Hawaii overcomes miscues to turn back Fresno State, 21-20

Every valley has a mountain top.

When the dust settled after 60 minutes of play Saturday night, that’s where the Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors found themselves.

Hawai’i overcame multiple self-inflicted mistakes and got two fourth-quarter receiving touchdowns by Nick Cenacle — including the go-ahead score with 15 seconds remaining in regulation — to stun Fresno State, 21-20, in a Mountain West conference game at Valley Children’s Stadium.

Redemption was the theme for Cenacle and the Rainbow Warriors, who improved to 4-5 with their second straight win while keeping their bowl game hopes alive.

After Cenacle lost a fumble with inside of Fresno State territory with 1:56 left in the game, the Hawai’i defense forced a 3-and-out that was punctuated by Jalen Smith’s 14-yard sack on third down. The Rainbow Warriors used all of their three second-half timeouts before getting the ball at the Bulldogs’ 47-yard line with 90 seconds left in the game.

A pivotal pass interference penalty on fourth-and-10 at the Fresno State 18 helped extend the Hawai’i drive to set up Cenacle’s 3-yard go-ahead score from Brayden Schager in the right flat. Kansei Matsuzawa was pure on the PAT to give Hawai’i its first lead of the game since scoring on its opening possession.

“Make a play for the guys,” said Cenacle, who finished with 12 catches for 113 yards and two scores while emerging as Schager’s go-to target after a targeting penalty against Fresno State in the fourth quarter took Pofele Ashlock out of the game.

Cenacle added that he wanted to atone for his fumble earlier in the fourth quarter.

“I had to redeem myself after that. It was like, we’re so close and stuff like that. I just did a boneheaded, bonehead-like mistake. I just had to redeem myself and get it for these guys and I was able to make a play.”

With defensive end Elijah Robinson leading the way with two sacks and three of the Rainbow Warriors’ 10 TFLs, the Hawai’i defense had one of its best performances of the year, holding the Bulldogs (5-4) to just 176 yards of offense while the Hawai’i offense nearly doubled that with 346 yards of their own.

But it was untimely Hawai’i errors that helped Fresno State get on the board.

A fumble recovery by the defense on the Bulldogs’ opening possession was wiped away by a personal foul against Hawai’i. Fresno State promptly tied the game on the next play with a 10-yard TD run.

Hawai’i tried going for it on fourth-and-1 on its next series, but gave up a sack and fumble and turned it over on downs at its own 28-yard line. Fresno State scored eight plays later to take a 13-7 lead with 10:21 remaining in the second quarter — but Cam Stone did come up with a critical block on the extra point that paid dividends in the Rainbow Warriors’ rally.

The third miscue by Hawai’i came late in the third quarter when a red zone trip was derailed by a Phoenix Jackson 89-yard pick-six off a Brayden Schager batted pass to give Fresno State a 20-7 lead.

Then the scales started to tip in the Rainbow Warriors’ favor in the fourth quarter.

Hawai’i converted on fourth down twice on an 87-yard drive on its first possession of the final period of play and cashed in on a 9-yard scoring strike to Cenacle with 9:04 left in regulation to give itself some life.

The Rainbow Warriors got the ball back down 20-14 with 6:58 showing in the clock and got all the way to the Fresno State 22 before Cenacle fumbled. Once the defense stood stall to get the ball back, Hawai’i marched down the field in 10 plays for the game-winning score.

“Unbelievable game. Unbelievable resiliency by our team. Great job by the coaching staff and great job by the players. Holy smokes,” said Hawai’i coach Timmy Chang, who picked up his second road win during his three-year tenure.

“These are the fun games coming in, backs against the wall and games that we must win. We talked about it, we challenged the guys and they just didn’t give up.”

Hawai’i hosts UNLV (6-2) on Saturday at the T.C. Ching Athletics Complex. Kickoff is slated for 4 p.m.