Warriors fall short against Wolf Pack

By: Chris Muller

Saturday, October 31, 2009 - 7:16 PM

Nevada quarterback Colin Kaepernick gained 298 yards of total offense and four touchdowns against Hawaii. The Warriors fell to the Wolf Pack 31-21. Photo by Casey Durkin/Nevada Sagebrush

After a 54-9 thrashing at the hands of Boise State a week ago, Hawaii (2-6, 0-5 WAC) certainly came to play Saturday afternoon at Mackay Stadium. Hawaii fell 31-21 to Nevada in a game much closer than many Wolf Pack fans anticipated. A twenty-seven-point underdog, Hawaii jumped out to a 14-0 lead after two touchdown passes from quarterback Bryant Moniz to receivers Kealoha Pilares and Jovonte Taylor.

After Nevada reeled off 28 unanswered points to take a 28-14 lead in the fourth quarter, Hawaii narrowed the gap to 28-21 after a touchdown pass from Moniz to Taylor with 6:14 remaining. A 27-yard field goal by Nevada’s Ricky Drake with 1:18 left thwarted any hope of a Hawaii win.

Despite the loss, Hawaii head coach Greg McMackin was pleased with Hawaii’s effort.

“We got better as a football team,” he said. “I was proud of some of our young guys. We’ve had a troubled, adverse season but these players and coaches are still fighting with everything they have.”

McMackin said a first-quarter hamstring injury to free safety Richard Torres crippled the Hawaii defense.

“We were controlling their run, then Torres went down and it took us out of our (defensive) package,” he said. “We had to go to another package and it took us a while to adjust to that.”

Both McMackin and Taylor were impressed with Hawaii quarterback Bryant Moritz’s play, despite the fact that Moritz did not take any snaps at practice this week. Moritz was injured in the loss to Boise State and was a surprise starter for Saturday’s game. Third string quarterback Shane Austin came in for Moritz last week and was expected to start Saturday

“Mo played well,” Taylor said. “He made a few mistakes, but did really well under the circumstances.

Hawaii next takes the field Nov. 7 when the Warriors host Utah State.

Chris Muller can be reached at sports@nevadasagebrush.com.