Hawaii\u2019s run-and-shoot did what it does. Micah Alejado threw for 338 yards and found Dez Alves for a 58-yard touchdown that had Clarence T.C. Ching rocking.<\/p>\n
But in the end, San Jose State\u2019s 20-16 win was accomplished the old-fashioned way.<\/p>\n
A scheme battle SJSU won in the trenches<\/p>\n
The Spartans ran 34 times for just 78 yards, a 2.3-yard average that won\u2019t turn heads on a stat sheet. SJSU went 4 of 4 in the red zone, converted both fourth-down tries and leaned on two hard-nosed Jabari Bates\u2019 runs for two big conversions in the fourth quarter; leading to Trajan Sinatra\u2019s 30-yard field goal with 1:15 left.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to be able to run the football to be able to win,\u201d said Niumatalolo postgame. \u201cWe want to be one of the best passing teams in the country, but in order to play winning football, you have to be able to run the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
The defensive front also lived in Alejado\u2019s lap. SJSU sacked Alejado three times, hit him for five tackles for loss and forced a fumble. The pressure also set up both interceptions that flipped the game. Jayden Robertson\u2019s first-half pick at the Hawaii 20 set up Kama Kopa-Kaawalauole\u2019s touchdown catch two plays later and Caleb Womack\u2019s interception with under seven minutes left snuffed out a Hawaii possession when the Warriors needed it most.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had dropped back to a deep half and then it was the same thing again,\u201d said Womack. \u201cThe D-line just got home and made him throw a bad ball. It was a good play call as well and it gave me the opportunity to go make a play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Womack also offered the line of the night when asked how Hawaii\u2019s crowd and in-stadium atmosphere nearly flipped momentum in the third quarter, when the Warriors ripped off 13 unanswered points after the half.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like it\u2019s kind of part of Hawaii\u2019s tactics to kind of lure you to sleep,\u201d said Womack. \u201cThey play that relaxing music. It did kind of take us a minute to get rolling, but we all locked in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opposite trajectories and the No. 3 picture<\/p>\n
The bigger number here isn\u2019t the yardage. It\u2019s the records.<\/p>\n
San Jose State moves to 3-2 and 1-0 in conference play. Hawaii drops to 1-4 and 0-3; considering the \u2018Bows are a program that reached the Hawaii Bowl a year ago now losing for the third straight week in conference play.<\/p>\n
SJSU had been sitting out the Mountain West\u2019s muddled debate over who\u2019s third-best behind North Dakota State and New Mexico, parked in a bye week while Air Force, Wyoming and UNLV traded results. A true road win in a rivalry game, built on a perfect 4-for-4 trip through the red zone and a defense that got off the field when it mattered, is the kind of evidence that reenters a team into that conversation.<\/p>\n
Carson Clark, who caught a touchdown and said the chemistry with QB Luke Weaver keeps growing by the day, put the week-to-week approach plainly.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t get too high, don\u2019t get too low in any game, no matter how high the stakes are,\u201d said Clark. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say the rivalry was anything bigger than it was for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
And if there\u2019s a face for where this program is trying to go, Niumatalolo pointed straight to Kopa-Kaawalauole, the captain whose touchdown catch opened the scoring. Call him the bridge between the identity SJSU wants and the one that\u2019s starting to show up on Saturdays.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say Kama\u2019s the kind of kid that represents the type of football players that I want here in San Jose State,\u201d said Niumatalolo on the Hawaiian native. \u201cTough, hard-nosed, but gracious, a good citizen, a good person on the field. I just love who he is and how he represents us.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a team the shares many parallels with Hawaii, that\u2019s the version of SJSU that showed up in Honolulu. For a Mountain West still sorting out its pecking order, this one counts for something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hawaii\u2019s run-and-shoot did what it does. Micah Alejado threw for 338 yards and found Dez Alves for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[23397,88,90,89,9393],"class_list":["post-485132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-hawaii-football","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-state-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}