Brown leads Rainbow Warriors to 38-17 victory over the Wolf Pack

Before some fans got seated the Wolf Pack were off and running. In the first three plays of the game, they marched 66 yards down the field and were threatening to score. James Butler did the heavy lifting with a 55-yard run. Much to their disappointment, their drive stalled on the Hawaii 5-yard line and ultimately turned the ball over on downs.

From the point Dru Brown stepped onto the field to take his first snap as a starter, UH was off and running. He completed all 5 passes on the drive for 79 yards. Diocemy Saint Juste also added 29 yards rushing. Even with that explosive display, the Rainbow Warriors could not punch it in for a touchdown and settled for a field goal.

Nevada had chances early to even up the score and even take the lead but inconsistent offensive play doomed them. Each time a drive for them seemed to get going, an errant throw from Tyler Stewart seemingly killed them.

On the other side of the ball, the Wolf Pack had no answers for the Hawaii offense. Nevada ceded five touchdowns in six drives. The only one that did not result in a touchdown was stopped by the end of the first half. The scoring flurry was highlighted by an incredible one-handed catch by Metuisela Unga.

Before you knew it, the score was 38-3.At which point Nevada had less than half the yardage that Hawaii put up, 219 to 506 total offensive yards. UH got things going again with the run game but Dru Brown fumbled on the Nevada 35-yard line.

On the ensuing drive, the Wolf Pack scored their first touchdown of the game. James Butler and Tyler Stewart led the way, combining for 48 yards. Wyatt Demps caught the TD pass from Tyler Stewart to make things 38-10.

With 10:57 left in the game, the home team decided it was time to start milking the clock to end the game. This did not work very well as Nevada would end up scoring one more time. Stewart added 72 yards through the air to Andrew Celis, Jerico Richardson, and Demps. Jaxson Kincaide pounded in a 2 yard run for another touchdown and made the box score read 38-17.

Dru Brown finished the game completing 15 of 18 passes for 222 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also tallied 31 yards rushing. Diocemy Saint Juste had rushed 19 times for 205 yards and totaled more yards than the Wolf Pack combined. While Marcus Kemp led the receivers with 88 yards and Metuisela Unga caught 2 touchdowns.

Tyler Stewart threw for 203 yards with 1 touchdown and completed 19 of 33 passes. James Butler ran for 168 yards and Wyatt Demps hauled in a touchdown to go along with 53 receiving yards.

Nevada out-possessed Hawaii by about 3 minutes and won the turnover battle. They also finished with 397 total yards while UH finished with 566.

This was a special win for Nick Rolovich as it marks his first conference win and it was against his former employers no less. Rolovich’s Rainbow Warriors hops to the top of the West Division standing and Brian Polian’s Wolf Pack falls to third.