{"id":221910,"date":"2025-09-13T23:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T09:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=221910"},"modified":"2025-09-13T23:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T09:04:10","slug":"uh-wins-homecoming-2025-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/09\/13\/uh-wins-homecoming-2025-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense holds, Matsuzawa lifts UH<\/abbr> to homecoming victory"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>
\"players
Elijah Palmer and the defense celebrate following an interception in the first half.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa football team<\/a> (3-1) rode a stifling defense and the leg of Kansei Matsuzawa to a 23-3 homecoming win over Portland State on September 13 at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex.<\/p>\n

The Rainbow Warrior defense held the Vikings to 230 yards and three points, both the lowest totals by a UH<\/abbr> opponent this season. UH<\/abbr> held an opponent out of the endzone all game for the first time since 2019.<\/p>\n

Elijah Palmer finished with one interception, his first of the season, and a team-high seven tackles. Lesterlaisene Lagafuaina and Jamar Sekona each registered a solo sack, while Jackie Johnson III and Qwyn Williams combined for a sack.<\/p>\n

Matsuzawa hit all three of his field goal attempts including a career-high 44-yard field goal that he later surpassed with a 47-yard field goal. Matsuzawa finished with a 35-yard field goal in the fourth quarter to move to a perfect 11-for-11 on field goal attempts this season.<\/p>\n

Quarterback Luke Weaver, making his second straight start in place of injured starter Micah Alejado, completed 26-of-42 passes for a game-high 240 yards and two touchdown passes. Cam Barfield was on the receiving end of both of Weaver’s touchdown tosses. Barfield finished with 72 all-purpose yards, including a team-high 50 receiving yards on four catches. Landon Sims was a force in both the passing and rushing attacks, finishing with 46 receiving yards and a team-leading 41 rushing yards.<\/p>\n

The Rainbow Warriors return to the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex on September 20 for their Mountain West Conference opener against Fresno State (3-1). Kickoff is set for 6 p.m.<\/p>\n

Read more on the UH<\/abbr> Mānoa Athletics website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UH<\/abbr> has won seven of its last eight nonconference home games dating back to 2023, including each of its last four.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":221911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1362],"tags":[58,83,714,9,550],"class_list":["post-221910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-athletics","tag-football","tag-student-athlete","tag-uh-manoa","tag-manoa-athletics","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/manoa-football-elijah-palmer.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221910","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=221910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221913,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221910\/revisions\/221913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}