Stanford make big plays late game to hold Hawai'i 4th quarter comeback

PALO ALTO, CA ― Stanford Cardinal football got its first victory of the season, and subsequently the first collegiate win for newly hired head coach Tavita Pritchard.

There were 23,222 fans in attendance for Stanford's season-opener between students, alumni, family and friends that saw the Cardinal defeat the Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors , 37-27 , at Stanford Stadium on Aug. 29.

Pritchard was first hired in Nov. 2025. It was a long-anticipated season opener, and the Cardinal were able to finally put to the test all the work that they've put in.

The Cardinal went ahead 23-7 going into the fourth quarter but the Rainbow Warriors stuck around and scored three unanswered touchdowns to give scare to Stanford, taking a 27-23 lead. The Cardinal didn't sulk in their letdowns. They kept fighting until the clock hit zeros and the game was won. Pritchard said he was "really excited" for the team to get the win underway.

"First and foremost, really proud of our guys. I'm proud of the way that they finished," Pritchard told reporters in a postgame conference. "It's been a theme throughout our entire kind of early goings together through the offseason in the spring up until training camp, and it's how we finished, and we finished tonight.

"... For the defense and the way that they finished, again, we faced some adversity. That's a tough team, and hats off to Hawaii in the way that they battled back and took the lead there. But just, again, proud of the way that our guys finished."

The game was put to bed for good when Tevarua Tafiti scooped up a fumble, created by Zach Rowell, and made a 31-yard house call. Tafiti was happy that all the work they put in the offseason was able to blossom onto the field during regular-season.

"It feels great, man. All that spring ball, winter ball, all the workouts, everything just paid off tonight, and it felt great," Tafiti told USA TODAY Sports.

Stanford quarterback Davis Warren completed 22 of 34 passes for 310 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions or sacks. His touchdown pass was thrown to freshman receiver Atticus Joseph, of Snellville, Georgia.

Junior running back Micah Ford had his fingerprints all over this game as he ran for 99 yards and three touchdowns. He became the first running back to rush for more than 90 yards and three scores since Bryce Love in 2019. He doesn't play for numbers, but it would have been nice to eclipse the 100-yard mark. He was one yard shy of the milestone.

"That's why I got to go back to the drawing board. There's definitely some runs where I missed some reads just trying to put the game away. I just had to trust my technique and the work I put in during the offseason, but we'll get it eventually. We'll get it eventually, (for) sure," Ford told USA TODAY Sports.

Pritchard joked about his performance and said he hopes that being one-yard shy "motivates him a little bit", especially in their upcoming game against the Miami Hurricanes.

Ford's response, "100%"

"Obviously we got Miami coming to our field to play us, and they're a great opponent. National championship runner-ups last year. We got to bring it, man, and that includes me," Ford said to USA TODAY Sports. "I'm obviously one of the leaders on this team, so I got to bring it every down and bring it at the end of the day."

Still, Ford was happy to get the win, but is focused on continuing that effort throughout the season. He's setting the precedent for the team as one of the captains.

"Just continue to build. Come in tomorrow to the building ready to take the criticism and correct the things that we need to correct because it definitely wasn't pretty, as you guys seen," Ford told USA TODAY Sports. "We got to learn to put the game away instead of making it hard for us, and we'll figure out a way to get that fixed for sure for next week because we definitely are going to need it."

Stanford general manager Andrew Luck was all smiles after the teeter-totter of a fourth quarter that saw his Cardinal come out victorious.

"There was a lot of reengaging and persisting and finishing, and we're gonna talk about the two-point stop by our defense. Huge, right? Huge. Every play is a game in itself. We ask our guys, good, bad, or ugly, to focus on whatever's in front of you, you know, regardless what happened last time," Luck said. "And so that two-point stop was huge, and then that last drive really sounded like Chris Davis's return, and we chipped away at it, chipped away at it, got a big one, and our guys finished. We stayed attacking, and nothing sweeter than a Zach Rowell punch, fumble, and a Tavarua scoop and score."

Luck had high praise on the team's fight toward the end.

"Resilient, tough," Luck said in a conversation with the university athletics department. "I knew they put in such a good body of work, but the resiliency was on display."

As for Luck's new hire, he was happy for his head coach.

"I'm so happy for our staff. Tavita (Pritchard) did an unbelievable job. There's great energy in Stanford," he said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Stanford make big plays late game to hold Hawai'i 4th quarter comeback

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