HONOLULU (AP) — Micah Alejado threw two touchdown passes and Kansei Matsuzawa made three field goals — including a 38-yarder as time expired — to help Hawai'i beat Stanford 23-20 on Saturday night in the season opener for both teams.
Stanford (0-1) was led by Micah Ford's 113 rushing yards on 26 carries, including a 2-yard touchdown with 9:41 remaining in the fourth quarter. Ford recorded his second career 100-yard rushing game.
Hawai'i (1-0), which won its first game in five attempts against Stanford, beat a power conference team for the first time since opening the 2019 season with back-to-back wins over then-Pac-12 teams Arizona and Oregon State.
Alejado walked gingerly off the field after he was sacked by Matt Rose early in the second half but returned to start the next drive and finished 27-of-39 passing for 210 yards and added 36 yards rushing. Pofele Ashlock had nine receptions for 69 yards and a touchdown.
Ford's score - which snapped a streak of 20 straight games without a rushing touchdown by a Stanford running back since 2023 - gave the Cardinal a 20-17 lead following a 20-play, 85-yard drive that took more than 9 1/2 minutes off the clock.
Matsuzawa's second field goal of 37 yards tied the game at 20-20 with 2:01 remaining.
After Stanford's final drive stalled, Hawai'i took possession at its own 28 with 1:33 to play and Alejado went 5 of 7 for 51 yards to set up Matsuzawa’s winning kick.
Emmet Kenney's 23-yard field goal opened the scoring before Stanford increased its lead to 10-0 just six seconds later when Brandon White mistakenly downed the ensuing kickoff at the 1.
On Hawaii’s first offensive play from scrimmage, Clay Patterson strip-sacked Alejado before Wilfredo Aybar recovered the fumble in the end zone to give Stanford a 10-0 lead with 7:08 left in the first quarter.
Jackson Harris caught a 19-yard TD pass from Alejado with 42 seconds left in the first half that gave Hawai'i its first lead at 14-13. The Cardinal committed three 15-yard penalties on Hawaii’s 75-yard drive.
Rose produced a career-high 13 tackles, the most by a Cardinal player since Malik Antoine’s 14 tackles against UCLA on Dec. 19, 2020 and the most by a linebacker since Bobby Okereke’s 13 against California on Dec. 1, 2018.
Cardinal quarterback Ben Gulbranson completed 15-of-30 passes for 109 yards with one interception in his first start with Stanford.
CJ Williams hauled in three catches for 30 yards to lead the receivers.