Utah State football: Visit to paradise nightmarish for Ags

HONOLULU — Things looked pretty good for Utah State at Hawaii when the Aggies intercepted a pass on the Warriors' first drive and quickly scored a touchdown on Robert Turbin's 7-yard run.

Things went downhill, fast, after that.

Hawaii, losers of six in a row before beating Utah State 49-36 late Saturday night, unloaded six weeks of frustration on the Aggies and scored 35 straight points in the first half with an offensive performance sure to leave USU coach Gary Andersen pulling out what was left of the hair on his recently-shaved head.

The Warriors posted a whopping 436 yards of offense in the first half and crushed whatever hopes the Aggies had of returning to the mainland with a victory.

The loss drops Utah State to 2-7 overall and just 1-4 in the WAC. It also guaranteed the Aggies will finish with a losing record for the 12th season in a row.

Hawaii improves to 3-6 and 1-5.

As bad as the first half was, Utah State showed some life in the third quarter and threatened to make the game interesting. After scoring on back-to-back possessions to make the score 35-21, USU's Walter McClenton intercepted a Bryant Moniz pass and returned it to the Hawaii 6. But three plays later, USU had gone backward and kicker Chris Ulinski missed on a 27-yard field goal attempt that would have brought the Aggies to within 11 points.

The Warriors made Utah State pay for that blown opportunity and scored just six plays later on a Leon Wright-Jackson 5-yard run to make it 42-21 with 1:49 left in the third quarter.

But the hole the Aggies found themselves in was simply too deep to climb out of and despite a continued strong effort in the second half, which saw USU outscore Hawaii 29-14, Utah State didn't have enough time to complete the comeback.

The game ended with 1,143 yards of offense and 51 first downs between the two teams.