HONOLULU - Michael Brewster's 8-yard touchdown run in the third overtime sent Hawaii to a 54-48 victory over Houston in a Hawaii Bowl game that ended with a fight at midfield Thursday night.
After Hawaii stopped the Cougars on fourth down, several scuffles broke out with some players swinging helmets and throwing punches.
Coaches and police broke up the brawl after several minutes, and both teams headed to their locker rooms.
It was a wild ending to a thriller.
Houston took advantage of a major clock management mistake by Hawaii to tie it at 34 with 22 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
After the Warriors blew a chance to run out the clock, Houston's Vincent Marshall caught an 81-yard touchdown from Kevin Kolb to tie it.
BLUE-GRAY CLASSIC: Marshall's Butchie Wallace rushed for two fourth-quarter touchdowns, lifting the Blue squad 31-24 in Troy, Ala., in the stadium where he broke his right hand three months earlier.
"I'm just happy to come back down here and get a win," said Wallace, injured late in Marshall's 33-24 loss at Troy State in September. "All my bad memories here, at least most of them, are wiped out."
Long a Christmas tradition, the Blue-Gray game was canceled last year because officials couldn't line up a sponsor. It had been held 50 miles north in Montgomery since 1938, matching seniors from the North (Blue) against those from the South (Gray).
Wallace was a late addition to the roster and responded with touchdown runs of 3 and 17 yards in a 3:34 span of the fourth. The Blue squad broke a tie at 17 early in the fourth on Wallace's 3-yard score. San Jose State quarterback Scott Rislov was 3-of-3 for 62 yards on the drive.
Rislov, who threw for 3,016 yards and five interceptions this season, was equally efficient (16-of-24, 195 yards) in the All-Star game to earn overall MVP for the Blue.
Derrick Ward of Ottawa College in Kansas was the Blue's offensive MVP with five catches for 59 yards and 38 yards on five rushes. Syracuse linebacker Rich Scanlon won defensive honors with eight tackles.
The Gray's overall MVP was Cody Spencer, a North Texas linebacker who had a game-high 13 tackles. Defensive MVP was Alabama linebacker Derrick Pope (nine tackles), and East Carolina's 253-pound running back, Vonta Leach, had two short touchdowns to earn offensive honors.
"I don't like to lose no matter what the circumstances," said South Florida's Huey Whittaker, who had 68 yards on three receptions. It's all fun, though."
