Saturday, December 25, 1999
Hawaii caps
season with Oahu
Bowl win
The win caps Hawaii's impossible
season and makes it the greatest
turnaround in historyWAKE FOREST 23, ARIZONA STATE 3
By Pat Bigold
Star-BulletinHawaii won its second bowl game of the decade tonight with a 23-17 victory over Oregon State before 40,974 fans in the Oahu Bowl at Aloha Stadium.
It marked the greatest turnaround in NCAA football history.
Avion Weaver, who rushed for 84 yards on 18 carries and had 65 more yards on five receptions, was named game MVP.
"It's just amazing after going 0-12," said Weaver. "The coaching staff came in and gave us the schemes and we just believed."
Hawaii (9-4) broke a 10-10 halftime tie on a 30-yard Dan Robinson touchdown pass to Channon Harris on 2nd-and-2 with 6:30 left in the third quarter. Harris broke a tackle to make it into the end zone.
Eric Hannum's point-after kick made it 17-10.
Harris led all receivers with 81 yards on five recpetions.The Rainbows hiked it to 20-10 with 2:10 left in the quarter on a 22-yard Hannum field goal. It followed a nine-play, 54-yard drive.
Hannum increased the lead to 23-10 on a 35-yard field goal with 4:31 left in the fourth quarter.
OSU's Ken Simonton finished the scoring on a 13-yard run with 1:27 left in the game.
Hawaii trailed 7-0 after Simonton ran for a one-yard touchddown with 8:08 left in the first quarter.
Hannum narrowed it to 10-3 on a 26-yard field goal with 12:40 left in the half.
The Rainbows went ahead for the first time in the first half on an eight-play, 80-yard drive that consumed 3:19 and was capped by Robinson's nine-yard touchdown pass to Channon Harris.
Hannum's kick made it 10-7.
But the Beavers tied it on a 37-yard Cesca field goal at the half after driving 27 yards on five plays in the final 36 seconds of the half."We felt physically they were probably a little bit better," said Hawaii head coach June Jones.
"Our team epitomizes what Hawaii is all about...It's been just an awsome year. I'm happy for the fans, the players -- it's just awsome."
Hawaii's last bowl victory was in 1992, a 27-17 win over Illinois the Holiday Bowl.
Robinson, a senior, completed 23 of 40 passes for 266 yards and two touchdowns. He was intercepted once.
OSU sophomore quarterback Jonathan Smith completed 19 of 40 passes for 269 yards and was sacked six times by the Hawaii defense. He was not picked off.
"They got us with a four-man rush and blitzing," said OSU head coach Dennis Erickson, "but they got us even with a three-man rush. I don't know if it was our assignments or what it was, but they mixed up their schemes well."
Beaver offensive lineman Aaron Koch said Hawaii's ability to penetrate surprised him.
"Hawaii's effectiveness in blitzing is a surprise to me because I thought we were doing a good job in practice picking up their blitzes," said Koch. "I was surprised they got through so much. They seemed to come from the outside tonight after we watched them on tape coming from the middle."
Simonton gained 157 of OSU's 169 net rushing yards.
Cesca missed 42 and 31-yard field goal attempts while the Hawaii special teams (Jonathan Kauka) blocked a 47-yard try.
Linebacker Jeff Ulbrich led the Hawaii defense with nine tackles (two caused a net loss of nine yards) while strong safety Dee Miller had seven. "We just had some gap situations...we stunted in...things like that," said Hawaii defensive coordinator Greg McMackin, who coached his last game on the Rainbows sideline. McMackin will move to Texas Tech next season."We did a great job with our zone blitz," said Jones. "Greg McMackin did a great job. We said we were going to go after them and we did. We probably should have come after him (Smith) even more."
Free safety Calvin Carlyle led the Beavers with eight tackles.
The Rainbows won despite falling short in both total offense and possession time.
Hawaii had 349 net offensive yards to OSU's 438 and owned the ball for 28 minutes and 51 seconds to OSU's 31:09.
But OSU lost 40 yards rushing while Hawaii lost only eight.
Hawaii was assessed 88 yards on nine penalties, while OSU was set back 138 yards on 14 calls.
UH 0 10 10 3 -- 23 OSU 7 3 0 7 -- 17SCORING SUMMARY
OSU: Simonton 1 run (Cesca kick)
UH: Hannum 26 FG
UH: Harris 9 pass from Robinson (Hannum kick)
OSU: Cesca 37 FG
UH: Harris 30 pass from Robinson (Hannum kick)
UH: Hannum 22 FG
UH: Hannum 35 FG
OSU: Simonton 13 run (Cesca kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
UH: Weaver 18-84, Thompson 1-3, Stutzmann 2-2, Robinson 3-(-6). OSU: Simonton 18-157, Battle 6-19, Smith 11-(-7).
PASSING
UH: Robinson 40-23-1 for 266 yards. OSU: Smith 40-19-0 for 269 yards.
RECEIVING
UH: Harris 5-81, Weaver 5-65, Stutzmann 4-50, Lelie 4-43, Carter 4-29, Brooks 1-0. OSU: Percoats 5-67, Prescott 4-61, Simonton 3-25, Houshmandzadeh 2-53, Kintner 2-27, Maurer 1-16, Jones 1-14, Tompkins 1-6.
WAKE FOREST 23, ARIZONA STATE 3
In the Aloha Bowl, The Demon Deacons (7-5) scored 20 points in the second half to defeat the Sun Devils (6-6).Matthew Burdick kicked three field goals (22, 24, 43 yards) for the Demon Deacons.
Senior quarterback Ben Sankey completed 13 of 22 passes, including a 56-yard scoring play to sophomore wide receiver Jimmy Caldwell with 4:18 left in the third quarter.
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
