HALAWA — The University of Hawaii held an early lead after its opening possession Saturday, but it was all downhill from there.

Mike Schmidt ran in three touchdowns and threw for another score to lead Air Force to a 56-26 rout of the Rainbow Warriors in a Mountain West Conference football game at Aloha Stadium Saturday night.

The Falcons (5-2 overall, 3-0 MWC) ran for 353 of their season-high 522 yards of total offense and posted 21-point quarters in the second and fourth stanzas to hand the Rainbow Warriors (4-3, 1-2) their second consecutive loss.

Schmidt, a senior quarterback, came off the bench to replace starter Donald Hammond III, who left the game with an apparent right (throwing) shoulder injury early in the contest. Schmidt carried 14 times for 120 yards and scored on runs of 1, 61 and 18 yards. He completed his first four pass attempts, including a 75-yard scoring strike to Geraud Sanders to plays into the second quarter, and finished 6-of-7 passing for 147 yards.

Timothy Jackson ran for 113 yards and a touchdown and Kadin Remsberg added 91 yards and two other scores for the Falcons, who averaged 6.9 yards per rush.

Sanders finished with a career-high 116 receiving yards on just three receptions.

Cole McDonald threw for 404 yards and three touchdowns on 34-of-52 passing. He was intercepted late in the fourth quarter, which was returned for a 92-yard pick-6 by Air Force's Milton Bugg III to close out the scoring with 4:01 to play.

Jared Smart posted a career-high 11 catches for 140 yards, his second time eclipsing the century mark this season.

Melquise Stovall recorded his second straight game of multiple touchdowns. He caught scoring strikes of 59 and 5 yards from McDonald — both of them in the second quarter — and finished with three grabs for 71 yards.

Jojo Ward chipped in with six catches for 89 yards, including a 10-yard TD pass from McDonald on the first play of the fourth quarter.

McDonald passed Dan Robinson for fourth place on the school's all-time passing yardage list with a nine-yard completion to Cedric Byrd II in the second quarter. McDonald now has 6,181 career passing yards.

Hawaii held a 3-0 lead early on after it capped its opening drive with a 41-yard field goal by Ryan Meskell, but never regained the lead after the Falcons went ahead with a 2-yard TD run by Remsberg with 6:09 left in the first quarter.

The Rainbow Warriors finished with 486 yards of total offense.

Hawaii will look to end a six-game losing streak against New Mexico when it visits the Lobos next Saturday. It has not won a game in Albuequerque since 1987.