(Tempe, AZ) ASU finished its non-conference schedule tonight and hosted the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors. The Sun Devils led the all time series 5-2 and haven’t played the Island School since 2006. Hawaii hasn’t played in Tempe since 1958, so both teams were not familiar with each other.
Tonighht’s game was also the Hall of Fame Game that inducted the Class of 2026 honorees.
The Sun Devils came in 2-2, after playing their worst game of the season last week at home being throttled by the Baylor Bears 55-19.
Hawaii arrived in the desert 1-4, with their lone victory was against New Mexico State 29-19 back on September 12th.
Both schools need to redirect their efforts to get back on the winning side.
ASU seemed to be at a crossroads offensively with Cutter Boley being inconsistent in his play. The running game had not shown a clear leader to emerge from the pack.
First Quarter
The Sun Devils won the coin toss and elected to defer to the second half.
First play from scrimmage for the Rainbow Warriors was a 47 yard slant route completion from Micah Alejando to Devin Alves and the Devils were on their heels from the get go.
The drive stalled and Hawaii settled for a 44 yard field goal by Sean Olivera-Harle and an the Warriors led 3-0.
Arizona State first crack on offense saw Boley move the team with help from a pass interference penalty. An 18 yard touchdown reception by Reed Harris that put the Devils on the board with a 7-3 lead. A ten play 79 yard drive.
On a third down and ten yards, Alejado broke three tackles and gained 22 yards, the Devis defense failed to contain,
As in the opening drive, Hawaii would make a big play and then go dormant and forced to punt.
ASU got their first punt blocked by Hawaii’s Mayan Meyer and the Rainbow Warriors got the ball at the Sun Devil 27 yard line.
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Second Quarter
Hawaii began the quarter with the ball on the Devil’s 6 yard line. On third down, Devon Rice got the ball to the 1 yard line, but after a of offensive penalty, Jalen Thompson sacked Alejado for 9 yards. Again, the Warrior drive stalled after a second sack and a 51 yard field goal sailed wide. UH lost 34 yards after getting the ball to the ASU 1 yard.
Arzona State countered wth 49 yard completion to Omarion Miller who got ,,ost off the yardage after the catch.
A direct snap play, Cardae Mack scored on a 1 yard run to extend the ASU lead to 14-3 with 9:56 left till the half.
Hawaii did flip the field with a 62 yard punt that pinned the Sun Devil at their own 5 yard line.
Kyson Brown busted a 16 yard run on first down that gave ASU some breathing room. That was followed up by 19 yard reception by Harris and on two plays, the Sun Devils were near midfield.
Alejado engineered a drive late in the quarter with short yardage plays on first and second downs and the Devils would let them off the hook on third downs and often a big yardage play.
Devils finally held on third down but it was at their own 12 yard line. The Rainbow Warriors settled for a 30 yard field goal to cut the lead 14-6 with less than a minute and a half til halftime.
Boley went to the hurry up offense to try to steal points prior to halftime and on three plays, the Sun Devils had the ball at the Hawaii 36 yard line and 34 seconds left on the clock,. After an incomplete pass, Carson Smith nailed a 48 yard field goal and Arizona State led 17-6 that ended the first half.
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Halftime
In a non eventful first half, both Hawaii and ASU struggled to be consistent offensively. Two touchdowns (ASU) and three field goals (2 – Hawaii) was all the scoring.
The most exciting part of the game so far was a torrential downpour from the remnants of Hurricane Rachel just as halftime began.
Third Quarter
After a 30 minute weather delay due to lightning, ASU got the ball first but committed a block in the back to put the starting line of scrimmage at their own 10 yard line. A three and out was the result of the first possession.
The SunDevils failed to muster yardage for a first down on their next possession and punted again.
Hawaii went for a fourth and one at their own 32 yard line and made the first down on second effort off a direct snap to Tampa Uiliata. Two plays later ASU’s Kyan McDonald picked off a Alejado pass and the Sun Devils were in business at the Hawaii 31 yard line after a 23 yard return.
A 37 yard field goal attempt off the wet turf sailed wide left and a golden scoring opportunity came up empty. The microcosm of this entire game.
ASU kept letting Hawaii hang around but the Rainbow Warriors couldn’t take advantage and their offense went three and out.
The Devils had to start at their own 3 yard line after a great punt. Mack rambled 16 yards to give the offense a boost and on the next play he one upped his effort woth a 67 yards touchdown run. That drive was 97 yards in a 1:57 in 5 plays.
Arizona State now with a 14-6 lead to end the third quarter.
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Fourth Quarter
Hawaii finally got into the end zone 32 yard line after pass to Aldrich Harris but the two point conversion was picked off off a 9 play 75 yards from their beat offensive possession of the game. ASU now up 24-12 two and a half minutes into the final quarter.
Now was the time that the Sun Devils could put this one away with a long sustained drive to cap this one off, but it was not meant to be as they got only one first down and went three an out after that to punt the ball back to the Rainbow Warriors.
Hawaii forced to go for a fourth down attempt and was bailed out with a pass inference from Rodney Bimage Jr. that ket their drive alive.The next play Bimage Jr. got flagged again for a second pass interference call.
Now the Rainbow Warriors gained more confidence and more penalty yardage that put the ball at the ASU 21 yard line. This entire drive had been fueled by Sun Devil miscues.
Again, UH was forced to go for it on fourth down but failed on an incomplete pass play to turn the ball back into the Sun Devils.
All Arizona State had to do was run clock and move the chains with 7:42 left in the game. The offense wasn’t getting much production until Boley ran for 20 yards to the Hawaii 17 yard line.
The holes started opening up as the Devil offense as they got to the 9 yard line at the two minute timeout. Off the timeout, Boley connected with Harris to salt this one away 30-12.
They did what they had to do running the clock that took nearly six minutes for the scoring drive. The two point conversion failed.
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Wrap Up
This game was filled with noth teams not wanting to make a statement and it seemed that they were just going through the motions.
If you looked at the final stats, it looked like a different game, but both teams went three and out more times than creating sustained offensive drives.
ASU out gained the Rainbow Warriors 420-316. The Sun Devils only had. 189 passing yards and 231 yards rushing, but that included a good run and a breakaway run for 87 of those yards.
The question remains, is Cutter Boley the answer for this team? Tonight’s effort won’t fly next week against Texas Tech and it makes one wonder if a 6-6 record barely bowl eligible will be the fate of this team.
Tonight’s attendance was 47,931 breaking the 10 straight sellouts streak partly due to the inclement weather and the less than spectacular blowout loss of the previous week to Baylor.
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