{"id":133189,"date":"2020-12-24T15:16:20","date_gmt":"2020-12-25T01:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=133189"},"modified":"2020-12-24T15:16:20","modified_gmt":"2020-12-25T01:16:20","slug":"warriors-victorious-new-mexico-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/12\/24\/warriors-victorious-new-mexico-bowl\/","title":{"rendered":"Rainbow Warriors victorious in New Mexico Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

\"New<\/p>\n

The University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> football team delivered a Christmas gift to its fans with a 28-14 win over the Houston Cougars in the New Mexico Bowl on Christmas Eve. The victory capped off a 5-4 campaign in 2020 under Todd Graham<\/strong> in his first season at the helm of the program.<\/p>\n

The Rainbow Warriors shone on both sides of the ball with senior wide receiver Calvin Turner<\/strong> leading the offense with 88 receiving yards, 60 rushing yards, one receiving touchdown and a 92-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Sophomore quarterback Chevan Cordeiro<\/strong> controlled the passing game going 15-for-23 for 136 yards and three touchdowns.<\/p>\n

On the defensive side, interceptions in the first quarter by junior linebacker Penei Pavihi<\/strong> and freshman defensive back Michael Washington<\/strong> led to touchdowns by the offense. Junior defensive back Khoury Bethley<\/strong> led the team with 14 tackles, and All-Mountain West first team member sophomore linebacker Darius Muasau<\/strong> added nine tackles and one interception.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s New Mexico Bowl was played at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas due to New Mexico COVID-19 state regulations.<\/p>\n

Game script<\/h2>\n

The Rainbow Warriors jumped in front early with two touchdown passes by Cordeiro to freshman running back Dae Dae Hunter<\/strong> and a game-high 75-yarder to Turner. A 52-yard dash by Cordeiro and a four-yard touchdown pass from Cordeiro to sophomore defensive lineman\/tight end Jonah Laulu<\/strong> capped off a dominating 21-0 first half for UH<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n

Houston came out firing with two consecutive touchdown-scoring drives to open the second half. However, the Cougars\u2019 momentum was quickly halted after Turner\u2019s kickoff return for a touchdown near the end of the third quarter pushed the Rainbow Warriors in front 28-14. Both teams were able to move the ball down the field but could not muster up a score.<\/p>\n

Bowl history<\/h2>\n

It was the second meeting between the pair of UH<\/abbr>s. The Rainbow Warriors outlasted the Cougars 54-48 in triple-overtime in the 2003 Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Bowl.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s New Mexico Bowl win capped off Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s 14th all-time bowl appearance (8-6 record). The Rainbow Warriors are now 2-1 in mainland bowl games with a 27-17 win over Illinois in the 1992 Holiday Bowl and a 41-10 loss to Georgia in the 2008 Sugar Bowl.<\/p>\n

For more, visit the UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa Athletics website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UH<\/abbr> finished the 2020 season with a 5-4 record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1362],"tags":[58,83,714,550],"class_list":["post-133189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-athletics","tag-football","tag-student-athlete","tag-manoa-athletics","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133189"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133197,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133189\/revisions\/133197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}