Yes. It’s true.
UNLV’s football team defended itself to a Mountain West victory on Saturday night.
The Rebels put a halt on Hawaii’s highly proficient offense and left the island with a 21-6 win in the conference opener for both teams at Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex in Honolulu.
UNLV (1-1, 1-0) totaled five sacks on the evening and came up with key second-half stops that kept the Rainbow Warriors and quarterback Micah Alejado (Bishop Gorman) out of the end zone all evening.
UNLV quarterback Jackson Arnold threw for 116 yards and rushed for 89 more for the Rebels.
And it was star running back Jai’Den “Jet” Thomas who clinched things with a 50-yard scoring run with under five minutes remaining.
Thomas rushed 20 times for 143 yards — his 10th career outing of 100 or more.
UNLV ran for 248 yards on the night.
UNLV led 14-3 at halftime over an opening 30 minutes in which it controlled the game statistically.
The Rebels did most of their damage on the ground, rushing for 128 yards to just 47 for the Rainbow Warriors.
It was Arnold scoring both of UNLV’s touchdowns before intermission via runs of 7 and 2 yards.
Hawaii (0-2, 0-1) couldn’t get much going over the half, accounting for 109 total yards. Alejado was 6 of 20 passing for 62 yards through two quarters.
On the other side, Arnold completed 6 of 12 for 89 yards through the half.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Contact Ed Graney at egraney@reviewjournal.com. Follow @edgraney on X.
