WSU goes out with loss to Hawaii
HONOLULU – Better to have ended the season last week.
The happy memory of an Apple Cup victory over Washington was dimmed a bit Saturday with a return to form by the Washington State Cougars, who were strafed by the passing of Hawaii’s Greg Alexander in a 24-10 non-conference football setback Saturday night.
Alexander threw for a career-best 315 yards and two touchdowns and the Warriors (7-5) accepted an invitation to play in the hometown Hawaii Bowl.
The Cougars (2-11) finished with a school-record 11 losses in Paul Wulff’s first year as head coach, along with victories over the Huskies and Portland State.
“I thought defensively we did some really good things,” Wulff said in an interview on the Cougar Radio Network. “We gave up a couple big plays that hurt us and the quarterback scrambling in the first quarter picking up some key first downs was really the difference. And offensively we did some good things as well, but we just don’t know how to do it consistently to put a good drive together.”
The evening looked brightest for WSU early in the third quarter, when the Cougars put together a 53-yard drive on eight plays – all on the ground – ending in a 1-yard touchdown run by Dwight Tardy. That pulled the Cougars to within a touchdown, 17-10.
The big play on the march was a 17-yard reverse by senior wide receiver Brandon Gibson, with a 13-yard personal foul penalty on Hawaii’s John Fonati tacked on.
But the Warriors answered in just four plays, jump-started by a 48-yard kickoff return by Malcolm Lane. Alexander found Michael Washington on a 48-yard touchdown pass to restore the two-touchdown advantage.
Hawaii established that cushion in the first quarter on a pair of long drives.
The first covered 97 yards in 10 plays and ended with Alexander connecting with Greg Salas on a 19-yard pass. Daniel Libre’s 2-yard rush capped a 61-yard drive that made it 14-0 with 3:18 left in the first quarter.
The Cougars got on the board after Hawaii’s Daniel Kelly missed a 27-yard field goal early in the second period – a sack by Kevin Kooyman stalling the Warriors after they’d recovered a fumble on the WSU 4-yard line. Cougars quarterback Kevin Lopina engineered a drive that covered 71 yards, with Nico Grasu booting a 26-yard field goal.
Washington State also had a chance to tighten the game early in the fourth quarter after Kelly missed another field goal, this from 33 yards. The Cougars went three-and-out, but Reid Forrest’s punt was fumbled by Washington and it appeared for a moment as if Romeo Pellum had a bead on it before Washington recovered.
The Warriors then got in position for another Kelly field-goal attempt that was blocked, but WSU’s Devin Giles – attempting to lateral after the recovery – put the ball on the turf, where it was covered by Hawaii.
But Hawaii misfired again – this time in the end zone, where Andy Mattingly intercepted.
Backup quarterback J.T. Levenseller completed five passes on WSU’s last-gasp drive, but the final one – a swing pass to Tardy on fourth down – wound up short of a first down. Levenseller passed for 53 yards in relief of Lopina, while Tardy had 53 yards rushing and Logwone Mitz 52.
Gibson, in his final Cougar game, caught a single pass to run his career total to 182, second in school history and 20th all-time in the Pacific-10 Conference. Gibson also ends his career as the Cougars’ all-time receiving yardage leader with 2,756 yards.