Live football blog: Hawaii at Fresno State
Hawaii runs away to a 34-19 season-opening victory over Fresno State, amassing 324 rushing yards in Todd Graham’s debut as the Rainbow Warriors’ head coach.
Starting quarterback Chevan Cordeiro and wildcat QB Calvin Turner each rushed for two TDs. Cordeiro sealed the outcome when he raced 54 yards for a first down on a third-and-2 play with 2:43 to play.
Freshman Matthew Shipley also booted two field goals for the Warriors.
It was UH’s second victory against Fresno in the past nine meetings.
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Calvin Turner, following the block by H-back Derek Thomas, goes 4 yards for a TD to give UH a 34-29 lead with 4:52 to play.
It was Turner’s second TD of the game, both out of the wildcat formation.
Turner was Jacksonville’s starting QB for three years. Jacksonville folded its football program at the end of the 2019 season, leading to Turner’s transfer to UH without redshirting.
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Cesar Silva’s 25-yard FG cuts Fresno State’s deficit to 27-19.
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Freshman kicker Matthew Shipley’s second field goal of the game — this time from 24 yards — extends Hawaii’s lead to 27-16 with 12:08 to play.
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With a second left in the third quarter, the Warriors come away with their fourth turnover. A pass down the right sideline deflects off Fresno receivers Keric Wheatfall’s hands and is grabbed by UH’s Jeremiah Pritchard.
UH leads 24-16 heading into the final quarter.
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The Bulldogs closed to 24-16 on Cesar Silva’s 22-yard field goal with 3:41 left in the third quarter.
The drive was extended when UH safety Kai Kaneshiro was whistled for a “targeting” hit on an incomplete pass to Josh Kelly. Kaneshiro also was whistled for an unsportsmanlike penalty. Both penalties totaled 20 yards and set up the ball at the UH 5. Kaneshiro was disqualified for the rest of the game, as well as the first half of next week’s game against Wyoming.
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The “wildcat” is loose in Fresno.
Calvin Turner aligned as the wildcat quarterback, took the direct snap and raced 2 yards to the end zone to extend the Warriors’ lead to 24-13 with 6:18 left in the third quarter.
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Chevan Cordeiro zigs and zags his way on a keeper for a 3-yard TD to help the Warriors regain the lead at 17-13 with 27 seconds to play in the first half. Freshman running back Dae Dae Hunter made two big blocks to clear paths for Cordeiro.
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The Bulldogs need two plays and 11 seconds to go 33 yards for the go-ahead touchdown and a 13-10 lead with 1:50 left in the first half.
On first-and-18 from the UH 18, Jake Haener threw a quick pass to tight end Juan Rodriguez on the right hash. Rodriguez bulled his way into the end zone.
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The Warriors take their first lead of the year, 10-7, on freshman Matthew Shipley’s 34-yard field goal with 7:12 left in the first half.
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Chevan Cordeiro showed his running skills with a 20-yard sprint to tie it at 7 with 4 minutes left in the first quarter.
The drive started on linebacker Quinton Frazier’s strip-sack of Fresno quarterback Jake Haener.
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The Warriors fail to score their first points of 2020 when Matthew Shipley’s 49-yard FG attempt is short. It might have been touched by a Fresno State player.
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The Warriors get the ball back on Eugene Ford’s pick.
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The Bulldogs cash in on the Warriors’ opening fumble to take a 7-0 lead with 11:34 to play in the first quarter.
Ronnie Rivers goes 7 yards around right end for the score.
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Following a review, it has been ruled that Lincoln Victor fumbled away the opening kickoff return. Four seconds into the game, the Bulldogs take over at UH’s 26.
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It’s ironic — and I never use “irony” correctly — but this game played in front of an empty Bulldog Stadium is deemed “homecoming” for Fresno State.
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FRESNO, CALIF. — The University of Hawaii’s football season launches today with a road game against Fresno State.
The rivalry that is into its third decade matches teams with new head coaches — Hawaii’s Todd Graham and Fresno’s Kalen DeBoer — and rebuilding defense.
Keep an eye on:
> Chevan Cordeiro, who has been installed as the Warriors’ No.1 quarterback. Cordeiro, a third-year sophomore, is 4-0 as a UH starter. The Warriors brought two other players on this two-game road trip: Boone Abbott and Kamali‘i Akina. Abbott redshirted as a freshman in 2019. Akina, the son of Duane Akina, was a walk-on freshman who played under Graham at Arizona in 2017.
> Jake Haener, who redshirted after transferring from Wqshington, gets the start at QB for the Bulldogs. He beat out Ben Wooldridge a week ago.
> The Warriors are unveiling a no-huddle, uptempo hybrid. The goal is a lot of plays, a lot of yards, and a lot of points. The Bulldogs will try to keep pace despite having only five fully padded practices entering today’s game.
Game day is finally here! Let’s go Bows!! 🌈🤙🏽
Go Warriors!……
Ordered the game….man….they messed up over there at Spectrum…Got to call to order. Cannot order through the channel….Need PIN code etc….They even sent a tech to my house. Tech later told me I had to call and order the game. Don’t know why this is….
Waiting for game time to see if the game will come through….
Looking forward to watch the new offense and defense…IMUA WARRIORS!
Anyone know how to get the game on Spectrum? Is it not loading on channel 1255 for everyone?
Howzit from AZ! Haven’t been on here in ages.
SPECTRUM IS NOT DELIVERING THE GAME….JUST GOT A BLANK SCREEN….Listening to Bobby Curran on the radio in the meantime….
Warriors messing up early! Looking for them to reboot and get after them Dogs!
Spectrum not delivering in Kaneohe
Spectrum having problems today for all that waited to order the game. Next time don’t wait. Lesson learned.
Spectrum messed up my order too. The customer service rep was able to resolve it, but we missed the first few minutes and the fumble. Hawaii not looking so good. What, Cordeiro’s been sacked three times already.
Hey, Cordeiro’s got some legs he showed in that TD run.
Kinpira!
Huzzah!
Ho da sloppy. Keep swinging, fall forward. No give up. It’ll all come…
Any tips watching the game here on the mainland? Maybe a link?
Does Bobby have strep or something?
Someone mentioned TEAM1SPORTS app for viewing on the mainland
Team1Sports. I believe there’s an app to download and view the game.
Dae Dae Hunter threw a nice block to get Cordeiro into the EZ for a 5-yd rushing TD.
Not getting anything from Spectrum out here. Tech guy came out here and told me to call in my order. Did that. Game time….nothing but…”Loading Data”….Called Spectrum the third time…..Lady sys….”They working on it”.
Been listening to Bobby C….and as usual, really can’t picture what is going on as he starts to ramble an next thing you know they announcing the results of the play…..Less rambling and more focus on let us fans know what is going on would be appreciated.
Do I sound like a Grumpy Old Man?….Heo Yeah!….You try calling Spectrum 3 times to try and get the game on …. then have to listen to Bobby C…instead….
At least the sun is out and my AC is working!……LOL!
WD…no matter if you ordered the game early….they not able to transmit the game…Tech was so puzzled….he checked outside the house and inside……Could order or get the pay per view movies but not the game.
How many people watching the game on Spectrum?
It would be so much better to SEE the game. Listening on the ‘puter & looking at the Fresno stats on the UH site. Let’s GO BOWS!
Had to call to order the game. Watching the game in SD. Don’t want to touch anything to avoid the dreaded “Loading Data” message.
Another int!
Kinpira!!!
I am afraid Hawaii’s 3-man rush is giving too much time for Haener to sit in the pocket and it may cost the game. The middle has been open to both the pass and rush.
Ordered Spectrum PPV last night. Turned on channel at 9am today . TV Confirmed that I purchased it and could receive the channel. At 1:30 pm NO game on. Spectrum app said outage in area. Game finally on about 2:05 . But viewing size is reduced. Does not fill whole screen.
This is one of the best all around games by Hawaii in a long time…..Under 4 minutes to play.. They gotta prevent the big plays and WIN!
Whoo-hoo!
Yahoo!!!! Hawaii wins ANOTHER homecoming game!!!!
Wow, sorry to hear about everyone’s problems with the Spectrum feed. I have HawTel, which basically purchases the feed from Spectrum, and I had no problems. Very strange.
Initial thoughts:
Eletise is our best O-lineman. Stop playing around with it already.
Not sure when or why it happened, but Micah Vanterpool was playing LT in place of Ilm. He did pretty well.
Calvin Turner is legit.
Most exciting: Dae Dae Hunter is a stud. He runs hard, like a slasher type but with some power and blocks like a beast all the way down field. Super excited to see hm develop.
Yeah!!! Finally found the blog. Rough start but beautiful finish. If they were looking for the fresno bulldog, they would have found it on the Warrior sideline. Except for the miscue by Kaneshiro (correctable), I am unabashedly prideful of the UH WARRIORS…
Just thrilled to see familiar handles on the blog again!!!
I Mua
bg
The win made up for some disappointment with Spectrum. I contacted them to make sure I don’t get charged for the game.
Some early season issues that will be cleaned up and thinking this team will be exciting to watch. Snap…Clear…next game!…..Go Warriors!
Best first game ever! Keep goin’ Warriors!!! Break those rocks!
GO WARRIORS!!!
I saw some of the game and was pleased to see Coach Graham wearing the koa lei. But I was curious about why the coaches and staff wore blue shirts…I must have missed the explanation for that since I saw/heard the game intermittently.
But I am pleased with the team!
GO WARRIORS!
No problems with Spectrum here on Puowaina. Sorry others had problems.
WMJ, Micah Vanterpool went in for Manning? I didn’t notice, but if Vanterpool went in, it should have been for Gene Pryor. Both tackles got beat twice to account for four Cordeiro sacks. I agree with you on Turner and Hunter, both showed good running skills. But the real story is Cordeiro. I’ll remain silent regarding the defense.
Sorry to hear that some had issues and was not able to watch the game.
Great game.
Congrats to the Warriors, and Coach Graham for being the first coach to win his career opening game since Bob Wagner. That was a while ago. When, or did we ever have that much talent in the backfield at one time? Cheven looked very good. Oline improved as the game went on, as well with the D. Which is to be expected due to limited practices.
Except for 1 play on defense they played very disciplined football. Looking forward to this Friday’s game at Wyoming. It was mentioned that Hawaii has never won the “back end” of a road trip. Hope that can be accomplished this Friday.
Go Bows!
Ordered the game around 9AM and everything went smooth for me in Kailua.
Wyoming game not on Spectrum but on national tv
RE: #26 SteveM
Howzit Steve, not sure if they mentioned it already. But I know back when Graham was at ASU, the blue or red shirts were the signal callers for the players. Some schools use large sign boards with different pictures. I know Graham likes to wear red and yellow wristbands so he can signal the defensive plays. What a win! Go Bows! 🌈
Hey Do the warriors have to stay on the mainland or did they come home after the game?
I wasn’t able to watch the game but proud of the team. Glad you’re back on the beat head honcho mr. tsai
This season Hawaii team won at Fresno not because of excellent execution and no turnovers, it won because of better talent on the field… plus playing 15 games last season built depth in the roster.
It was not a fluke that last years team beat a very, very talented BYU team in the Hawaii Bowl… and if you haven’t notice BYU has many returning players and is making a name for itself this season going undefeated so far.
Great game! Congrats Warriors on terrific physical road win. Nice to see you back ST, loved the writeup including coach’s quote:
“Graham said it probably will take another two weeks for the offense to be fully implemented.”
What?! This is going to be fun! Stay safe Tsaikos.
With Rolo I always wished the he could implement stuff like two backs, H-back/TE, FB, max protect, a package with more physical slots, Wildcat, and more designed QB runs. This offense can have that. I think this offense will entertain and delight while having the ability to implement all kinds of game plans accordingly. Can’t wait until they install the full package. Awesome.
Hunter is legit! Elitise is a bull dozer🤙🏼
Great win last night! Lot to work on but FSU has a lot of talent. On another note just signed up for my per touchdown donation-this is not about large dollars but lotsa folks donating, even for a Buck! Go to football website for details there is strength in numbers! GoWarriors!!!!
Our offense played well, but I didn’t see Fresno’s Kwami Jones in the second half. He was really disruptive.
Hawaii looked really good for limited practice time in the fall and no spring ball. The weapons in this offense is really scary. I feel like every unit on the offensive side of the ball is stacked with the exception of a back up QB. Turner, Dae Dae and Bam Bam in the backfield, O-Line is ridiculously deep and the receiving core has size, speed, sure hands.
39: Jones became a non-factor once Hawaii chose to ground-and-pound in the second half.
SteveM: On standard definition, Graham’s shirt looked blue, but during the press conference, and on the hi-def replay on Sunday, his shirt appeared to be dark gray with lighter gray sleeves.
Last season when Corderio played at UNLV he showed some inability to throw the deep ball from the pocket, especially on the road. In the first quarter of that game he threw two interceptions. One interception was a deep overthrow, one was a deep underthrow. After that he was pulled. It seemed he needed to “float” toward the outer edge of the tackle box to get leverage on the deep passes but you could see he had enough arm strength. He had some nice, unreal deep plays to Ward and Ursua (RS year) here at home that were spectacular game winners.
On Saturday from their own one yard line Corderio went deep twice. Chevan’s first pass was overthrown to Rico Bussey who was open by at least 8 yards but the pass didn’t have enough loft to it. It kind of looked liked Bussey was held early in his route so that might have threw off the timing. That could have been a touchdown (would have been called back because penalty).
On second down the ball was mis-snapped and resulted in a broken play but it looked like it was intended as a deep route for Mardner who was in the right slot headed right down the seam. If Mardner would have located early in his route he might have scored even with the mis-play. But that was a nice play call that had a good chance to score had the snap been OK.
On third down Mardner lined up on the wide side on the left sideline and ran a straight, deep fly route. By then it was 3rd and 11 and Fresno was deep coverage. Chevan threw a decently lofted, slightly underthrown 50/50 ball that traveled about 60 yards to Mardner who had a step on his defender and had leverage (with his nice height and length). Could have been a big play although probably not a touchdown because the coverage was pretty good. But you could see Corderio’s arm strength as opposed to last season. Way better.
Bussey and Mardner might get a lot of iso coverage especially if the running game (blocking especially) is going to be hard to match up with on short and medium downs. If there is a “checkdown” where Chevan can change the play to max protect a deep pass when he recognizes tight iso (especially on Bussey, that guy is fast) that would be unreal. But It’s good to hear that the deep pass is part Graham’s usual gameplan. Going to really open up the running and quick passing game. Awesome.
Mardner showing some signs that he can be real similar to Marcus Kemp. Bussey seems to me to be kinda similar to Salas (maybe?). Turner reminded me a little to be like Wright-Jackson on some of his runs. And Hunter runs pretty hard which probably help raise Miles Reed’s determination level.
Frazier kind of reminded me of Maeva in this game (“Nutz”). Tavai looked real quick compared to last season and Muasau was lined up all over the place making plays. Taala, Laulu and Tuitupou looked pretty good too although there was a series where the weakside gave up 12 and 15 yard runs on consecutive plays in between the tackles.
A lot to look forward to seeing this season. I wish we could watch in the Stadium. Too bad. Covid. Pffffttttttt!!! (should keep your mask on when you raspberry, especially when booing Police at the beach)
Sackkabooya, that would be “mento” lol.
All three phases can and must improve. That being said, there is just so much to look forward to. We have seen but the tip of the football.
As we navigate these tough and challenging times, you can’t help but get excited for Warrior football. Only one game yes, but it’s exciting. Exciting times indeed!
Go Warriors!
Be ready for the blitz…..by the dline and weather…..going to be a cool game I understand….
Good improvements with the oline….might be a ground and pound game because of weather conditions.
Is t time for football yet?…..
Cool video posted by our own OL #71 Micah Vanderpool on the team’s journey to Fresno St (his roommate is #52 Solo Vaipulu) including the famous after game breaking of the rock by Chevan Cordeiro, also shows many of the team members:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRSbVkQingQ
I thought I saw #48 (Derek Thomas) in on the goal line wildcat package when Turner scored on the last touchdown run. I assumed it was somebody with a duplicate number who plays offense but in Stephen’s live feed “recap” he did confirm that it was Thomas. Good to see an H-back in this years scheme. I hope he can be as productive there. He had a pretty good game (as DT/DE) vs BYU last we saw him.
#48…be like a TE too?
Vanterpool and Wa’a came in on one of Turner’s TDs so there were 7 linemen.
Cardinals never pick up Kolten’s option. They paid one million dollars to buyout his $12.5 million 2021 option year salary. I hope he goes somewhere where he can be a more aggressive hitter and launch like in his UH days. Maybe a contender? Seems like the Cardinals (a lot of them) don’t hit so good because of their hitting philosophy.
Great to be back! Go Bows!
Gameday ! Go Warriors !!!