HONOLULU — Ronnie Rivers scored two third-quarter touchdowns as Fresno State scored 24 consecutive points, Cesar Silva made a 37-yard field as time expired, and the Bulldogs beat Hawaii 41-38 on Saturday night.
Rivers finished with 19 carries for 103 yards. Jorge Reyna was 17-of-27 passing for 188 yards and a score and added 11 carries for 96 yards for Fresno State (4-4, 2-2 Mountain West).
The Bulldogs trailed 24-14 at halftime but scored on each of their first four second-half possessions — including touchdown runs of 44 and 4 yards by Rivers — to take a 14-point lead when Reyna hit Jared Rice for a 26-yard TD with 10:06 left.
Chevan Cordeiro, who replaced starting quarterback Cole McDonald midway through the fourth quarter, connected with Nick Mardner for a 50-yard gain to the 3 and, on the next play, Miles Rees scored on a 3-yard run to trim Hawaii’s deficit to 38-31 with 2:13 remaining. The Rainbow Warriors (5-4, 2-3) recovered the ensuing onside kick and Cordeiro’s 10-yard touchdown run tied it with 65 seconds to play. Reyna had a 17-yard run, hit Rice for gains of 5 and 9 yards and then ran for 11 yards to move the Bulldogs into Hawaii territory. After back-to-back incomplete passes, Rivers ripped off a 13-yard run to the 20 that set up Silva’s winning field goal.
McDonald was 21-of-42 passing for 275 and a touchdown with one interception and added a 6-yard TD run. Cordeiro completed 5 of 9 for 71 yards and had four carries for 33 yards.