RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii's Ryan Grice-Mullen ran in the first of his three first-half touchdowns last night on a 63-yard pass play from Colt Brennan in the opening quarter.

Senior stomp

Hawaii’s underclassmen honor the seniors by beating San Diego State

Hawaii celebrated the past and got a taste of the future last night at Aloha Stadium.

Underclassmen stole the stage from the departing seniors in UH's 49-38 season-ending football victory over San Diego State.

But one Warrior, who may have played his last game, lived up to his vast potential.

Nate Ilaoa -- who is listed as a senior but could be back for another year pending NCAA appeal -- scored two second-half touchdowns to help UH seal the win.

Ilaoa rushed for 151 yards on 15 carries, becoming UH's only 100-yard rusher this season and the first in 17 games.

"I saw tonight what I was expecting," UH coach June Jones said of Ilaoa. "He's got great balance, he's got great hands, he's a great kid."

Sophomore Colt Brennan threw five touchdown passes, including three in the first half to freshman Ryan Grice-Mullen.

"A lot of these guys showed me around on my recruiting trip and I felt like I owed it to these guys to send them out winners," Grice-Mullen said.

Sophomore Ryan Keomaka struggled at times, but turned in two huge plays. He recovered a fumble and intercepted a pass to stave off Aztec drives, both in the first half as Hawaii took a 28-21 lead into the break.

"The best we could do was send them away with a win," said Keomaka, speaking of the 13 players who participated in the senior walk.

"This is the end of the road for our seniors, but it's a start for next year," Jones said, after the Warriors outgained the Aztecs 588 yards to 554, including a season-high 262 yards rushing.

It was the most rushing yards for UH since 350 against UNLV in 1996.

"Because we ran the ball so well we were able to throw it so well," said Brennan, who completed 25 of 37 passes for 326 yards. "They had so much trouble figuring out what they needed to stop."

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM UH's Davone Bess hauled in a pass despite pressure from Reggie Grigsby, right, and Freddy Keiaho.

UH finished its first losing season since 2000 with a 5-7 mark. SDSU finished with the same record after what might have been coach Tom Craft's last game.

A gathering of 23,035 (28,326 tickets issued) saw UH finish its season without a Hawaii Bowl bid for the first time since the game's inception in 2002.

It didn't start off promising for the Warriors last night. Baldwin alumnus Kurt Kahui of SDSU recovered a fumble on UH's first play from scrimmage. On the next play, Kevin O'Connell passed 18 yards to Chazeray Schilens for a touchdown.

O'Connell finished with three TD passes. He completed 33 of 51 for 421 yards.

UH tied it on a 63-yard touchdown pass from Brennan to Grice-Mullen. Brennan hit Grice-Mullen in stride crossing the middle, and the receiver went the final 50 yards untouched.

"My whole thing is to not get caught from behind. So once I caught it I had to score," Grice-Mullen said.

The Warriors' first score was set up by Keomaka's recovery of a Lynell Hamilton fumble at the Hawaii 15, caused by Keala Watson.

The Aztecs came back with two scores in a row.

O'Connell hooked up with Jeff Webb for a 2-yard TD and later took advantage of a fumble by Ilaoa to score a 14-yard rushing touchdown and increase the lead to 21-7.

Hawaii closed the gap with a 17-yard TD pass from Brennan to Ross Dickerson at 2:50 left in the first half.

GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan went 25-for-37 for 326 yards and five touchdowns last night against San Diego State.

"We played cover four and the guy ran a post and I bit on it and I was fortunate to catch the ball with this (injured) thumb of mine," Keomaka said. "That was a big play. It turned around our defense."

It spurred UH's offense, too. Five plays later, Brennan found Grice-Mullen in the end zone for a 13-yard TD pass to tie the score at 21 with 28 seconds left before halftime.

On SDSU's first play after the kickoff, UH's Mel Purcell recovered a fumble by Brandon Bornes at the Aztecs 10. Brennan and Grice-Mullen gave the Warriors a 28-21 halftime lead with their third scoring connection, this one for 10 yards with 19 seconds left.

Hawaii took the second-half kickoff and went 87 yards on 10 plays to expand its lead to 35-21. Converted defensive tackle Reagan Mauia bulled for the last 21 yards on three consecutive runs, including a 10-yard jaunt through a huge hole between left guard Samson Satele and left tackle Tala Esera.

O'Connell then hit Schilens with a perfectly placed long pass for a 40-yard gain to the UH 12. But the Warriors stiffened, and SDSU settled for Garrett Palmer's 28-yard field goal.

Ilaoa scored on an 11-yard play after catching a shovel pass from Brennan, upping the lead to 42-24 at 3:51 of the third quarter. He then rushed for 25 yards with 13:30 left in the game for another TD.

Webb grabbed a 16-yard scoring pass from O'Connell with 9:57 left. Freddy Keiaho intercepted Brennan's next pass, and the Aztecs took advantage of the turnover with Hamilton's 2-yard touchdown run, closing the gap to 49-38 with 7:29 left.

SDSU got the ball back after a UH punt, but was foiled by penalties and incomplete passes, including a fourth-down breakup by Keomaka, Lamar Broadway and Lono Manners, giving UH the ball back with 2 minutes to go. The Warriors ran out the clock.

"The story of the game was that our turnovers were converted into touchdowns," Craft said. "We missed a lot of tackles tonight. Busted our coverage three or four times. We didn't play very good defense tonight."