In the first few minutes of the Hawaii Bowl, Middle Tennessee was off to a dream start after spending their postseason vacation on the islands. Then the team got into the Christmas spirit and decided to start gifting their opponents points and turnovers.
As a result, Hawaii turned three turnovers into three scores and managed to storm back from an early deficit to take a 35-21 lead into halftime of their hometown bowl game.
Blue Raiders quarterback Brent Stockstill returned to action for the first time since early November when he suffered a broken collarbone, but had an up-and-down first two quarters. He finished with 255 yards and two touchdown passes when all was said and done but was also responsible for two interceptions and a fumble as he looked a tad rusty when the game speed started to pick up.
That first fumble set the Rainbow Warriors up in the red zone and signal-caller Dru Brown capitalized on it by needing just one play to find the end zone. Stockstill was intercepted the next drive and it didn’t take long before Steven Lakalaka punched it in to take advantage of another short field. Diocemy Saint Juste powered the next scoring drive that resulted in an touchdown and then the defense got on the board with a 68 yard pick-six to completely flip the momentum to the home team.
MTSU did get something going just before halftime but it’s pretty clear they’ll need to take care of the ball better if they want to dig themselves out of this deficit and head home from the islands with a victory. Given the fight that Hawaii showed in storming back however, it’s pretty clear there should be some late night fun set for the second half in Saturday’s only bowl game.