McDonald passes Hawaii past Rams

Cole McDonald led the Hawaii Warriors to their first win in Fort Collins since 1988, picking apart Colorado State’s secondary in a 43-34 Mountain West win over the Rams on Saturday night after nearly blowing a 30-point lead in the opener for both schools.

McDonald threw for 418 yards and three TDs, including a 55-yarder to Cedric Byrd that made it 37-7.

With his counterpart, Washington graduate transfer K.J. Carta-Samuels throwing for 537 yards and five touchdowns, McDonald and the Warriors had to fend off a furious Rams rally.

It included a four-play, 99-yard scoring drive and a 9-yard TD toss to Izzy Matthews that pulled CSU to 40-34 with 4:42 remaining. The Rams didn’t try an onside kick after that, and Tristin Kamaka’s fair catch at the Hawaii 13 gave the Warriors the ball at their 25 thanks to a new NCAA kickoff rule.

McDonald led the Warriors to a Ryan Meskell field goal with 44 seconds left to seal the game.

The Warriors were nearly unstoppable, scoring on all but one of their first-half possessions in taking a 23-7 lead.

RICE 31, PRAIRIE VIEW A&M 28 >> Emmanuel Esukpa had 173 yards rushing, and Jack Fox kicked a 23-yard field goal as time expired to lead the Owls to the win in former Stanford offensive coordinator Mike Bloomgren’s first game as head coach.