Boxscore

Hawaii spoiled a career game from Louisiana Tech running back Ryan Moats and the Bulldogs' Homecoming Saturday at Joe Aillet Stadium.

Warriors quarterback Timmy Chang tossed five touchdown passes as Hawaii squeaked past Louisiana Tech 44-41 before a crowd of 19,128 at Joe Aillet Stadium.

The loss dropped the Bulldogs to 3-4 overall and 1-3 in the Western Athletic Conference while Hawaii is now 4-3 and 3-1.

Moats, a sophomore out of Dallas, put up career numbers with 267 yards and two touchdowns on 34 carries, but it wasn't enough to top a six-touchdown performance from the Rainbow Warriors. Moats' 267-yard performance was the second-best ever by a Tech running back, topped only by Jason Davis' 302 yards in a 1990 home win over Louisiana-Lafayette.

All of Moat's damage didn't come on the ground as he amassed 348 total yards after adding 81 yards on five receptions.

"Hawaii is an excellent football team," Tech coach Jack Bicknell said. "Their defense is strong and that quarterback is great. It was like playing against (former Tech standout) Tim Rattay or (current Tech signal caller) Luke McCown. I kept saying on the sidelines that Chang was a great quarterback, and I think they were feeling the same way about McCown."

Tech took a 41-37 advantage with 6:45 remaining when Moats broke free from 11 yards out for his second score of the contest. But in a lightning-fast contest which saw eight scoring drives take less than two minutes, the Warriors weren't finished yet.

It took more than two minutes, but Hawaii still managed to score and regain the lead as the Warriors marched downfield on a nine-play, 80-yard drive than took 2:46 off the clock and ended with a 17 yard scoring strike from Chang to running back Michael Brewster to put Tech behind by three with 3:59 left in the contest.

Tech had plenty of time and countered with an eight-play, 40 drive before Josh Scobee's 53-yard field goal attempt went wide left to turn the ball back over to Hawaii with 1:22 remaining.

"We didn't have a timeout, and that killed us," Tech coach Jack Bicknell said. "What could we do? If I had gone for the first down and missed it with an All-American kicker standing next to me, then I'd really, really be upset. It was a tough decision, but I had to make it and I did. It just didn't pay off"

The Bulldogs were out of timeouts at that point and could only watch as Chang knelt three times to run out the clock and snap Louisiana Tech's seven homecoming game win streak.

"It feels very good to get that first road win of the year," Hawaii coach June Jones said. "Especially to do it that way - to hang in as long as we did and kind of fight through it. I thought their kicker was going to make that last kick. He has an unbelievable leg."

Chang completed 33-of-46 passes for 534 yards with four interceptions and five touchdowns while McCown connected on 31-of-48 attempts for 405 yards and three touchdowns with one interception.

Tech receiver D.J. Curry turned in his third straight 100-yard receiving game with 12 catches for 125 yards and one touchdown while Chris Norwood and Erick Franklin also had scoring receptions for the Bulldogs.

Chad Owens led Hawaii with eight catches for 162 yards and a touchdown while Jeremiah Cockheran added six receptions for 102 yards and a score for the Warriors.

Defensively the Bulldogs were led by Byron Santiago with eight tackles while Gavin Cato, Jerron Wishom, Corey Brazil and Kevin Brown each had an interception for Tech.

Tech dominated time of possession by holding the ball for 37:02, but much of that was due to Moats' rushing totals and five Hawaii scoring drives that took less than three minutes off the clock each time.

"We just tried to stick to our guns," Jones said. "We could have given like we had a couple of times earlier in the season. We knew it was going to be a shootout and whoever had the ball at the end would probably win."

Bicknell was pleased with the way his squad stayed close despite being outscored 21-10 in the first quarter and 20-10 in the final stanza.

"Early on we were just struggling so much defensively," Bicknell said. "To be able to get that turned around and start shutting them down showed a great effort by our coaches and team."

Tech returns to WAC action next week as the Bulldogs play a 3 p.m. contest at the University of Nevada.