HONOLULU – The University of Hawai'i Rainbow Warrior football team dropped its third straight game with a 50-20 loss to Fresno State Saturday at Bulldog Stadium. UH fell to 6-4 overall and 3-2 in the Mountain West.

The Bulldogs scored on seven straight offensive possessions bridging the first and second halves and added a special teams touchdown to boot to leave little doubt about the end result. Fresno State (7-1, 4-0) remains in first place of the West Division while winning its sixth straight game.
 

Fresno State quarterback Marcus McMaryion threw for 284 yards and four touchdowns in three quarters of action. Ronnie Rivers ran for 125 yards, including a 76-yard run early in the second quarter that put the Bulldogs up by double-digits for good.

Fresno State entered the game as the nation's top scoring defense (12.6), but the Rainbow Warriors found early success with 10 points in a little more than a quarter of action. UH trailed just 14-10 early in the second quarter but after that, it was all Bulldogs.

Rivers' long touchdown run started a Bulldog second-quarter barrage that was capped by a 100 yard missed field goal return by Jamire Jordan on the final play of the first half as the Bulldogs took a 37-13 lead into the locker room.

UH couldn't quite gain any traction after the break but did manage to score 20 points against a Fresno State squad that allowed just 13 points total in its previous three MW games and entered as the nation's leader in scoring defense allowing only 12.6 points per game.

Cole McDonald finished with 225 yards on 17-of-28 passing and one touchdown, while also rushing for a team-high 62 yards. Freshman Jeremy Moussa saw his first-career action and threw for 61 yards in the fourth quarter, including a 27-yard pass to senior Devan Stubblefield. Freshman Khoury Bethley led the UH defense with a career-high nine tackles.

The game included a 30-minute delay due to faulty stadium lights. It was the second straight year the two teams endured such a situation after a 40-minute weather delay during their 2017 meeting in Honolulu.

Next up for the Rainbow Warriors is a home contest against the Mountain Division-leading Utah State Aggies (7-1, 4-0). Kickoff is 6:00 p.m. at Aloha Stadium.