Live football blog: Hawaii at New Mexico
Ikem Okeke intercepts a Tevaka Tuioti pass at the threshold of the goal line to seal Hawaii’s 45-31 victory over New Mexico.
The Warriors improve to 5-3 overall and 2-2 in the Mountain West.
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The Lobos are now down 45-31 following Tevaka Tuioti’s 59-yard pass to Jordan Kress with 4:03 to play. Replays showed Kress had stepped out of bounds, but, oh, well.
The Warriors entered the fourth quarter with a 38-10 lead.
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The Lobos are at it again, scoring on a 9-yard pass from Tevaka Tuioti to Anu Somove with 4:41 to play.
UH leads 45-24 and will finish the game with its third QB, Justin Uahinui.
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Ahmari Davis’ second TD run, this time from 19 yards, cuts the UNM deficit to 45-17 with 7:16 to play.
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Chevan Cordeiro fires a 9-yard scoring pass to Lincoln Victor to extend Hawaii’s lead to 45-10 with 9:16 to play.
Cole McDonald’s 33-yard run set up the score.
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Thanks to a 57-yard pass from backup quarterback Chevan Cordeiro to Kumoku Noa, the Warriors move into position for Ryan Meskell’s 24-yard field goal. The Warriors lead, 38-10, with 3:09 left in the third quarter.
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The Lobos’ second interception of the season sets up Ahmari Davis’ 67-yard scoring run, cutting the deficit to 35-10 with 11:02 to play in the third quarter.
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Miles “Bam-Bam” Reed goes a yard up the middle to extend the Warriors’ lead to 35-3 with 33 seconds left in the half.
Reed kept the drive alive on his fourth-and-3 run. Reed appeared to be stopped a yard short of the line to gain. But he spun off a would-be tackler for the first down. He scored on the next play.
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The Warriors come up with their second fourth-down stop. This time Kai Kaneshiro successfully defends a pass to Jay Griffin IV in the end zone. Hawaii still leads, 28-3, with 4:45 left in the half.
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Cole McDonald rushes for his second TD of the game, this time from a yard out to increase the Warriors’ lead to 28-3 with 8:50 left before the half.
McDonald had exited for two plays after making an ill-advised throw into tight coverage. But he returned to lead the Warriors to their fourth TD of the game.
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Welcome back Kumoku Noa.
In his first game of the season — and seventh in his four-year UH career — Noa and quarterback Cole McDonald collaborate on a 54-yard scoring pass.
McDonald ⏩ Noa
TOUCHDOWN#GoBows pic.twitter.com/M1oNFBysQ5
— Hawaii Football (@HawaiiFootball) October 26, 2019
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UNM’s Andrew Shelley misses wide right from 48 yards, his second miss in 11 attempts this year and first miss from 40-plus yards.
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Linebacker Solomon Matautia grabs a deflected pass and races 14 yards to complete the pick-six and boost the Warriors’ lead to 14-3 witih 4:40 left in the first half.
We will take that!
Matautia with the PICK SIX.#GoBows pic.twitter.com/TcukuRRmUp
— Hawaii Football (@HawaiiFootball) October 26, 2019
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The Lobos settle for Andrew Shelley’s 39-yard field goal to close to 7-3 with 8:43 to play.
Ahmari Davis’ 39-yard run advanced the Lobos to the UH 18. But nose tackle Blessman Ta‘ala’s sack helped sabotage the drive. It was the Warriors’ second sack of the drive. The Lobos relinquished six sacks in the first seven games.
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Cole McDonald sprints around right end and goes 76 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 UH lead with 13:14 left in the first quarter.
.@ColeHunter520‼️🏃♂️💨
— ESPN Honolulu (@ESPNHonolulu) October 26, 2019
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For the first time since 2015, the Hawaii and New Mexico football teams meet at Dreamstyle Stadium on the Lobos’ campus.
The Warriors are coming off back-to-back losses to Boise State and Air Force.
Solo Vaipulu is expected to start at right guard in place of Kohl Levao, who did not make the trip. Levao, who missed the first five games because of a preseason injury, is a candidate to redshirt this season.
The Lobos have started 40 different starters this season, including 21 on offense. Tevaka Tuioti gets the nod today in place of Sheriron Jones, who is suspended following an accusation of indecent exposure. The opening-game starter, Brandt Hughes, is out for the season because of a shoulder injury.
But the Lobos get back Jerrick Reed, who has team’s lone interception.
Also, wideout Jay Griffin IV is back. He is the fastest Lobo (10.6 seconds over 100 meters, school-record 21.08 seconds over 200 meters).
GO WARRIORS !!!
BEAT UP them LOS LOBOS !!!
…
Levao will redshirt. I wonder if Furuta can redshirt too. Eletise?
UH came to play today. I’m glad Levao will get another year back. Furuta could redshirt but with a family to support he might want to hit the workforce.
UH – NEW MEXICO blog score predictions
31 – 13 … cappie the dog
41 – 38 … Whitey
42 – 24 … NorthShoreFan
45 – 21 … UH4eva
45 – 31 … Matt
45 – 35 … BigWave96744
52 – 21 … wafan
52 – 24 … Petey808
56 – 14 … Akamai Okole/d1shima
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
I wish they had a jumbo package.
Blog, if I follow the game by phone, we win. All the games we lost, I was near a television.
What happened to the defense in the 4th quarter?
Good win to stop the slide. My one concern is not preparing Cordeiro to be a good back up. He only played only 1-2 series when UH was up big. He needs time with the starters in order to develop and be ready. So the 3rd stringer comes in and New Mexico comes back to make it close. Offense only scored 10 points in second half. Coming home with so many more questions and not much confidence for Fresno State
a GOOD Win under difficult conditions
Difficult trip, HNL to ABQ.
5,100′ elevation.
I think our guys got winded in the 2nd half.
Come on home, rest up. Quick turn around for next game.
GO WARRIORS !!!
Kind of disappointing (defensive depth especially). Not as bad as Central Arkansas game but similar. So weird this phase II. On the Phase scale (1 to 4) I would say they are somewhere in between the 1.8 to 2.3 range. Phase III will not happen any time soon. A lot has to be figured out yet. But it is on the right track for sure. I think up and down is normal in early Phase II. The trying to figure stuff out phase. Defensive recruiting and development has to catch up to the offense this off season. When that happens we can see full Phase II. Patience? No choice I think. Anything can happen still. Anything.
200+ yards given up, 3 TD’s in 10 minutes……can’t say Warriors had a good game.
A Win is a Win but if we chasing championships, we can’t be doing this kind of stuff.
Confident we’ll be playing for a championship though….
Come back and start on Fres—no
Matt…On the Nose!
Colorado State beats Fresno State. Thank you CSU. Now Hawaii can eliminate Fresno from the west race with a win next week
Air Force is the real deal. They’re lighting up Utah State 31-7.
I hope Coles hip injury today isn’t serious. Isn’t that the same area where he was injured last season? When he was injured last season and came back he was never the same. They denied his injury over and over but we all knew something was up. I think either way they won’t disclose anything this time too. Hopefully it doesn’t affect him.
12
When I first saw that, the first reaction was ‘What did I just do?’. To be blunt, I just made a blind random guess and didn’t think that IT was going to be the final score. Not since after UH’s big first half, I thought they were going to wipe out the Lobos from that point on. Instead, didn’t expect UH to take the foot off the gas after the first half. But WOW…that was something.
14
Hmm…if the injury does seem serious, then this would give an opportunity for Cordeiro to redeem himself and try to stop Jorge Reyna and the Bulldogs. Jorge did prove that he is not at all invincible. Fresno did lose their opener to Air Force and just lost to Colorado State. What’s more, is which side of Fresno will be showing up to the Hawaii matchup.
BTW…San Diego State JUST survived UNLV by a missed field goal from UNLV. They had the ball in the SDSU 25 and just missed, having it hit left upright. SDSU wins 20-17 in ugly fashion.
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Yeah Cordeiro is capable of leading the team if McDonald really is injured. However I think our best chance to win is with McDonald. Especially if UH wants to make a run at the west, McDonald will need to be at full health
Corderio’s instinct is to escape the pocket and improvise. He is just like McKenzie was middle 2017. Rolo and Stutz are keeping him within the system (pocket progressions) so far as game managing backup. But should Cole become unavailable via injury (I think, 90% sure) they will allow Chevan to be himself, albeit with some sense of maturity because of his experience. He is way different from Cole. He is not real comfortable operating as Cole does yet (pocket). You can see it. But he’s trying. He is almost as good as McDonald, just needs a little greater comfort level to get more confidence. Then 1A and 1B with two totally different methods of operating. Next year will be ready and unreal. Almost ready now (from pocket). Just more system reps. Awesome
Watching the condensed game I think Paul Scott has to be used in an aggressive, up field, across the line of scrimmage, attacking way. That guy totally cannot play in space yet. Maybe one day, but definitely not yet. He needs to attack a gap and press. He is totally in a comfort zone that way. He is similar to Pavihi in that they struggle in space and need to go up field, through a gap. Scott will either whiff or fill the wrong hole (bad at anticipating) in space. But he is athletic and strong. NFL athleticism if schemed right I think. He is an asset. Just not as conventional LB. Got to figure it out.
Padello too. Does not play in space well. He can move/protect hashmark to sideline pretty good and can read/pursue as back side complementary assist tackler. But he cannot LB in space. Hard for him to back pedal, then read going forward as conventional LBs do. Sorry to see him struggle. He is so good at his specialty.
Muasau has pretty good instincts but he is a true freshman. So he will be out of place unless the scheme directs him specifically. He will be a good “box” (tackle to tackle) LB next season but not yet. Maybe 2 gaps max right now. Prichard is pretty good in space but not so good at anticipation. I think he needs to focus more on wrapping up (like Tavai would) instead of “blasting” so much. Mautautia is a good at dissecting but whiffs/over runs often (likes to make big hit too I think is why) but is terrific side to side. The worst angle taker is Okeke. But he is a wrap tackler (a lot of the secondary guys aren’t) and he has some good make up speed. He would be so good if his angles improved. NFL athleticism? Too bad. Lots to figure out for Batoon. Ughhh.
If you going to run RPO the quarterback has to run sometimes. Finally happened today. Didn’t look like they passed much out of RPO mesh pull vs this (NCAA worst) defense. Must have been something New Mexico was showing. The run game today was similar in success to when they played Nevada , just totally opposite method wise. Lots of designed runs and subsequent play action vs Nevada. Today was designed runs mixed in with “dual threat” RPO runs. Nevada was totally “off balance” because of the play calling. New Mexico wasn’t (off balance). Maybe only off the edges. Plus they’re not so physical. Might be a good game when they play each other next week. New Mexico pulled closer against what looked like second and third units. Kind of clunky but good reps in duress for everybody, especially Francisco. Shake it off. Everyone. Re-focus. Everything is still possible. Especially for Akil.
BTW one of my favorite UH defensive guys was not a wrap tackler,
Nate Jackson…. Boom!
End of the 3rd and beginning of the fourth, Rolo played the 3rd string DB’s. Seems like he was trying to manage the load and preserve some of the 1st and 2nd teams. When UNM closed the gap he put the 1s back in to finish the game.
It was hard to watch Akil and Tiger get lost back there, but game time reps are hard to come by.
Congrats to the Warriors on their road win! Being 5-3 is better than 3-5, which many critics were predicting at this time. Road gets steeper, but “can handle!”
Off topic, but this is a FCS school’s new football center. Funded mostly by donations from the private sector.
https://fox13now.com/2019/09/03/weber-state-opens-brand-new-football-center-in-stewart-stadium-end-zone/
So frustrating, UNLV had SDSU on the ropes. So many dropped passes. Get the Aztecs at 2 losses, then Hawaii can win the tiebreaker, should Hawaii somehow spring the upset against San Diego State.
So winnable, the West side of the Mountain West. If the Aztecs are the best team, I like Hawaii’s chances.
SDSU is now ranked #25 in the AP Poll; Air Force and Wyoming are receiving votes in the Coaches Poll.
24
I think it should be Air Force that is ranked. I think they’re better than SDSU
Congrats to Matt for the exacr score prediction!
UH – NEW MEXICO blog score predictions
31 – 13 … cappie the dog
41 – 38 … Whitey
42 – 24 … NorthShoreFan
45 – 21 … UH4eva – 3rd (10 off, tie-breaker) *
45 – 31 … Matt – 1st (exact match)
45 – 35 … BigWave96744 – 2nd (4 off)
52 – 21 … wafan
52 – 24 … Petey808
56 – 14 … Akamai Okole/d1shima
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
* 3) Closest score to the actual wins (absolute value total of over and under difference from both actual scores). Tie-breaker: closest guess to the winning team score.
The closest guessers over 5 games. (sorry, I was out of commission for the previous two)…
WINNERS (alpha order) Games 2-5, 8-
Akamai Okole – [2nd]
A View From Afar – [1st]
Bigwave96744 – [3rd] [2nd]
Boolakanaka – [3rd]
cappie the dog – [2nd] [2nd]
H-Man – [2nd]
Kekoa – [1st]
Matt – [1st]
NorthShoreFan – [1st] [3rd]
Tanks ah! – [1st]
UH4eva – [3rd]
wafan – [3rd]
Pomai
UH 38 – Fresno St 35 OT
#17 – What are your thoughts on what happens next year with Corderio when Cole is still around? He’s a only redshirt junior and I doubt he’ll be leaving early for the NFL unless he has an amazing last 6 games (assuming we go to a bowl). It’s possible, but I think he needs another year before he really has a shot at the NFL. I see them both getting better with every year of experience, but I don’t see Corderio surpassing Cole unless he gets hurt.
Whoo-hoo, ‘Bows!
Pomai . . .
52 ‘Bows and 24 pups
I think the best way to insert guys like Francisco and Peterson is by rotating them in with the first unit guys as you approach mop up. Give them some guidance first and then let them fend for themselves in full mop up. I think both of them will be terrific later (maybe Francisco as dime or nickel coverer). The game needed to slow down for them a little. Peterson going to be unreal later. You could see the physicality in the way he moves. Just the timing was off. Awesome.
#29 I like the fact that a lot of players have game experience this year. It’s hard to count with just four hooves, but I count 116 on the roster and 84 of those have been on the field this year. Add on Pavihi, Mataafa, Bernal-Wendt, Kapoi, and Tufaga who also have game experience. In addition a number of freshmen who are redshirt candidates have also been on road trips this year.
I still think Cole’s NFL future is as a utility type. He just needs to get bigger (230-235 maybe?). H, TE, slot, WR, and QB. Will be a mismatch vs certain personnel on routes. Good straight ahead speed and pretty strong runner that can run through arm tackles. That run yesterday should draw some attention from scouts. Stride was unreal.
Speaking of getting bigger I hope Ritner can get up to about 260-270 and resemble the hand in the ground 3/5 technique that we seen on his hudl video. That’s what Vega was brought from JC to fill. That quickness to power ratio that Zeno had. Laulu’s has that size but his ratio is more on the “quickness” side so DE is better for him right now. He will be in Hune’s role next year. I would rather have Ritner hand in the ground then stuck having to LB like Padello and Thomas. Waste. So he can be more similar to what Laulu is this year. But he is so skinny still. He might be more like Thomas. Feed him stew and poi or something. He needs to resemble that hudl video.
https://www.hudl.com/video/3/5321674/59c9bb950dc0772108e3ab30
i understand why sdsu broke into the top 25, but did the writers actually watch that game? the mountain west is 3-2 against the sec; that’s why the aztecs are in. the rebels dropped so many easy passes. they should have at least tied that game and sent it into overtime. i checked to see if our ap writer posted his ballot. i’m going to guess that he didn’t put sdsu in his top 25.
@Drew #28
I meant to say Corderio resembled McKenzie middle 2016 not 2017 (he was the finished product that year). So just like Milton had to (2016) learn to get comfortable Chevan has to get proficient from the pocket. He is getting there but not there yet. Its the arm strength to separation timing that he has to get consistent with. He will be ready soon. Especially after summer workouts off season. 1A and 1B.
I think you could run two separate units next season if you wanted to. Lots of veteran linemen, enough for two units. Lots of different receiver types too (maybe Smart and Victor on both units). Platoon? Like the defense? Chevan with Panoke, Phillips/Funkhouser and Keliikipi. McDonald with Noa, Mardner and Reed/Holly. Both offenses having their own wrinkles. Just need to find and develop a “big RB/FB” protector. The rest is there. Sounds crazy I know. I’m serious though. Can do 2020.
Drew. Sorry I didn’t know my comment on Corderio was #17.
Whoops!
Pomai please change my prediction to 52 ‘Bows, 21 pups.
Many thanks!
does “inactive” mean scout team? i keep checking for john ursua’s name, like how i would look up Greg Salas, Kealoha Pilares, and Alex Green for stats. i know that injured reserve means you’re out for the season. i know that much.
Most of the points given up in the 4th was directly due to the poor play of Francisco. Can’t blame the whole defense for one guy getting smoked salmon.
CtMMLD, with only 50-60 on the roster, I think if you don’t start you are on the “scout” team. Inactive means they are already designated as not playing in that game. A QB can be tagged inactive but if both active QBs go down the 3rd QB can play.
This is going to be a challenge. Each unit will have to turn it up a notch. Fresno not playing up to ability. Would not mind seeing a fresh face or two in defensive lineup. The KO coverage team needs to get back to getting it done. We will see-GoWarriors!!!
thank you, THE burro sabio. your change in user name inspired me. it’s hard to get excited about trevor davis, because i only know him through gamecast on my phone.
New post: https://www.hawaiiwarriorworld.com/?p=51760