GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii starting quarterback Jason Whieldon looked for running room with Boise State defenders Andy Avalos, Dane Oldham and Andrew Browning in pursuit last night at Aloha Stadium.
Broncos buck
WarriorsBig plays boost WAC champion
Boise State past Hawaii in a game
with national implications
In the end, they cheered in Boise and Baton Rouge. They cried in Halawa and Los Angeles.
Last night's football game between Boise State and Hawaii was supposed to be for the Western Athletic Conference championship. And the stakes remained high last night for the rivals, although the Broncos had wrapped up the league title the previous week.
But the ESPN2-televised game may have also had huge national impact. The Broncos' 45-28 victory over the Warriors before 35,315 at Aloha Stadium might have pushed Southern California out of the national championship game; after the final accounting, USC's 61-32 win over UH doesn't look so pretty to the BCS computers' strength of schedule formula.
While that bytes for the Trojans, the Broncos and Warriors didn't care. It was senior night for Hawaii (8-5, 5-3 WAC), and it was the culmination of another attention-getting regular season for No. 18 Boise State (12-1, 8-0). And both are going to bowls -- UH to the Hawaii Bowl, and BSU to the Fort Worth Bowl.
Hawaii's defense again played well, but a couple of big plays by Boise State, an inconsistent UH offense and some sketchy special-teams play betrayed the Warriors.
"We just didn't play good enough to win," said Hawaii coach June Jones, whose quarterbacks were victim to three interceptions. "A lot of mistakes, a lot of penalties and they're a good football team."
Some will say a very good football team, if the Broncos can beat Texas Christian in the Fort Worth Bowl.
"What does two 8-0 seasons in conference mean?" Boise State coach Dan Hawkins asked rhetorically after. "I don't care what conference you're in -- that's quite an achievement."
The victory was even sweeter for BSU considering Hawaii was a preseason favorite to win the WAC championship. The Warriors finished tied for fourth in the league.
UH held BSU to 100 yards rushing, but the Broncos netted 429 total despite four Hawaii sacks. Two were by tackle Isaac Sopoaga, one of 19 seniors honored after their final regular-season game.
Another senior, end Travis LaBoy, led the Warriors with nine tackles and added a sack.
"We tended to play well for two or three quarters, and we needed to step up and play a full 60 minutes," LaBoy said. "We'll be able to rebound. We'll use this as a learning tool and be ready to play (in the Hawaii Bowl)."
Donny Heck rushed for four touchdowns, and quarterback Ryan Dinwiddie -- harassed by the UH defensive line most of the night -- put together a long drive in the third quarter that might have been the fatal blow for UH.
"They have a heckuva D-line," said Dinwiddie, who finished with 329 yards passing on 20 of 31 attempts and no touchdown passes. "We knew we'd have our hands full with their defense. I knew I'd get hit."
Hawaii quarterback Tim Chang -- booed last week in a victory against Alabama -- was cheered when he entered the game with 13:05 left to replace starter Jason Whieldon.
Whieldon finished with 23 completions in 44 attempts, and passed for two touchdowns. But he was intercepted twice.
"Jason's a competitor," Jones said. "It just couldn't all come together at the same time."
Chang sparked UH to a six-play, 51-yard drive, ending with a 14-yard TD pass to Chad Owens with 9:49 left. It closed the score to 38-28, but wasn't enough. Chang's magic ran out on the next series, as he was intercepted by BSU's Chris Carr with 5:49 left.
Heck scored his fourth TD, four plays later, on a 13-yard run.
He also got in on a 2-yarder early in the fourth quarter after Dinwiddie found Jerry Smith behind the UH defense for a 68-yard pass.
Hawaii started the second half well.
Mike Bass scored on a 17-yard draw play, cutting Boise State's lead to 24-21 at 12:15 of the third quarter.
Bass' run followed a 17-yard third-down pass from Whieldon to Britton Komine.
Meanwhile, Hawaii's defense stuffed Boise's offense in the first three series of the first half for minus-4 yards on nine plays.
"Our defense played at times good enough for us to win," Jones said.
The Warriors got a break when David Gilmore recovered a fumble on a Boise State punt return midway through the third quarter. UH couldn't get a first down, but Kurt Milne's next punt put the ball on the BSU 10.
The Broncos finally got a second-half first down on the next series -- and didn't stop there. Boise State marched 91 yards on 12 plays and 6 minutes and 12 seconds, with Heck powering in for the final 8 yards.
"Physically we knew it was going to be a tough game," said Heck, who is normally a backup but led the Broncos with 87 yards on 25 carries.
Following Tyler Jones' point-after, Boise State led 31-21 with six seconds left in the third quarter.
The Warriors had 408 yards of offense, and the offensive line did not allow a sack for the third game in a row.
"The defense got a couple of stops and when you get stops you have to take advantage," UH receiver Komine said. "At times the offense looked really productive, but we weren't consistent."
Boise State led 24-14 after a first half in which its special teams provided excellent field position and the Broncos' offense took advantage of several of the opportunities.
BSU outgained Hawaii 215 yards to 199 in the first half, but also enjoyed a 135 to 6 margin in return yardage.
Whieldon kept UH in the game with two touchdown passes.
Hawaii got on the board first, with a big assist from the defense. LaBoy tipped and then intercepted a pass by Dinwiddie, giving UH the ball at the Boise State 33 with 5:58 left in the first quarter. Earlier, LaBoy got his 13th sack of the season to halt Boise State's first drive of the game. The Hawaii record for one season is 17 by Al Noga in 1986.
After the interception, Whieldon completed three straight passes and scrambled for 7 yards to the Broncos' 4.
The score came on the next play, a pass to Jeremiah Cockheran in the end zone on an out route. Cornerback Wes Nurse fell down on the play. Nolan Miranda tacked on the extra point, and UH led 7-0 at 3:44 of the first quarter.
Cockheran caught three passes for 20 yards on the drive. The touchdown was his ninth of the season.
But Hawaii was then dogged by poor field position for several series.
BSU tailback Lee Marks, a former defensive back, scored on a 30-yard run with nine seconds left in the first quarter. Jones' extra point tied it at 7.
Marks bolted through a big hole on the right side and then cut through the Hawaii secondary. His run capped a four-play, 41-yard drive; the good field position came from a 23-yard punt by UH's Milne.
John West fell down on the ensuing kickoff, forcing UH to start its possession at its own 9. UH punted from its own 15 and Brad Allen returned the ball 26 yards to the Hawaii 30.
BSU again took advantage of the short field, scoring five plays later on a 7-yard run by Donny Heck. Dinwiddie hit T.J. Acree for a 20-yard pass on third-and-10 to fuel the drive. The Broncos led 14-7 with 12:34 left before halftime.
Boise padded the lead to 17-7 with a 20-yard field goal by Jones with 6:18 remaining before the break. Another big catch by Acree, this one for 31 yards, pulled BSU out of a third-down-and-37 hole.
Acree, playing in place of hobbled starting receiver Tim Gilligan, caught five passes for 75 yards in the first half.
Meanwhile, Hawaii's offense stalled. But the Warriors re-energized with a nine-play, 80-yard drive that ended with Komine cradling a 3-yard TD pass from Whieldon. Miranda's extra point brought Hawaii back to 17-14 at the 2:58 mark.
The drive featured Whieldon, who completed three passes, including a 25-yarder to Chad Owens. Whieldon also scrambled 20 yards to put the ball on the Boise State 6.
The Broncos' special teams then set up another score, with a 55-yard kickoff return by Carr, letting BSU set up shop at the UH 43. Dinwiddie struck again on third-and-long, finding Lawrence Bady for 31 yards to the Hawaii 10. Two plays later, David Mikell dived in for a 6-yard TD run at 0:58 and a 24-14 lead after Jones' kick.
Whieldon immediately went deep but his pass was picked off by Nurse. BSU's Colt Brooks recovered Nurse's fumble on the return at the UH 41.
