Hawaii falls short to New Mexico, 28-21


Tyrone Owens ran for 134 yards and a touchdown, and Lee Crosby returned a fumble 46 yards for the go-ahead score as New Mexico escaped with a 28-21 win over Hawaii Saturday night.

The Rainbow Warriors (4-5, 3-2 Mountain West) dropped their second straight home game before a crowd of 19,158 fans at HTFCU Field at Aloha Stadium. Hawaii never held a lead against the Lobos (5-4, 3-1 MW) and fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter after touchdown runs of 1 yard by Richard McQuarley and 11 yards by Teriyon Gibson.

Dru Brown's 6-yard TD run early in the second quarter got the home team on the board. On the final play of the first half, Ikaika Woolsey found the end zone from 2 yards out on a fake field goal. Rigoberto Sanchez's PAT sent the teams into the half tied at 14.

With one second left in the third quarter, Tyrone Owens carved his way for a 72-yard touchdown run to put the Lobos back ahead. However, Hawaii pulled even once again on a 4-yard run by Steven Lakalaka early in the fourth quarter.

Crosby's scoop-and-score with 8:53 left to play was the deciding score.

New Mexico rushed for 237 of its 321 yards of total offense. Owens carried 12 times for an average of 11.2 yards per carry. Gipson added 73 yards on 17 carries.

Brown threw for 173 yards on 16-of-28 passing and no interceptions. Marcus Kemp led all players with eight catches for 89 yards. Saint Juste rushed 17 times for 77 yards.

Hawaii was limited to 298 yards of total offense and was just 2 of 13 on third downs.

Jahlani Tavai made 11 tackles and forced a fumble and Malachi Mageo added 10 stops to lead the defense.

The Rainbow Warriors will play at San Diego State Saturday before returning home to face Boise State on Nov. 12.