HAWAII wide receiver Ashley Lelie continued his assault on the UH record book. Lelie leads nation’s ‘best
receiving corps’
By Dave Reardon
dreardon@starbulletin.comWith his 78-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter, Lelie broke his own school single-season receiving touchdown record of 11, which he set last season.
Lelie's 12th TD of the season tied the score at 7 midway through the first quarter. He added two more scoring catches in the game.
He also turned in a career-high 211 yards on six catches, three for touchdowns.
The Warrior wide receivers combined for 29 catches for 497 yards and 7 touchdowns.
"We're the best receiving corps in the nation -- hands down," said Lelie, who is not known to boast.
Mr. Perfect: Miami freshman quarterback Ben Roethlisberger didn't take long to break the school record for single-season passing yardage. On the last play of the first quarter, he hit Jason Branch for a 13-yard completion -- making him 12-for-12 to start the game with 113 yards to give him 2,528 on the season.
Roethlisberger passed Mike Bath, who threw for 2,525 yards in 1999.
He finished with 452 yards on 40 of 53 passing, including three TDs.
Flag football: The RedHawks hurt themselves with penalties throughout the game, down to the last play, when Michael Adams was offsides on Justin Ayat's first try at a game-winning field goal.
Miami was flagged 16 times for 121 yards compared to 5 for 33 for Hawaii.
Getting tricky: Hawaii went deep into the playbook early. Wide receiver Justin Colbert was the quarterback on an option play early in the second quarter. Colbert tossed to Thero Mitchell for an 8-yard gain, but Nick Rolovich was intercepted by Rod Clark two plays later.
It was the Warriors' second running play of the game. UH did not run the ball at all in the first quarter.
G'day, mate: Mat McBriar was again a bright spot for Hawaii, with two punts of 60 yards in the first half.
The second, with Miami leading 21-7, took a fortuitous bounce at the Miami 1-yard line, where Sean Butts downed it with 9:05 left in the first half.
After the Hawaii defense stopped Miami without a first down, the Warriors took over on the RedHawk 40.
Five plays later, UH was back in it at 21-14 as Rolovich hooked up with Lelie for their second touchdown connection of the game.
Butts proved key again, as he blocked the extra point after Roethlisberger's 9-yard TD run put Miami up 51-49 with 1:08 left. It was Butts' third blocked kick of the season.
Winning season: With their victory last night, and two games to go, the Warriors have guaranteed a winning record.
Hawaii has had only two other winning seasons since 1990. In 1992, UH went 11-2 including a Holiday Bowl victory over Illinois. In 1999, Hawaii went 9-4, including an Oahu Bowl win against Oregon State.
Short yardage: Miami's Ben Herrell was ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct on an extra-point attempt in the third quarter. A brief fracas broke out after the game, involving dozens of players from both teams. Coaches from both teams broke it up. ... Hawaii had given up more than 30 points in two other games this season: victories over Southern Methodist (38-31) and Fresno State (38-34).