RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii receiver Ross Dickerson pulled in a pass in front of USC's John Walker during the first quarter. Dickerson caught five passes for 116 yards.

Dickerson does enough

University of Hawaii wideout Ross Dickerson didn't feel like celebrating despite catching five passes for 116 yards.

The junior receiver was consistently open as four of his receptions went for first downs. Dickerson said it was hard to take satisfaction from playing well after Hawaii lost to two-time defending national champion Southern California 63-17 yesterday at Aloha Stadium.

"We didn't accomplish our main goal," he said.

Dickerson's 43-yard reception from Colt Brennan in the third quarter set up Brennan's 27-yard pass to Bryan Maneafaiga for UH's first touchdown of the season.

"We expected Ross and Ian (Sample) to have big games," receivers coach Ron Lee said. "We made some plays, but we need to make plays at critical times. We dropped balls on third down, we missed a couple of touchdown opportunities. But these guys are just freshmen. A lot of them played in their first game."

Slots Ryan Grice-Mullen (5 catches, 51 yards) and Davone Bess (4-26) tried to pick up the slack after sophomore Jason Ferguson injured his knee early.

Fun in the sun: Maui's Kaluka Maiava had lots of fun.

Not only did he play in his first college game for USC in front of the Hawaii crowd, he also got on the field 10 times for the Trojans' extra-busy kickoff team. Lining up fourth from the right, Maiava put himself in the center of the action three times during USC's rout of Hawaii.

The second time, he was called for a late hit when he dove in to make contact with Hawaii returner Mikhail Kafentzis, who went down a split-second earlier.

"That wasn't a late hit, that was a good hit," said Maiava with a huge smile on his face. "It was amazing (to finally play) and we put up some points on the board, so I got to play a lot on the kickoffs. I was nervous as hell on that first kickoff."

Maiava, who starred at Baldwin and was one of the nation's top linebacker recruits, woke up at 6 a.m. yesterday.

"I just couldn't sleep," he said. "I was so excited."

Late in the game on the final kickoff return, Maiava was in hot pursuit of Andre Taylor and dove in Taylor's path (without making contact) to force him out of bounds and put a halt to the 40-yard gain.

"I was thinking, 'I might as well get my name called out once,' " Maiava said.

Bing, bing, bing: USC safety Darnell Bing, an All-America candidate, had the game's first impact play when he ran back an interception of Brennan's short pass 65 yards for an early 7-0 lead.

"I pretty much just read it," said Bing, who caught the ball right at the numbers. "We went over that play a lot and I was there to make the play. I read their receivers.

"We came out and competed well. We just made things happen."

Little leaguers honored: Two of Hawaii's youth baseball championship teams were recognized during yesterday's game.

The Oahu All-Star team that won the Cal Ripken World Series strolled around the field during warm-ups and chatted with head coaches June Jones and Pete Carroll. A few players then tossed a ball around with Carroll.

Both the Oahu All-Stars and Little League World Series champion Ewa Beach squad were also honored at halftime.

More Trojan wars?: UH has an agreement to play USC here again in 2010, and athletic directors Herman Frazier of Hawaii and Mike Garrett of USC both said "absolutely" about the possibilities of other games between the two schools, here and in Los Angeles.

"Our alumni and fans love to come here," Garrett said at halftime. "We'll come as long as Hawaii wants us to, and we absolutely would like to play them again at home."

The earliest both schools have schedule openings that would work is 2009.