By james art WAIPAHU, Hawaii — Haunted by the specter of senior nights that have failed and plagued Long Beach State for more than a decade, the Hawaii football team chose Halloween to conduct a thorough exorcism.
The Rainbow Wahine were seeded No. 1 for the Big West Tournament prior to the start of the regular season finale at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium on Thursday night. They didn’t play like it, defeating LBSU 1-0 to head into next week’s championship with momentum.
UH (12-7-1, 8-1-1 Big West) got a point-blank goal from Tatum Porter off a Fabiola Zamora corner kick with 7.6 seconds left in the first half, and coach Michele Nagamine emptied her bench to give the all chance in the second.
UH’s 25 points (out of a possible 30) atop the Big West standings were the most by any team in the four years the conference has competed in its current 11-team format.
The Rainbow Wahine will face the winner of Sunday’s first-round game between fifth-seeded Cal State Bakersfield and fourth-seeded UC Irvine at Anteater Stadium. Kick-off is at WPSS at 7pm on Thursday and Spectrum Sports will televise the game.
Eighth-ranked LBSU (6-9-3, 3-5-2) was eliminated from the six-team tournament beginning Thursday after the rest of the league played its season finales.
The last time UH won on senior night was in 2013 against CSUN, snapping an eight-game winless streak. Two adult dinners have been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
UH was 0-7-3 against LBSU as a Big West opponent on Thursday.
Note: This story will be updated.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.