Hawaii falls to 3-7 on the season after 21-13 loss to North Dakota State

On a wet night in Manoa, the Hawaii football team’s postseason hopes appear to have slipped away.

North Dakota State scored 14 unanswered points in a 21-13 victory at the Ching Complex.

A crowd of 12,005 — it was announced as a sellout at 15,014 — saw the Rainbow Warriors fail to meet the minimum requirement for bowl eligibility this season. A .500 or better record is needed. The Warriors fell to 3-7 overall and 2-5 in the Mountain West with two games remaining.

The Warriors still could end up in a bowl if there are not enough qualifying teams. But that provided little consolation for the Warriors, who had dedicated the game to the memory of former head coach June Jones. Jones died on Oct. 28 in Portland.

“I don’t know what the chances are,” UH coach Timmy Chang said. “We can only control what we control.”

Of the Warriors amassing only 262 yards and converting four of 17 on third down, Chang said, “We have to execute,We have to do better. I have to do better.”

What had begun as a chaotic start for the Bison — their flight to Honolulu was delayed 13 hours because of mechanical problems on Thursday — turned into a festive finish. They brought about 2,000 fans.

The Bison took 16 plays to go 77 yards to take a 14-13 lead with 8:34 to play. Running back DJ Scott, behind an offensive line boosted with two tight ends and a fullback, scored from a yard out to tie it at 13. Despite being pushed back by a false start, Drew Klein converted the go-ahead, extra-point kick.

The Bison made it an eight-point difference when linebacker Ray James Jr. intercepted Micah Alejado and raced 49 yards for the touchdown. It was the Bison’s fifth defensive touchdown of the season.

The Warriors could not catch up despite three ensuing possessions. The third was controversial. On a first-and-long, Alejado was called for intentional grounding. UH was penalized the lost yardage, as well as the down. But the sideline marker showed the next play was third down instead of second. After two incompletions, it appeared the Warriors had exhausted their final hope. But the referees then retroactively ruled that they miscalculated the downs.

UH was awarded a bonus fourth-and-19 play. Because Alejado was injured on the previous play, he was required to sit out a snap. Backup quarterback Bjorn Jurgensen scrambled for 6 yards and then stepped out of bounds, apparently unaware of the down-and-distance situation. The Bison took over on downs and, after quarterback Nathan Hayes took a knee, watched the clock run out.

“It’s just tough, like we let our defense down, as an offense in general,” UH center Ethan Spencer said. “We really need to pick things up for the last two games. We need to stick together. We need to make sure we keep working. We have two more guaranteed games left. We have to put everything into these last two.”

The Bison are in their first season as members of both the FBS and the Mountain West. NDSU, which won 10 of 15 FCS championships through 2025, improved to 8-2 and 5-2.

The Warriors’ defense set up Sean Olvera-Harle’s two field goals in the third quarter.

UH nickelback Elijah Palmer tipped a second-down pass and then broke up the ensuing throw to force the Bison to punt. The Warriors then drove to the 10, leading to Olvera-Harle’s 28-yard field goal to break a 7-all tie with 7:54 left in the third quarter.

Later, the Warriors’ defensive stand forced the Bison to punt out of their end zone. On third-and-25, Cam Barfield ran 15 yards, setting up Olvera-Harle’s field goal from 33 yards, increasing the UH advantage to 13-7 with 2:16 remaining in the third quarter.

The Bison had outscored opponents 59-9 in the third quarter of the first nine games. They were held scoreless in that quarter on Saturday.

Running on empty — minus-6 ground yards — for their first 30 offensive plays of the half, the Warriors came up with an imaginative call to tie it at 7 with four seconds left in the half.

After their fifth third-down stop of the half, the Warriors took over at their own 41. Alejado and slotback Kaikai Carvalho led the Warriors to the 15 with 18 seconds remaining. On fourth-and-3, the Warriors shuffled their backfield, with Alejado sliding to the side and running back DeVon Rice taking the direct snap from Spencer. Rice raced to his right, faked a handoff, followed fullback Sitani Mikaele’s pancake block, and then used his 22.5 mph speed to sprint around the right corner and down the sideline for the 15-yard touchdown.

Olvera-Harle’s extra-point kick tied it at 7-all.

Rice’s TD gave the Warriors 9 rushing yards in the first half.

The Bison used defensive pressure to break a scoreless tie. Under a heavy attack, Alejado hurried a pass that Logan Larson intercepted at the Warriors’ 11.

Two plays and 41 seconds later, Hayes lofted a pass to Mekhi Collins, who beat single coverage for a 7-yard scoring catch and a 7-0 NDSU lead with 4:20 left in the first quarter.

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