HONOLULU -- Micah Alejado threw two touchdown passes and Kansei Matsuzawa made three field goals -- including a 38-yarder as time expired -- as Hawaii outlasted Stanford 23-20 on Saturday night in the season opener for both teams.
Matsuzawa's last kick spoiled the debut of Cardinal interim Frank Reich, a former NFL head coach, who was hired by one of his former quarterbacks, Andrew Luck, in March. Luck, the Cardinal's new football general manager, is conducting a national search for a permanent coach following the offseason firing of Troy Taylor.
Saturday night showed Luck, who sat in the coaches' box above the stadium, that the ACC program has a way to go regardless who is on the sideline.
"Obviously, this is a tough loss, I give Hawaii credit," Reich said. "They played a tough game, and made the plays they needed to make to win the game. We came in off of what I thought was a very good week of practice, and a very good six months of preparation and hard work. And so this hurts, I'm not going to lie."
Meanwhile, Hawaii defeated a power conference team for the first time since opening the 2019 season with back-to-back wins over then-Pac-12 teams Arizona and Oregon State. It also won in its first game against an ACC opponent. The Rainbow Warriors are 1-4 all-time against Stanford, all in Honolulu.
"This stings for all of us, especially the players," Reich said. "But we know this, the message for the team was: We put in that work, not for one game. It's a long season. So, we didn't get what we wanted today, but we still have a lot of opportunity."
Alejado walked gingerly off the field after he was sacked by Matt Rose early in the second half but returned to start the next drive and finished 27-of-39 passing for 210 yards and added 36 yards rushing. Pofele Ashlock had nine receptions for 69 yards and a touchdown.
"Micah is one of the most ultimate competitors, and his competitive nature was not to let his teammates down," Hawaii coach Timmy Chang said. "And so he wanted to play, and we wanted him to play."
Hawaii took possession at its own 28 with 1:33 to play and a limping Alejado went 5 of 7 for 51 yards to set up Matsuzawa's winning kick.
Matsuzawa also made field goals of 40 and 37 yards, with the 37-yarder tying the score with 2:01 remaining.
Micah Ford had 26 carries for 113 yards and a touchdown for Stanford.
Emmet Kenney made field goals of 23 to open the scoring and Brandon White mistakenly downed the ensuing kickoff at the 1. On Hawaii's first offensive play from scrimmage, Clay Patterson strip-sacked Micah Alejado before Wilfredo Aybar recovered the fumble in the end zone to give Stanford a 10-0 lead with 7:08 left in the first quarter.
Alejado threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Pofele Ashlock to make it 10-7 with 2:19 left in the first.
Jackson Harris -- a transfer from Stanford -- caught a 19-yard TD pass from Alejado with 42 seconds left in the first half that gave Hawaii its first lead at 14-13. The Cardinal committed three 15-yard penalties on Hawaii's 75-yard drive.
Stanford put together a 20-play, 85-yard that took more than 9 1/2 minutes off the clock before Ford scored on a 2-yard run that gave the Cardinal a 20-17 lead with 9:41 left in the game.
Kenney added a 46-yard field goal in the first half for the Cardinal.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.