Aztecs Again Wait Until End to Falter

For the 1-3-1 San Diego State football team, victory remains somewhere over the rainbow.

Not too far, but just enough for a team that has seen three of the past four games slip away in the last 2 minutes 39 seconds.

This time it was running back Jamal Farmer’s third touchdown, a nine-yard run with 29 seconds left, that lifted the University of Hawaii to a 31-24 Western Athletic Conference victory over the Aztecs at Aloha Stadium.

Farmer, a redshirt freshman from Granada Hills, also scored on runs of one and 15 yards as Hawaii, ranked 20th by United Press International, raised its record to 5-1 and 2-1 in the WAC.

SDSU, 1-2 in the WAC, appears out of the running for the Holiday Bowl. No team in 27 years has won the title with more than one conference loss.

“It’s not a lack of effort; it is a lack of being able to take it to a different level when you have to, and this program has to learn that,” said Al Luginbill, the Aztec coach. “Once they do that, this football team is going to be real good.”

Until then, the Aztecs will continue to be frustrated as they were against Hawaii, UCLA (a 28-25 loss) and Cal State Fullerton (a 41-41 tie).

“That’s been the story for us the whole year,” Luginbill said. “There will come a day when our players will deliver, and it won’t come down to the last three minutes.”

On Sunday, he added: “We’ve gotten to the point where we’re in the last two minutes of a ballgame with a chance to win. This program has not been in that position the last couple of years. They’ve been either out of the ballgame or winning it at that time. What we have to learn is that you have to go to another level at that time in order to win.”

They might not even have needed that level had the Aztecs taken care of business in the first half Saturday night.

Four times before halftime, they had the ball inside the Hawaii 20. But all they got was a 34-yard Andy Trakas field goal to trail, 17-3, at halftime.

Given the state of a kicking game that has made good on four of nine field goals--and just one beyond 26 yards--even that was something. But Trakas missed field goal tries of 26 and 47 yards in the first half, and the Aztecs also struggled to find a capable long snapper and someone who could kick off.

Luginbill made his second change of a kickoff man in two games, restoring Trakas in the second half after having replaced him with Tom Wurth in the second half against Utah. Trakas took over again after Wurth put two consecutive kickoffs out of bounds.

As for the long snapper, Jason Bill replaced Jim Jennings on placements after bad snaps cost the Aztecs on a field goal try in the first half and an extra point attempt in the second.

The missed opportunity that hurt most came after Aztec defensive back John Wesselman recovered an airborne fumble and returned it 34 yards to the Hawaii 26 in the first quarter. But the Aztecs were unable to score despite having three tries inside the Hawaii two.

On third down, linebacker Joaquin Barnett got the first of Hawaii’s five sacks of quarterback Dan McGwire, a six-yard loss to the eight. McGwire had been sacked only five times in four previous games.

Jennings’ snap for the 26-yard field goal try was low, the ball never was placed properly, and Trakas missed wide right.

“Andy panicked a little bit,” Luginbill said. “If he had just hung in there, he would have gotten it.”

Another threat died when the WAC interception leader, free safety Walter Briggs, picked off his fifth, a McGwire pass at the Hawaii 13. It was the only Aztec turnover.

McGwire completed 23 of 41 passes for 319 yards and one touchdown.

“In the first half, if everything had gone well, it would have been a 13-point turnaround, and it could have been a tie score,” Luginbill said. “But that’s all ifs--and ifs don’t count.”

Instead, the Aztecs were forced to come back in the second half--and they did. Two Darrin Wagner touchdown runs--of 10 yards in the third quarter and six yards on the fifth play of the fourth--and a two-point conversion pass from McGwire to Monty Gilbreath tied it at 17 with 12:47 left. A dead-ball personal foul on Hawaii gave SDSU an automatic first down and second life on the 17-play drive that had seemingly ended at the Hawaii 10.

Hawaii made it 24-17 with 9:44 left behind their third quarterback, seventh-year senior Ken Niumatalolo (he went on a two-year church mission and redshirted one year), who engineered a drive that set up Farmer’s 15-yard score.

But the Aztecs matched it at 5:56 with a 14-yard touchdown pass from McGwire to Robert Claiborne, Claiborne’s seventh reception.

The Rainbows went 55 yards--all on the ground--in six plays for their winning score.

Luginbill said, “I was extremely disappointed that the guy (Farmer) we can’t let beat us did it.”

Said Farmer, who had 87 yards on a career-high 19 carries: “I was so tired but I wanted to get in there (in the end zone) because I didn’t want to have to come back on the field.”

The Aztecs will now play host to two Big West opponents--Long Beach this Saturday and Pacific the following week--before resuming WAC play Oct. 28 at Texas El Paso.