Zach Charbonnet rushed for 106 yards and three touchdowns, all in the first half of his UCLA debut Saturday, as the Bruins rolled to a 44-10 nonconference victory over visiting Hawaii in the season opener for both teams.
Brittain Brown added 78 yards rushing and one TD as UCLA jumped out to a 31-3 lead early in the second quarter and was never threatened. The Bruins piled up 393 total yards to 269 for the Rainbow Warriors.
Hawaii quarterback Chevan Cordeiro passed for 216 yards but could not help his team recover from a slow start. Hawaii had minus-3 net yards over its first three possessions and was outgained on the ground 246-26.
UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who missed 10 days of training camp for an unspecified reason, was off target early as the Bruins turned to the running game. Thompson-Robinson completed 10 of 20 passes for 130 yards and one TD.
Charbonnet, a California native who transferred to UCLA after two seasons at Michigan, had three rushing TDs less than 19 minutes into the game.
UCLA led 3-0 early in the first quarter on a 27-yard field goal by Nicholas Barr-Mira, before getting 21-yard and 48-yard TD runs from Charbonnet and a 1-yard score from Brown to lead 24-3 after one quarter. Hawaii got a 48-yard field goal from Matthew Shipley.
Charbonnet scored again on a 21-yard run with 11:31 remaining in the first half and UCLA led 31-3 at halftime.
Thompson-Robinson got the Bruins’ passing attack going with a 44-yard TD strike to Kazmeir Allen on UCLA’s first drive of the second half for a 37-3 advantage.
UCLA increased the lead to 44-3 with 11:20 remaining in the third quarter on a blocked punt by Alabama transfer Ale Kaho and a recovery in the end zone by David Priebe.
Hawaii finally found the end zone with 3:17 remaining in the third quarter on Cordeiro’s 1-yard pass to Caleb Phillips, and the teams were scoreless in the fourth.
–Field Level Media