ASSOCIATED PRESS Hawaii running back Nate Ilaoa ran in a 7-yard touchdown during the fourth quarter of yesterday's game at San Jose State.

UH wins family feud

June Jones beats former Hawaii coach Dick Tomey to keep Hawaii’s bowl hopes alive

SAN JOSE, Calif. » Oh, what a reunion.

The Hawaii and San Jose State football teams -- their coaches familiar but less than friendly for one afternoon -- punched and counterpunched, both scoring in every quarter at Spartan Stadium yesterday. The Warriors, who lost a 17-point first-half lead, got the deciding points on a 7-yard touchdown run by senior Nate Ilaoa with 5:26 left, and freshman Dane Porlas intercepted a pass with 55 seconds remaining to preserve a 45-38 victory.

"We had this feeling it was going to be a great game," said quarterback Colt Brennan, who turned down a scholarship offer at San Jose State to walk on at UH. "We just had the mind-set that we were going to score (on the final drive) and make sure we win this football game and do whatever it took."

UH improved to 3-4 and 3-2 in the Western Athletic Conference, while San Jose State fell to 1-6 and 0-4. The Warriors kept alive their slim bowl-game hopes. If they win four of their remaining five games they qualify for postseason.

Brennan -- whose cousin, Brent Brennan, is a San Jose State assistant coach -- passed for 457 yards and three touchdowns. But the Spartans battled back in the second half and were driving for a tying touchdown when Porlas' interception sealed UH's fifth consecutive win against San Jose State.

"I just had to get in position. When I did, I was able to make a play. I dreamed about that play my whole life; now I have to make it," Porlas said.

It was homecoming for the Spartans, who in addition to their alumni, were also playing for their coaches, many of whom worked previously at Hawaii.

"Especially Coach (Dick) Tomey has such a legacy there," San Jose State quarterback Adam Tafralis said. "It would've been a really nice win to get for them."

When Al Guidry scored on a 25-yard run with 8:57 left, it looked as if the Spartans might deliver it. The score was tied at 38 and San Jose State had fought back from a 24-7 second-quarter deficit.

"In the second half they did different things to throw us off," Brennan said.

But the Warriors would have the last say on offense and defense.

"We knew it was going to be a four-quarter game," Brennan said.

Brennan, who had just been intercepted by San Jose State's Josh Powell to set up Guidry's touchdown, rebounded to engineer a 10-play, 80-yard drive to give UH what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown.

Brennan completed five of seven passes on the drive, and Ilaoa crashed through for the final 7.

Ilaoa finished with 13 rushes for 39 yards and six catches for 47.

"Nate's getting himself back in shape," UH coach June Jones said. "He had to take himself out of the game a couple of times. But he makes big plays. He's a big-time player."

Then UH's defense -- which had weakened as the game went on -- finally stiffened. San Jose State was forced to punt after gaining just 5 yards on its next possession.

"The three-and-out was big, it was huge," defensive coordinator Jerry Glanville said.

The Warriors were also forced to punt, and the Spartans took over on their own 30 with 1:43 left. Five plays later, it was over with Porlas' first career interception.

"He was doing his job. He was in the right place. When you're in the right place at the right time doing the right thing, good things happen," Jones said.

UH won its second WAC road game of the season, and Tomey is still looking for his first conference win of any kind in his second go-round in the league. Jones thinks he'll get it soon.

"They had a great game plan and did what they had to to win the ballgame and played hard," Jones said. "I don't expect anything less from a Dick Tomey team. They played like that for 60 minutes and we're just lucky to win tonight."

Coming up just a bit short has become a frustrating theme for the Spartans this season.

"I think we played extremely hard. But when we needed a stop we didn't get it. Unacceptable," Powell said. "Hawaii has a great scheme. You can't let them have YAC (yards after catch). It has to be catch, tackle, catch, tackle."

The Warriors defense had its own problems most of the game, as San Jose State rushed for 170 yards and passed for 262 more.

"Jerry (defensive coordinator Glanville) had a good game plan," defensive backs coach Rich Miano said. "It shouldn't have been that close. We weren't as responsible as we needed to be, we missed some tackles."

But the Warriors defense did come up with big plays at key junctures. The biggest might have been with 3:50 left in the first quarter and UH leading 10-7 after a 20-yard field goal by Dan Kelly and a Ryan Grice-Mullen 15-yard run that ended with a spectacular (and necessary) leap into the end zone.

Linebacker Tanuvasa Moe knocked the ball out of Tafralis' hands at the UH goal line and Kila Kamakawiwo'ole recovered it for Hawaii.

"It was supposedly a fumble. I got in. I'm willing to bet a lot of money I got in," Tafralis said.

After that, UH turned its slim lead into a 24-7 margin on Brennan's 13-yard TD pass to Davone Bess and then Brennan's first Hawaii rushing touchdown, a 1-yarder at 6:30 of the second quarter.

UH was helped by another San Jose State turnover. Trestin George intercepted a Brennan pass, but Mario Cox forced George to fumble and receiver Ross Dickerson recovered the ball.

Grice-Mullen now has nine touchdowns. His second of the day came on a 60-yard pass when Brennan found him behind the San Jose State secondary.

Brennan threw a second touchdown pass to Bess (13 yards) after James Jones scored on a 4-yard pass from Tafralis and Yonus Davis' 20-yard run had narrowed the edge to 31-28 at 7:08 of the third.

Jared Strubek's 44-yard field goal at 12:12 of the fourth brought the Spartans to 38-31.

After Guidry's touchdown tied it, the Warriors didn't panic.

"We kept saying, we got to probably get one more score to get to go out there and get the win," Brennan said.