Aztecs Fall to Hawai'i in Honolulu 38-6

HONOLULU --  San Diego State saw its six-game winning streak come to an end with a 38-6 loss at Hawai‘i on Saturday night in Honolulu.

The Aztecs (7-2, 4-1 MW) were outmatched in all three phases against a Rainbow Warrior (7-3, 4-2 MW) team that was playing its first home game in four weeks.

Playing without All-American candidate cornerback Chris Johnson and fellow captain linebacker Tano Letuli, the Aztecs gave up three passing touchdowns and 300 total yards in the first half. San Diego State, which entered with a second-ranked scoring defense (10.0), sixth-ranked overall defense (246.3) and sixth-ranked passing defense (157.8), gave up 386 total yards, including 256 through the air, and 20 first downs.

On offense, the Aztecs didn’t find the end zone despite having seven of their 14 drives go into UH territory. SDSU, which totaled 267 yards of offense, was 2-for-14 on third down and 0-for-2 on fourth down. San Diego State committed  four turnovers, its most in a game since also having four in the same Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex in the 2022 Hawai‘i Bowl against Middle Tennessee State.

On special teams, SDSU wasted a historic punting night by giving up its first kick return touchdown since Nov. 23, 2013 against Boise State. San Diego State made two field goals, but missed a third in the waning moments of the first half because of a bad hold. Punters Hunter Green and Tashi Dorje each logged a punt of at least 60 yards, the first time that has happened in a game since Georgia State on Sept. 10, 2016 and just the 10th time it has happened since at least 1996.

Lucky Sutton rushed for 78 yards, while Jayden Denegal was 10-for-27 for 132 yards, two interceptions and zero touchdowns. Donovan Brown caught three passes for 60 yards.

Owen Chambliss had 13 tackles for a second straight game, including a pair of sacks and three tackles for loss. Dalesean Staley chipped in with eight stops.

Micah Alejado threw three first-half touchdown passes to Jackson Harris, and a Kansei Matsuzawa 22-yard field goal made it 24-6 Hawai‘i at the half.

Cam Barfield then returned the opening kickoff of the second 86 yards for a touchdown and Elijah Palmer later added a 53-yard pick-6 that capped the scoring in the fourth quarter.

In addition to having its six-game overall winning streak snapped (was tied for the eighth longest in the country), SDSU also had its five-game winning streak in the series snapped, a four-game conference winning streak (was tied for the 11th longest) and a three-game road winning streak (was tied for the 10th longest).

San Diego State fell to 26-12-2 all-time against the Rainbow Warriors, finishing 11-3 in the series in UH’s Mountain West era.