University of Hawaii football team’s dream of capturing a second-straight Western Athletic Conference title mathematically spoiled tonight in Reno at the hands of Nevada, but it turns out UH lost much more than a game as senior quarterback and captain Bryant Moniz suffered a collegiate-career ending lower leg injury.
Number 17 suffered what Head Coach Greg McMackin called a broken right ankle in the first quarter.
Hawaii leading 3-0 when the Leilehua graduate was sacked.
He went down awkwardly and remained down for several minutes before being taken off the field and into the lockers.
Senior Shane Austin would take over from there and the UH offense stalled, but the Warrior defense and special teams would keep Hawaii in it.
Trailing 14-6, John Hardy-Tuliau blocked his second punt of the season recovered in the end-zone to make it a 2-point game then on the 2-point try Austin hooked-up with Billy Ray Stutzmann tying the game at 14.
Nevada though would repeatedly-answer led behind their fantastic-freshman quarterback, Cody Fajardo as he posted four touchdowns on the night, three of them through the air combining for 371-total yards.
Now, Warriors trailed 35-21 with just over 11-minutes remaining when Austin hooked up with Jeremiah Ostrowski from 25-yards out putting UH within seven.
Game not over yet, but on the ensuing Nevada drive Wolfpack got tricky converting a fake field goal for a dagger-delivering touchdown made it 42-28 pack and that’s how it would end.
As Hawaii falls to 5-5 overall, 3-3 in the WAC.
Austin would finish the game going 17-of-38 for 246-yards passing, 1-touchdown and 3-interceptions.
UH must now win two of their final three games to become bowl eligible.
That starts next week against Fresno State and again UH will have to do it without starting quarterback Bryant Moniz who is done for the year with a broken right ankle.
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