WKU had a dominant performance on Saturday as they routed the Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors 49-17 to improve to 2-0 on the season. The Hilltoppers' defense came up with stops the whole game and this is a great opportunity to build off this momentum heading into their September 17th showdown at Indiana.

The Hilltoppers were led by the first-year starter Austin Reed, who had another good performance to propel his team to a victory. Reed completed 22 out of his 31 passes, with three touchdowns and one interception. He also had nine rushes for 43 yards on the ground and one rushing touchdown.

Defensively, WKU was led in tackles by Will Ignont, who tallied eight tackles. JaQues Evans and Kahlef Hailassie each registered two sacks while defensive back Kaleb Oliver picked off two passes.

Head coach Tyson Helton has to love to his quarterback looking more comfortable out there, because his entire win recipe starts with the guy under center. This was a much better showing from WKU this week, rather than last, and this win was definitely more convincing.

Both offenses were trying to find their footing to open up the game, as the teams combined for just three points in the first quarter. Maintaining an offensive rhythm has been a focal point to the success of WKU, and although they scored in the first quarter, they exploded for 21 points in the second.

The defense on the other hand was a bright spot in each quarter for the Hilltoppers. They made everything tough for Hawai'i all night and that created multiple chances for WKU's offense to put points on the board in short field situations. Hawai'i worked hard to drive the ball, but could only come away with three points off a field goal. Creating turnovers will be this defenses' biggest strength for the whole season with the playmakers that they have.

Cornerback B.J Wagner started it off for the Hilltoppers when he picked off Joey Yellen on what looked to be a promising drive in WKU territory. Yellen had a rough night at home with four total interceptions, making it hard to win the game.

The second quarter is where we saw WKU take full control of the game. They scored a total of three touchdowns in the second quarter and the defense did a great job to hold Hawai'i to only one score.

Austin Reed started heating up with two passing touchdowns that shifted the momentum of the game. His threw the first touchdown at the beginning of the period, a five yard strike to Dalvin Smith, who ended the game with three receptions for 36 yards and one score.

Juwuan Jones picked off a pass from Brayden Schager, and he took it to the house for 38 yards, changing the game in the Hilltoppers favor. An edge rusher's dream is to make a play on the ball, but to score after that is pretty impressive from a player with his size. Reed's second touchdown was a 47-yard bomb off of a wide open flea flicker to Joshua Simon to put the Hilltoppers up 21-10 going into halftime.

The third quarter was a pretty quiet one, but WKU still managed to score and extend their lead to 28-10. Jaylen Hall received a 17 yard touchdown from Austin Reed midway through the quarter. Hall, a transfer from Western Michigan, has the potential to be a big target for Reed and this WKU offense throughout the season due to his nice combination of height and speed. Hall will continue to learn this offense week by week and hopefully it pays dividends in the long run.

The Hilltoppers defense was the story throughout this game, and rightfully so. They didn't allow Hawai'i to get into any type of rhythm coming out the half and that allowed WKU to keep adding to their big lead. Kaleb Oliver intercepted a pass from Brayden Schager, which came on another drive that Hawai'i came up empty-handed in WKU's territory. Oliver was a playmaker for this defense all night, ending the game with two interceptions and two tackles.

The fourth quarter wasn't any different from what we saw Saturday night, dominant performances on both sides of the ball for WKU. The run game was highlighted in the fourth quarter, something that has shown to be a major weakness for the Hawai'i defense.

WKU had three rushing touchdowns in the last period, and they were all by different rushers. Kye Robichaux ran for seven yard touchdown, Austin Reed added to it with a two yard rushing touchdown and transfer Davion Ervin-Poindexter put a bow on it with another two-yard touchdown rush to extend the lead of the Hilltoppers even further.

Hawai'i did manage to finally complete a positive drive that ended in a one-yard rushing touchdown from Nasjzae Bryant-Lelei, but it didn't do anything much for the Rainbow Warriors while being down 35-17 with just 9:18 left in the game. Hawai'i just couldn't get anything going for them at any point of the game, and that credit goes to the defense of WKU.

What a win for WKU, a win that came at the perfect time to keep the ball rolling for Coach Helton and his squad as they travel to play the Indiana Hoosiers in Bloomington after a well-needed bye week. This will be an early test for this Hilltoppers team and if they can play the same as they did against Hawai'i, they can very well be a confident 3-0. They will enjoy this win while they can though and they have to feel good about the performance that they had, all while being on the road.

"It's good that we have a bye week so we can try to get healthy," said Helton. "I'm looking forward to the challenge of playing them, they're a good football team and we have to go to their place so it should be a good game."

It's been so far, so good for WKU and its 2022 campaign and if they can continue to make strides each weekend, this team can be a team to watch out for when it comes time for the conference championship.

****

Talk about it on RED TOWEL TALK.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

Follow us on Twitter: @WKU_Rivals, @SeanW_Rivals, @robholmesiv, @TheCaseyWarner, @HanaLei91, @DBo83

Like us on FACEBOOK.