A raucous Aloha Stadium crowd was nothing compared to the insults San Jose State kicker Jared Strubeck faces in practice.

“;The guys on our team know what to do to get to me,”; he said. “;All the noise here is just white noise. The guys on my team—they know exactly what to say.”;

Despite being 3-for-9 on field-goal tries, Strubeck came up with the two biggest kicks of the season for the Spartans. He coolly drilled a 50-yarder to tie the game at 17 and then booted the game-winner from 47 yards out with less than 2 minutes remaining to give his team a stunning 20-17 victory over Hawaii last night.

“;He's one of the best around,”; said San Jose State coach Dick Tomey. “;He said (tonight) wasn't nearly as hard as having all your teammates around you hitting you in the head. We gave him the game ball. He just rallied to the cause.”;

  Strubeck's confidence hasn't wavered despite his struggles kicking the ball this season. In fact, he didn't even know how bad his percentage was.

“;Was I really that bad?”; he said.

It didn't sway Tomey's confidence in his kicker, either. After Strubeck missed a 47-yarder that would have tied the game, Tomey called timeout with the Spartans facing a fourth down on the Hawaii 33-yard line.

Strubeck's previous season long was only 41 yards and San Jose State's defense was manhandling the Warriors offense at that point, but Tomey had faith in Strubeck to give him another chance.

He didn't disappoint.

“;If you stand back there and see how far that is, it's a damn long way,”; Tomey said. “;On the road, with the crowd and the fact that he missed some this year. That really was huge for us.”;

It was especially huge for Tomey, who defeated the team he led for 10 seasons.

Unlike his first attempt as San Jose State coach two years ago, in which it was outscored by 27 points in the second half of a 54-17 drubbing, the Spartans were the dominant team after halftime, shutting out Hawaii.

“;We just stuck to what we believe in,”; defensive coordinator Keith Burns said. “;We played with a great deal of pride. We have this defensive motto called The Code and it showed up in the second half.”;