By OSKAR GARCIA
By OSKAR GARCIA
Associated Press
HONOLULU — Sean Schroeder threw for 150 yards and three touchdowns while Hawaii played near-perfect defense in a 54-2 victory against Lamar on Saturday night, giving the Warriors a bounce-back win after a rough loss to open the year at then-No. 1 USC.
Norm Chow, the first Asian-American head coach of a major college football program, earned his first victory.
“We needed to get that losing taste out of our mouths,” said defensive lineman Paipai Falemalu, who led Hawaii with five tackles and a sack.
The Warriors (1-1) held Lamar to 127 total yards in 48 plays, allowing the Cardinals to cross midfield only twice. Lamar (1-2) had just three drives that lasted more than four plays and scored its only points on a botched extra-point attempt by Hawaii.
Trevor Davis led Hawaii with 85 yards receiving and a touchdown, a 16-yard score that gave Hawaii its first points.
Hawaii scored three more touchdowns before halftime, including one on a Ne’Quan Phillips punt return.
Mike Edwards opened the second half with a 95-yard kickoff return for a TD.
“We are going to play every play as hard as we can,” Chow said. “We’re not going to look up at the scoreboard, we’re going to keep playing, and I think the kids did a good job of that.”
Ryan Mossakowski led Lamar with 83 yards on 11 of 18 passing. Darrell Harris had 37 yards rushing, while starting running back Herschel Sims had 8 yards on 12 carries.
“They did a good job after their fiasco at USC, but we didn’t help ourselves very much tonight, either,” Lamar coach Ray Woodard said. “I think we made a pretty good football team look really good, and we’re not going to beat anybody how we played tonight.”
The win was a turnaround game for Hawaii after a 49-10 loss to a Trojans team that simply overmatched the Warriors.
Hired in December, Chow worked 39 years in football before getting a head coaching shot at Hawaii, including 27 years as an assistant at BYU and four years at USC.
“It was nice to play well in all three phases of the game,” he said.
Hawaii’s defense recovered three fumbles and held Lamar to just six first downs.
John Lister scored two touchdowns and was one of six Hawaii players with a touchdown. Lister also was one of three Warrior running backs with at least 50 yards rushing, along with Will Gregory and Joey Iosefa. Sterling Jackson had 44 yards.
Special teams provided Lamar its only highlight and several lowlights. The Cardinals fumbled twice on kickoff returns, which led to 10 points for Hawaii, and allowed two return touchdowns. With 8:14 left in the game after Hawaii’s last touchdown, Scott Harding fumbled the snap on the extra point and Adria Guillory recovered for Lamar, returning the ball 98 yards for 2 points.
Lamar 0 0 0 2— 2
Hawaii 7 21 13 13—54
First Quarter
Haw—Davis 16 pass from Schroeder (Hadden kick), 9:25.
Second Quarter
Haw—Lister 7 run (Hadden kick), 8:10.
Haw—Bright 8 pass from Schroeder (Hadden kick), 3:51.
Haw—Phillips 21 blocked punt return (Hadden kick), 2:07.
Third Quarter
Haw—Edwards 95 kickoff return (Hadden kick), 14:43.
Haw—FG Hadden 32, 9:07.
Haw—FG Hadden 31, 8:10.
Fourth Quarter
Haw—Gant 9 pass from Schroeder (Hadden kick), 14:10.
Haw—Lister 3 run (run failed), 8:19.
Lamar—2-point defensive conversion by Guillory, 8:19.
A—31,442.
Lamar Haw
First downs 6 20
Rushes-yards 28-44 48-219
Passing 83 150
Comp-Att-Int 11-20-0 15-23-0
Return Yards 0 45
Punts-Avg. 10-37.3 3-26.3
Fumbles-Lost 5-3 1-0
Penalties-Yards 8-81 5-30
Time of Possession 25:56 34:04
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Lamar, Harris 4-37, Sims 12-8, D.Garrett 7-4,
Mossakowski 5-(minus 5). Hawaii, Gregory 6-62, Lister 10-55,
Iosefa 15-55, S.Jackson 12-43, Edwards 1-3, Harding 1-3, Schroeder 1-0,
Team 2-(minus 2).
PASSING—Lamar, Mossakowski 11-20-0-83. Hawaii,
Schroeder 15-23-0-150.
RECEIVING—Lamar, Soto 2-22, Sims 2-18, Begelton 2-14,
J.Edwards 2-13, Ford 1-13, Franks 1-4, D.Garrett 1-(minus 1). Hawaii,
Davis 3-85, Iosefa 3-11, Ostrowski 2-15, Hall 2-7, Clapp 1-12, Gant 1-9,
Bright 1-8, Leaf 1-5, Gregory 1-(minus 2).