Hawaii QB Dru Brown attempts a pass against UMass. Steve Erler | SL

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Dru Brown threw a 56-yard touchdown pass to Keelan Ewaliko for the go-ahead score with three minutes and 52 seconds left to help Hawaii escape with a 46-40 win over UMass in a non-conference game Saturday night. 

A crowd of 22,739 at Hawaiian Tel FCU Field at Aloha Stadium saw the Rainbow Warriors (6-7) jump out to an early lead then withstand a furious second-half rally from the visiting Minutemen (2-10).

Brown threw for 311 yards and five touchdowns on 22-of-30 passing and rushed for 44 yards. Ewaliko had a team-high 99 receiving yards on four catches. Dylan Collie (3 catches for 83 yards) hauled in two TD passes, while Marcus Kemp (5 catches for 43 yards) and Dakota Torres each added a TD grab.

Diocemy Saint Juste ran for a game-high 122 yards on 14 carries with a touchdown.

Andrew Ford completed 24 of his 38 pass attempts for 342 yards with three touchdowns for UMass.

Andy Isabella caught seven passes for 134 yards and Jalen Williams had seven receptions for 133 yards. Both had a touchdown reception from Ford in the loss. Marquis Young ran for 117 yards and a touchdown on 19 attempts.

The Rainbow Warriors opened the scoring with Brown's 1-yard TD pass to Torres just 3:49 into the game. Brown hit Collie for a 43-yard score to break a 10-all tie in the second quarter and gave UH a 24-13 halftime lead following his 11-yard scoring strike to Kemp with 3:17 left in the period.

UMass took a 26-24 lead following a 27-yard TD pass from Ford to Williams with 7:46 left in the third quarter, but UH answered with a safety to tie it at 26 and stretched it to a 14-point lead following Brown's 31-yard TD pass to Collie and Saint Juste's 40-yard TD run.

The Minutemen answered, however, cutting it to a 40-33 Hawaii lead after John Robinson's 1-yard plunge into the end zone with 6:57 left in the game. They pulled even with 5:29 remaining following an 18-yard TD run by Young and the ensuing extra point by Mike Caggiano.

The Rainbow Warriors drove 78 yards in three plays on their go-ahead drive.

UMass drove to the Hawaii 21-yard line on its final possession, but Ford's fourth-down pass fell incomplete and Hawaii ran out the final 1:05 of game time.

UH finished with 479 yards of total offense to 459 for UMass.

Both teams were 3 of 13 on third downs, but the Rainbow Warriors were a perfect 4 for 4 on fourth downs and 3 for 3 on red zone chances.

Damien Packer made a team-high nine tackles, recovered a fumble and broke up a pass to lead the Hawaii defense. Jahlani Tavai had seven tackles, including two sacks, and Jalen Rogers added six stops and forced a fumble.