HONOLULU – In a battle of two air-tight defenses, the University of Hawai'i fell to San Diego State, 17-10, Saturday night at the Clarence T.C. Ching Complex. It was the third straight conference loss for the Rainbow Warriors who fell to 4-6 overall and 1-4 in the Mountain West.
 
Saturday's game marked Hawai'i's first home game without crowd restrictions and UH welcomed a boisterous and energized fan base. What the crowd got was a defensive battle. The Rainbow Warriors held San Diego State to just 227 total yards, a season-low for a Hawai'i opponent. But the nationally-ranked Aztecs' (8-1, 4-1 Mountain West) unit ended up getting the upper hand, stopping UH's final drive on the 18-yard line as time expired. 
 
The Warriors forced the Aztecs to punt and regained possession with 1:11 at their own 32-yard line. Needing a touchdown to tie the score, quarterback Chevan Cordeiro marched UH down to the 23-yard line after a completion to Zion Bowens. On third down, he completed a 5-yard pass to Dedrick Parson but the Warriors could not line up in time for one final play. 
 
Cordeiro completed 19-of-34 for 175 yards and one touchdown – a 19-yard pass to Calvin Turner Jr., in the first quarter that tied the score at 7-7. UH had just 260 yards of total offense and tied a season-low with 10 points.
 
SDSU got on the board first with Greg Bell's 5-yard rush midway through the first quarter. 
But the UH defense came up big when Darius Muasau's strip sack gave the Warriors the ball deep in SDSU territory later in the opening quarter. UH cashed in on its very next snap when Cordeiro found Turner to knot the game up. 
 
A fake field goal by the Aztecs, resulting in a 13-yard rushing touchdown, gave the Aztecs a 14-7 advantage in the second quarter, a lead they would take into halftime. After a scoreless third quarter, SDSU padded its lead with a 39-yard Matt Araiza field goal to go up 17-7 with less than eight minutes to go. 
 
A Matthew Shipley field goal, his 11^th straight on the season, cut the deficit to 17-10 with 3:00 left and UH's defense forced a SDSU punt, setting up the final drive. 
 
UH now heads back to the mainland for its sixth road game of the year when it travels to Las Vegas for a matchup with UNLV. Kickoff is set for 1:00 p.m. PT/11:00 a.m. HT.