Micah Alejado led Hawaii on a game-winning drive, capped by Kansei Matsuzawa’s 38-yard field goal as time expired to give the host Rainbow Warriors a 23-20 win over Stanford on Saturday in Honolulu.
Trailing 20-17 in the fourth quarter, Hawaii (1-0) was facing a potential two-score deficit with Stanford (0-1) driving into Rainbow Warriors territory. However, a leaping Kilinahe Mendiola-Jensen interception of Cardinal quarterback Ben Gulbranson at the Hawaii 31-yard line flipped momentum to the host team’s side.
The Rainbow Warriors capitalized, with Matsuzawa booting his second field goal of the day, a 37-yarder, to tie the score with 2:01 remaining.
Hawaii’s defense bowed up on the ensuing Stanford possession to force a punt, but as Rainbow Warriors quarterback Alejado returned to the field, he walked with a heavy limp. Alejado was under duress all day, taking four sacks, and was hit hard on the previous Hawaii drive.
However, Alejado regrouped and completed five passes on the final drive, the last a 24-yard hookup with Landon Sims that positioned Matsuzawa for his game-winning, 38-yard kick in the football program’s first game against an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent. Hawaii is 1-4 all-time against Stanford, a former Pac-12 program which joined the ACC in 2024.
Alejado finished 27-of-39 passing for 210 yards with two touchdowns. He rushed for another 36 yards to complement Cam Barfield’s 45 yards.
Micah Ford led Stanford with 113 yards on 26 carries and a score.
Ford carried on three straight plays amid a 20-play, 85-yard Cardinal drive in the fourth quarter, culminating in a 2-yard touchdown to give Stanford a 20-17 lead and its first offensive touchdown of the season.
The Cardinal reached the end zone in the first quarter on linebacker Wilfredo Aybar’s recovery of an Alejado fumble on the first Hawaii drive. The Rainbow Warriors were pinned at their own 1-yard line when, after conceding a 23-yard Emmett Kenney field goal, returner Brandon White botched the ensuing kickoff and essentially downed the ball just shy of the goal line.
Instead of Hawaii’s opening drive starting at the 35-yard line, it instead resulted in a forced-fumble sack by Cardinal lineman Clay Patterson.
Hawaii, meanwhile, chipped away at its initial two-score deficit first with a six-play, 58-yard drive late in the first quarter that culminated in Alejado’s 3-yard touchdown strike to Pofele Ashlock.
Alejado’s second touchdown pass gave the Rainbow Warriors a 14-13 lead just before halftime, as he found former Stanford receiver Jackson Harris over the top of the defense for a 19-yard score.
–Field Level Media
