HONOLULU — It was the game of chess played on the football field which made the outcome one of the season’s most satisfying for the Oregon State football team.

The Beavers went into Saturday night’s nonconference game against No. 24 Hawaii in Aloha Stadium with a game plan, but changed it to stay a step ahead of the Warriors.

When all the counters were complete, the Beavers left the crowd of 46,683 stunned with a 35-32 victory. And they took over the No. 24 ranking when the Associated Press poll came out Sunday.

“Both teams made many moves,” coach Mike Riley said. “Both teams responded to stuff. I thought it was real football. I loved that part of it. I’m really proud of our team of responding, coming over here, the preparation and the outcome.”

The Beavers (9-4) contained the most productive passing and scoring offense in the nation. Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan threw for 401 yards and two touchdowns, but it wasn’t easy.

A strong pass rush produced six quarterback sacks and safety Sabby Piscitelli intercepted two passes. The Warriors (10-3) were forced to moved the ball methodically with no big plays.

“We couldn’t make them punt, but when they got in the red zone we made them kick field goals, miss them (two) or turn it over,” Riley said.

OSU didn’t give Brennan enough time to go deep with blitzes, so the Warriors ran more than expected. However, linebackers Derrick Doggett and Joey LaRocque didn’t let the ball carriers get too deep into the secondary.

Hawaii even used several shovel passes to slow the pass run. It worked for gaining yards, but didn’t deter the aggressive approach.

“We’ve faced a lot of different offenses this year — run, pass — and I think our defense stepped up to both,” Piscitelli said. “We know we can play both.”

As the defense slugged it out in the first half, the offense mixed up the calls to keep pace. There was plenty of time to figure out what to do since the Warriors held the ball for more than 21 minutes.

When OSU was on offense, quarterback Matt Moore used five receivers and threw touchdown passes to three different players — Joe Newton, Ruben Jackson and Sammie Stroughter.

Stroughter’s was an 80-yarder down the right sideline. It was the game changer, coming a play after Piscitelli’s second interception early in the third quarter.

“It took us a while to get it going, but both teams got it going late,” Moore said. “We were fortunate to come out on top.”

From there the defense hung on, but didn’t play prevent. The Beavers stuck to the plan of varying the coverages and stunting.

It was a challenging night on the stat sheet, but not on the scoreboard.

“We need to correct a lot of things,” Piscitelli said. “We didn’t play a perfect game. It was good for us to win this game, defensively. But there’s always things we can change. We’ll look back on the film and be ready for the bowl game.”