All week Diondre Borel studied tape of the Hawai'i defense, particularly last week's loss at Nevada. But he came across a much different Warrior defense last night.

Hawai'i brought pressure from all angles against the shifty, 6-foot, 187-pound quarterback in last night's 49-36 win over Utah State and sacked him three times. They also hurried Borel seven times and picked him off twice.

"We just had to execute our assignments," Warriors defensive end Fetaiagogo "John" Fonoti said. "We knew that their quarterback and running back were good — just like Nevada — so we just had to look at that Nevada game to see what we did wrong and work on it."

The Aggies entered last night averaging 191 rushing yards per game, which is second-best in the Western Athletic Conference and 24th in the nation. Last night they were held to 102 yards on 39 attempts (2.6 yards per rush).

"(Borel's) a real good runner. He can tuck it and take off very quickly, so we just wanted to contain him," said UH cornerback Lametrius Davis, who intercepted Borel in the first quarter. "The times that we were able to get picks was because we were able to get pressure on the quarterback, so the whole defense did a good job today."

The Warriors got their second takeaway on Mana Silva's fourth interception of the season in the fourth quarter.

Borel said one of the looks UH's defense showed — in which there were no down linemen — was difficult to defend against.

"They were walking around, which we saw on the tape when we were getting ready for them, but it made it tough to know where the pressure was coming from," Borel said. "They played hard, they have some big guys on defense and they were playing hard the whole game."

A BETTER THIRD

Leon Wright-Jackson's 5-yard touchdown run with 1:49 left in the third quarter was UH's first touchdown against a Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly I-A) opponent in the third quarter this season.

The Warriors recycled a missed field-goal attempt by Utah State into a six-play, 80-yard drive. Greg Salas' 59-yard reception down to the Aggies' 1-yard line set up Wright-Jackson's third TD of the night.

"It was a key score for us, especially since (Utah State's) offense was playing well after they made some second-half adjustments," UH quarterback Bryant Moniz said. "It was important for us to answer back and keep that lead up to help our defense."

The Warriors' only other third-quarter TD came on Sept. 4 in the season-opener against Central Arkansas on a 3-yard pass from Greg Alexander to Kealoha Pilares. UH has been outscored 73-26 in the third quarter this year.

"We've kind of made a bad habit of starting off slow in the second half and it seemed like we were headed that way, but we bounced back, got over that and scored, so we're happy to get over that hump, too," said Wright-Jackson, who rushed for 167 yards on 15 carries.

FIELD-GOAL BLUES

Not everything went smoothly for the Warriors last night. UH kicker Scott Enos couldn't convert on either of his field-goal attempts.

His first kick — a 44-yarder just before halftime — was blocked by Devin Johnson.

"I felt like it was a good kick, but the timing was slow," Enos said.

Enos' other field-goal try was from 45 yards. It went wide left.

"I'm going to try and work it out at practice," Enos said.

HAWAI'I PAST

The Aggies had familiar faces on their sideline last night in assistant coaches Chad Kauha'aha'a (defensive line) and Alex Gerke (offensive line).

Kauha'aha'a was born in Wailuku, Maui, and coached at Baldwin High School, his alma mater, until 2004.

Gerke served as offensive line and running backs coach at UH last season.