Warriors Hold Off Cougs

In a misty tropical paradise, the Washington State University football team held close but costly mistakes kept them from getting past Hawai'i and the Cougars lost to the Warriors, 24-10 at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu to end their season at 2-11.

The game began ugly for the Cougars as they seemed like they were still working off their Apple Cup celebrations as Hawai'i stopped the Cougars on their opening offensive possession and then proceeded to march down the field for a quick and easy touchdown in their first offensive possession. The Warriors then added another touchdown in the first quarter and led 14-0 before Apple Cup hero Nico Grasu could get the Cougars on the board with a 28-yard field goal.

Redshirt junior quarterback Kevin Lopina started the game but freshman J.T. Levenseller as Lopina fumbled a snap deep in Cougar territory which allowed the Warriors to score late in the first half and go into halftime with a 17-3 lead.

But Wazzu came back with an inspired effort to open the third quarter, first stopping Hawai'i ontheir initial drive and then methodically rushing the ball downfield before Dwight Tardy scored on a controversial one-yard touchdown plunge where it appeared Tardy was close to not crossing the plane of the goal line with the ball. But after review of the play, the officials awarded the touchdown to Tardy and Wazzu shaved the lead to seven at 17-10.

But Hawai'i responded later in the quarter when quarterback Greg Alexander tossed a touchdown pass after escaping Cougar pressure and ended the game's scoring.

The fourth quarter saw Hawai'i miss two more field goals – one of which was blocked by the Cougars.

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