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HALAWA — Return to sender.

Darius Muasau tied a career high with 14 tackles to help the University of Hawaii turn back previously-undefeated Nevada, 24-21, in a Mountain West Conference football game at Aloha Stadium Saturday night.

The Rainbow Warriors snapped a two-game losing streak to improve to 3-3 on the season, while the Wolf Pack fell to 5-1.

"This is a very big win. Each win pretty much means a lot to us," said Muasau, a sophomore linebacker and 2019 Mililani graduate.

"In times like this, I mean, you don't when it's going to be the last game for us, there's a lot of games shutting down, canceled games, so we just play every game like it's our last and it's a big momentum-shifter for us," he added.

Nevada entered the game riding its first 5-0 start since the 2010 season. It brought with it the nation's fourth-rated passing offense (363.8 yards per game), a quarterback in Carson Strong, who averaged the third-most passing yards per game in FBS and the country's leader in receiving yards per game in wideout Romeo Doubs.

However, Muasau and the Hawaii defense were up to the task. Strong threw for 168 yards — well below his per-game average of 361 — Doubs was held to one catch for 10 yards and the Wolf Pack finished with 376 yards of total offense, also well below their 460.6-per game average that ranked 26th in FBS entering the weekend.

"We beat a very good football team tonight. The guys executed a really good game plan," UH coach Todd Graham said.

Although Nevada averaged 5.8 yards per rush and totaled 208 yards as a team — much of it coming from the duo of Toa Taua (20 carries for 131 yards, TD) and Devonte Lee (14 for 81) — Graham said that the defensive emphasis for the Rainbow Warriors was slowing down the Wolf Pack's prolific receiver.

"Our game plan was to take Doubs out of it and we knew in doing that they were gonna have some run yards and every time they ran the ball we felt that was a good thing," Graham said. "I know we gave up too much run (yards) because of missed tackles and things like that, but (I'm) very pleased with our overall team and how we played tonight. I thought we took a giant step forward and I'm really proud of our guys."

The Wolf Pack had rolled up 87 rushing yards by the end of the first quarter — when they averaged 6.7 per attempt — and racked up 126 yards via its ground game by halftime. However, they managed just 82 rushing yards after the break.

"We pretty much prepared for the pass this whole week because they showed a lot of pass on film, but then they came out — it was kind of a surprise to us that they came out in heavy packages and they wanted to run the ball — but I'd say we adjusted fairly well and we're just glad to come out with the victory tonight," said Muasau, who had eight tackles in the first half alone.

Muasau matched his career-high of 14 tackles, which came in a loss at Wyoming earlier this season. He registered UH's lone sack of the contest when he dropped Strong for a two-yard loss on a third-down play late in the first quarter.

Khoury Bethley posted 11 tackles, including 10 solo stops and two tackles for losses. Cameron Lockridge added seven tackles, Quentin Frazier had six stops and Kai Kaneshiro chipped in with five tackles in the win.

"These guys are smart, very intelligent and Cameron Lockridge played free safety, man safety and corner all in the same game, Cortez Davis was masterful — I think he played about seven different techniques on Doubs — and so I think our game plan went really well and I'm really proud of our players and how they executed," Graham noted.

Nevada was 5 of 10 on third-down conversions and had just three plays of 20 yards or longer — the fewest allowed by UH's defense in a game this year. All three of those plays came in the first half.

Strong led the Mountain West with 361 passing yards per game and was coming off of a previous-season-low of 288 yards in a win over San Diego State last week.

Doubs, who was targeted just once by Strong all night, ranked in the top-10 nationally with 36 receptions for 778 yards and had eclipsed the 100-yard receiving mark in each of the Wolf Pack's first five games this season. Saturday marked the first time he was held out of the end zone this year.

"Obviously we're proud that we were able to come out and beat one of the best teams in the league tonight and I do think it shows great progress and I thought tonight was important for us. Our guys have been fighting awful hard and just not really hitting on all cylinders and for the buy-in to happen, you need to have success and I thought tonight was really important and it was a big win for us," Graham said.

CHEV AND CAL

While the defense led the way against the Wolf Pack, UH's offense certainly had its hand in the victory as well, led by the duo of Chevan Cordero and Calvin Turner.

Cordeiro, a sophomore quarterback and 2018 Saint Louis graduate, threw for 246 yards on 26-of-32 passing — including a 7-yard scoring strike to Turner that gave the Rainbow Warriors the lead for good just before halftime — and added a team-high 76 yards on 15 rushes.

"I think our quarterback is what I thought he was," Graham said of Cordeiro, who completed his first eight pass attempts Saturday. "I mean, he is a servant leader. He's very poised, very, very talented. We're not even scratching the surface I think on where he can be," he added

Turner was Cordeiro's favorite target. The senior transfer hauled in 10 receptions for 77 yards and finished with a team-high 152 all-purpose yards. His touchdown catch came with 59 seconds left in the first half and capped an eight-play, 75-yard drive that UH used to answer a lengthy possession by the Wolf Pack.

Nevada orchestrated a 13-play, 81-yard drive that took seven minutes and eight seconds off the clock and culminated with a 3-yard TD pass from Strong to 6-foot-6 tight end Cole Turner, who made an acrobatic toe-tapping grab in the end zone on the play.

The Rainbow Warriors started their ensuing drive at their own 25-yard line. Cordeiro was sacked on the first and third plays of the drive, but moved the chains a few plays later with a 25-yard scramble on a third-and-15. He scrambled for a 12-yard pick-up two plays later, but was hit out of bounds — which drew a 15-yard personal foul penalty against Nevada's Laminators Touray. On the very next play, Cordeiro hit Turner on a sprint-out pass for the go-ahead score.

"That drive was big. That was a big drive for us to take that ball down and score," Graham said.

Turner added that Cordeiro's toughness provided a spark for the rest of the team.

"I think that he's great and it just gives us confidence to see him take a hit and get back up and keep playing, so I mean, we believed in him from day one and we'll kept believing in him as long as he's here," Turner said.

The same pair connected — on the same play, in fact — in the game's final minutes to help UH close it out.

Nevada pulled to within 24-21 on Strong's 18-yard TD pass to Tory Horton with 5:38 remaining. The Rainbow Warriors picked up a first down two plays into their ensuing possession, but eventually came across fourth-and-6 from the Wolf Pack 26-yard line.

On the fourth-down play, Cordeiro took the shotgun snap, sprinted out to his right and quickly fired a short completion in the flat to Turner, who turned upfield and picked up nine yards and the first down.

"I think it was just a good call at the right time and it was just perfect timing," Turner said.

Graham said that his decision to go for it on fourth down came down to feel.

"I think we obviously look at analytics and all that stuff, but in that game, I just felt like, at that point, you gotta play to win. We felt like we had a really good play, we felt good about making it, we thought that the sprint-out pass had been there all night and so we felt good about it and did it and played to win the football game," he said.

"I mean, I think you gotta show confidence in your guys and I go by more of the flow of the game … but I have no regrets. I think you gotta go with your feeling and there's a lot of factors involved and knowing what plays and how good we feel about the plays and all that stuff," Graham added.

After a scoreless first quarter, Matthew Shipley's 31-yard field goal with 10:11 left in the second got Hawaii on the board.

Miles Reed punched in a 4-yard touchdown to cap a 10-play, 99-yard drive that gave UH a 17-7 lead with 3:20 to play in the third quarter. Taua's 1-yard TD run two plays into the fourth cut it to a three-point game, but Cordeiro answered with a 2-yard TD run with 9:31 left in the contest. Shipley's PAT made it a 24-14 cushion for the Rainbow Warriors before Nevada closed out the scoring with Strong's second TD pass of the night a few minutes later.

UH finished with 365 yards of total offense. It was 9 of 14 on third downs and did not turn the ball over for the second straight game.

BACK IN THE 808

Nevada assistant and tight ends coach Timmy Chang made his return to Aloha Stadium Saturday night. The former Saint Louis quarterback has had his share of memorable moments in Halawa over the years.

Chang was a four-time All-Western Athletic Conference player for UH from 2000 to '04 and departed Manoa as the NCAA's all-time passing leader with 17,072 passing yards, among a number of other records.

In his weekly press conference Monday afternoon, Wolf Pack coach Jay Norvell pointed out some of Chang's contributions to the program.

"He just has a great insight on what it's like to go play over there (at Aloha Stadium) and a lot of mistakes and opponents make when they come over there to play so that experience and his insights on that has really, really been helpful in us playing them," Norvell said. "Really smart man, tremendous character and just really impacted our team, not only his players, but our entire football team."

After retiring from professional football in 2009, Chang eventually got his start in coaching as a graduate assistant at SMU in 2012. He had stints at Jackson State and Emory & Henry before landing at Nevada when Norvell was hired in 2017. Chang coached the Wolf Pack's inside receivers in his first season there and has worked with the team's tight ends for the last three years.

"Getting to come home, for me it's about the people, it's about my friends, it's about my family that I get to see, it's about my loved ones," Chang told ESPN Honolulu in a pregame interview Saturday.

He added, "I miss everything about it, I miss everything about Hawaii. It's always a part of me, it's always a part of my family."

UP IN THE AIR

The Rainbow Warriors have two games remaining on their COVID-adjusted schedule, but the site of next week's game against San Jose State could be in jeopardy after the Santa Clara County Public Health Department is set to impose strict restrictions amid rising infection numbers in the Bay Area.

The directive includes a three-week ban on "all recreational activities that involve physical contact or close proximity to persons outside one's household," as well as a 14-day quarantine for anyone entering Santa Clara County from further than 150 miles away.

CEFCU Stadium, where San Jose State plays its home games, is located within Santa Clara County, as is Levi's Stadium, home to the NFL's San Francisco 49ers. Stanford University is also affected by the three-week ban, as it has a home game scheduled against Oregon State on Dec. 12.

The restrictions go into effect Monday, Nov. 30 and will remain in place until at least Dec. 21.

The Spartans (4-0) had their game against Boise State (4-1 overall, 4-0 Mountain West) canceled just hours before the scheduled kickoff due to an outbreak within the Broncos' program.

Graham made mention of the fragility of the ever-evolving situation in his postgame comments Saturday.

"I woke up this morning and saw Boise State and San Jose (State) canceled and every Saturday I'm just thankful to be playing football and I told our players that. I said, ‘Hey, you better max out every snap because you're not guaranteed the next one,' " he said.

UH closes out its conference schedule at home on Dec. 12 against UNLV.

ODDS AND ENDS

UH linebacker Jeremiah Pritchard was helped off the field after he suffered an apparent lower left leg injury in the game's opening minutes and did not return. He was replaced by Isaiah Tufaga, who finished with two solo tackles. … The last time UH faced an undefeated Nevada team was in 2010, when the Wolf Pack were 6-0 and led by QB Colin Kaepernick, but lost to the Warriors, 27-21, at Aloha Stadium. … Nevada leads the all-time series, 14-11, but UH has won nine of 15 meetings in Honolulu. … It was the Rainbow Warriors' second win over the Wolf Pack in as many years. UH recorded its' largest margin of victory in the series — which dates back to 1920 — with its 54-3 win in Reno on Sept. 28, 2019. … Saturday marked the first game this season in which the Rainbow Warriors did not force a turnover. … UH has not had a punt blocked in 151 consecutive games, which ties it with Auburn for the longest such streak in the country. UH last had a punt blocked during the 2008 season, in a 49-21 loss to Notre Dame in the Hawaii Bowl.