Western Athletic Conference series that mercifully came to an end.The Rainbows dropped to 0-5 on the season, the worst start in school history. It was Hawaii's 11th consecutive loss since a victory over Fresno State nearly a year ago. The Rainbows have also dropped 22 consecutive league road games.
They did end their nine-quarter scoreless streak on a 20-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Dan Robinson to receiver Dwight Carter for a 7-0 lead 8:35 into the game.
The scoring play was set up by a 42-yard punt return by Daniel Ho-Ching and it gave the Rainbows their only first-half lead of the season.
At that point, vonAppen felt this might be the Rainbows' night. But that changed in a hurry with -- what else -- a punt return.
Damon Gourdine, whose father sang the national anthem, returned Chad Shrout's punt 57 yards for the first of five unanswered SDSU touchdowns. It was the second consecutive week a UH opponent has returned a punt for a touchdown and the seventh such score in two seasons, leaving vonAppen at a loss.
"Really it was more of the same on the punt return," vonAppen said. "We had people there and we just got stacked up. It looked like we were in a chow line."
Unfortunately for vonAppen, the Aztecs did all the chewing from that point on. They ate up the Rainbows on two scoring drives before the half, which ended all hope of a Hawaii upset.
Ned completed a six-play, 76-yard scoring drive with a touchdown run from the 1, and he took it in from 47 yards out on San Diego State's ensuing possession. He broke five tackles on the latter run, leaving UH defenders strewn all over the field.
VonAppen and his coaching staff talked loud and long at the half in regard to the poor defensive play. First-year UH defensive coordinator Tom Williams thought the speeches took, but he was wrong.
On the opening drive of the second half, San Diego State went 74 yards on 11 plays to take a 28-7 advantage. Lewis went left on first-and-goal from the 9, then reversed his field and scored on a clearing block by quarterback Brian Russell.
On the ensuing series, Russell put the game away, throwing a 38-yard scoring strike to wide receiver Sean Pierce.The Rainbows were caught in a safety blitz, leaving Pierce so open he was able to wait several seconds for the pass to arrive and still skip safely into the end zone.
"The past few weeks, it has been mostly the defense carrying us," junior free safety Ho-Ching said. "Now we get the offense going and the defense doesn't step up. You can't let that happen. Even when the score is lopsided, we can't just start walking around. We have to keep going."
After last week's loss to Southern Methodist, the defense began to mutter under its breath about the offense, something Williams tried to head off before a war of words erupted.
"I told them people in glass houses can't afford to throw stones," Williams said. "And look what happened. It took the offense awhile to come around, and when they did, we let down.
"We had the correct plays called most of the time. But the players have to make the plays work, and they didn't in several situations. We're going to have a lot of tackling drills this week because we obviously need the practice. We played poorly, to say the least."
San Diego State generated 451 yards on 67 plays against a defense that came in ranked No. 38 in the nation. Hawaii had 302 yards on 62 plays.
"They (the Rainbows) were able to generate some big plays, but they lacked consistency," Tollner said. "I told our guys at the half that they had to come out and play better football. For the most part, we did that."
The Rainbows closed out the scoring on a 52-yard pass from Robinson to Wesley Morris with 2:14 left. But it was a case of too little, too late.
"We had guys wide open all night, but Dan kept missing them," UH offensive coordinator Don Lindsey said. "But we can't run and can't stop the run, so we can't win. Like I said, I got no answers, I got no excuses. But hope springs eternal."
UH Game Stats
Hawaii--Carter 20 pass from Robinson (Shrout kick), 6:25
SDSU--D. Gourdine 57 punt return (Tandberg kick), 1:54
Second Quarter
SDSU--Ned 1 run (Tandberg kick), 5:19
SDSU--Ned 47 run (Tandberg kick), 1:44
Third Quarter
SDSU--J. Lewis 9 run (Tandberg kick), 9:50
SDSU--Pierce 38 pass from Russell (Tandberg kick), 7:48
Fourth Quarter
Hawaii--Morris 52 pass from Robinson (kick failed), 2:14
A--20,320
Individual statistics
Rushing
Hawaii
Car Yards TD Long Zoller 8 23 0 12 Tharp 7 14 0 8 Robinson 8 10 0 12 Weaver 2 6 0 4 Grant 1 2 0 2 Liana 3 0 0 4 Totals 29 55 0 12San Diego State
Car Yards TD Long J. Lewis 16 118 1 22 Ned 11 111 2 47 Williams 6 12 0 6 Truvillion 5 11 0 6 Russell 5 11 0 6 Harris 1 0 0 0 Totals 44 263 3 47Hawaii
Att Comp Yards Int TD Robinson 30 18 233 0 2 Liana 3 1 14 0 0 Totals 33 19 247 0 2San Diego State
Att Comp Yards Int TD Russell 18 10 162 0 1 Harris 5 3 261 1 0 Totals 23 13 188 1 1Hawaii
Rec Yards TD Long Morris 8 146 1 52 Tharp 3 14 0 6 Carter 2 24 1 20 Kane 2 17 0 14 Stutzman 1 20 0 20 Weaver 1 17 0 17 Thompson 1 5 0 5 Anderson 1 4 0 4 Totals 19 247 2 52San Diego State
Rec Yards TD Long Gourdine 5 63 0 22 Pierce 2 44 1 38 Reyes 2 29 0 21 Mitchell 1 26 0 26 Ange 1 13 0 13 Brakefield 1 8 0 8 Jarvis 1 5 0 5 Totals 13 188 1 38Hawaii
No. Yards Avg. Long Shrout 7 292 41.7 49 Totals 7 292 41.7 49San Diego State
No. Yards Avg. Long Copeland 4 160 40.0 42 Totals 4 160 40.0 42Hawaii
Punts Kickoffs No. Yds. Lg No. Yds. Lg Ho-Ching 2 43 42 0 0 0 Morris 0 0 0 1 10 10 Tharp 0 0 0 2 36 20 Totals 2 43 42 3 46 20San Diego State
Punts Kickoffs No. Yds. Lg No. Yds. Lg Gourdine 5 96 57 2 41 22 F. Lewis 1 7 7 0 0 0 Totals 6 103 57 2 41 22Hawaii
Una Ast Total Loss Sack LeJay 6 1 7 0 0 D. Williams. 5 1 6 0 0 A. Smith 3 3 6 0 0 Paul 3 2 5 0 0 Ho-Ching 3 2 5 0 0 Ulbrich 2 2 4 0 0 Jackson 2 2 4 0 1 Morgan 4 0 4 1 0 Cobb-Adams 2 1 3 0 0 Bobbitt 2 1 3 0 0 Correia 3 0 3 0 0 Warren 2 1 3 0 0 Wright 1 1 2 0 0 Bright 1 1 2 0 0 Tuioti 0 2 2 0 0 Garner 2 0 2 1 0 Rosehill 2 0 2 0 0 Elam 1 0 1 0 0 Mollner 1 0 1 0 0 Garnier 1 0 1 0 0 Arafiles 1 0 1 0 0 Shrout 1 0 1 0 0 Jiles 1 0 1 0 0San Diego State
Una Ast Total Loss Sack Abaja 4 1 5 1 2 Jones 3 1 4 0 0 Haywood 3 1 4 1 0 Nicholson 2 1 3 0 0 Jackson 3 3 6 2 0 Auerbach 3 2 5 0 1 Mayo 2 1 3 0 0 Tuipala 1 0 1 0 0 Smith 3 3 6 0 0 Curtis 2 1 3 0 0 Lewis 1 0 1 0 0 Johnson 1 1 2 0 0 Abdul-Rahim 3 1 4 0 0 Chlumak 2 1 3 0 0 Butler 1 0 1 0 0 Balisteri 1 0 1 0 0 Cleary 0 1 1 0 0 Spillane 1 0 0 0 0Team statistics
Hawaii SDSFirst downs
16 23 Rush 4 13 Pass 11 8 Penalty 1 2Rushing
Attempts 29 44 Net yards 55 263Passing
Completions 19 23 Attempts 33 13 Interceptions 0 1 Net yards 247 188Total offense
Plays 62 67 Yards 302 451Punts
Number 7 4 Yards 292 160 Average 41.7 40.0Punt returns
Number 2 6 Yards 43 103Kickoff returns
Number 3 2 Yards 46 41Fumbles
Number 0 1 Lost 0 0Penalties
Number 6 3 Yards 50 15Sacks made
Number-yards lost 1-7 3-16Conversions
Third down 2-13 6-13 Fourth down 1-3 0-0
WAC
Conference Overall W L Pct. W L Pct. San Diego State 2 0 1.000 2 3 .400 San Jose State 1 0 1.000 2 3 .400 Fresno State 1 0 1.000 1 3 .250 Utah 1 1 .555 3 2 .600 Brigham Young 0 1 .000 2 3 .400 Texas-El Paso 0 1 .000 0 4 .000 New Mexico 0 2 .000 2 3 .400 Hawaii 0 3 .000 0 5 .000
Conference Overall W L Pct. W L Pct. Texas Christian 1 0 1.000 3 1 .750 Wyoming 1 0 1.000 3 1 .750 Rice 1 0 1.000 1 3 .250 Air Force 3 1 .750 4 1 .800 Colorado State 2 1 .667 4 2 .667 Southern Meth 1 1 .500 1 4 .200 Tulsa 0 1 .000 2 2 .500 Nevada-LV 0 2 .000 0 5 .000Friday's gameSan Diego State 35, Hawaii 13
Today's games
Navy at Air Force, 8 a.m.
Nevada-Las Vegas at Brigham Young, 8 a.m.
Southern Methodist at Wyoming, 9 a.m.
Tulsa at Colorado State, 9:30 a.m.
Fresno State at Texas Christian, 1 p.m.
Texas-El Paso at New Mexico, 2 p.m.
Rice at San Jose State, 3 p.m.
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