Falcon Football: Air Force dominates Hawaii, 58-7

  • Published
  • By John Van Winkle
  • Air Force Academy Public Affairs
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo --  Falcon football got back on the winning track with a crushing 58-7 win over the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors in Honolulu Oct. 31.

Air Force controlled the game from its opening drive, when junior Jacobi Owens crossed the goal line from two yards out to start Air Force's scoring spree.

Tailback Owens played out of position the entire game, moving to fullback two weeks ago because of injuries racking up in the fullback cadre. Owens rushed 30 times for 137 yards and made the game's first two touchdowns as starting fullback. He anchored an Air Force offense that ground out 496 yards rushing and 576 yards total offense, dominating the possession battle 45:06 to Hawaii's 14:54. 

"We needed to have been able to stop their run, and we just didn't do that," said Hawaii's then-head coach Norm Chow. "They're a very good football team and they see what your game plan is and they try to take advantage of it. We had the ball for just 10 plays in the third quarter and when they got ahead that hurt us."

Defensively, the Falcons were equally dominating. Air Force held Hawaii to negative 2 yards rushing, the 10th fewest rushing yards allowed in Falcon football history. Hawaii racked up 180 yards in the passing game, with zero touchdowns and two first-half interceptions by Falcons Weston Steelhammer and Roland Ladipo.

The Falcons rushing game, coupled with its defensive dominance, gave the Air Force a 34-0 halftime lead. With the game essentially decided, save for a need to run out the clock, Air Force stuck to conservative game calling. Air Force didn't throw another pass, rotated reserves in for game experience, and stuck to running the ball for the rest of the game.

Hawaii finally got on the scoreboard late in the fourth quarter, when Keelan Ewaliko broke free on a kickoff return to race 98 yards for a touchdown. By then, the Rainbow Warriors were down 51-7.  Air Force wound up with one more touchdown from its rushing game, when reserve tailback Timothy McVey broke a 39-yard run to score. Backup kicker Matthew Philichi made the kick and ended the game at 58-7.

The loss to Air Force dropped Hawaii to 2-7 this year. Chow was relieved of his duties as Hawaii head coach Nov. 2. He was 10-36 in his four seasons with the Rainbow Warriors and achieved all-time highs in graduation rates and academic performance rate for athletes.

With the win, Air Force advances to 5-3 on the season and turns its attention to service academy rival Army. Saturday's Army-Air Force game has implications for the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy, as Air Force must defeat Army to have any hope of retaining the trophy. Since the Falcons lost to Navy earlier this season, the Falcons would only retain the trophy in the event of a three-way tie between the academies. To do that, Air Force must defeat Army on Saturday and then root for Army to sink Navy on Dec. 12.

Army is having a rough season, however. The Black Knights are is 2-6 and has only defeated one Football Bowl Subdivision team this year: Eastern Michigan, 1-8 on the year.

Season records mean little when the service academies meet. Army is coming off a bye week, and has designs on winning the Commander-in-Chief's trophy outright with wins over the Falcons and Midshipmen. Army is averaging 24.1 points per contest and ranks 12th nationally with 258.7 rushing yards per contest. The Black Knights are allowing 28.5 points per game and five of their losses this season have been by seven points or less for a combined 23 points.

Kickoff for the Army-Air Force football game is 1:30 p.m. (MT) Nov. 7 at Falcon Stadium.  Falcon fans can follow the action at KVOR 740 AM in Colorado Springs; The Fan 104.3FM in Denver; KTMM 1340AM in Grand Junction, Sirius/XM Channel 134 on satellite radio; and on television via ESPNU and online at goairforcefalcons.com.