Throughout two-a-day football practices and into the fall it has become the University of Hawai'i defense's mantra, a chant of determination and defiance that now defines it.

Whenever the defense had its collective back to the goal line, if not its feet planted firmly in the end zone, cornerback Kenny Patton said free safety and team tri-captain Leonard Peters would take up the refrain, "We've got 'em right where we want 'em."

And so it was last night when Nevada had the ball first-and-goal from the 3-yard line with 2 minutes, 43 seconds left. A fumble by UH quarterback Colt Brennan presented Nevada a 24-karat opportunity to tie the game at 41-all and likely force overtime or go for the go-ahead points.

The Aloha Stadium gathering of 29,427 might have gone silent, except for the beating of their hearts. But on a night dripping with humidity and drama, the Warriors' defense coyly played the role it has prepared for, stopping the Wolf Pack on four consecutive plays — a run for no gain and three incomplete passes — to preserve a harrowing 41-34 Western Athletic Conference victory.

"When I looked into my teammates' eyes, I knew," Peters said. "I could see it in their eyes that we were ready. The only way (Nevada) was going to score was if we screwed up."

And, with the game — and quite possibly a season-tenor setting moment — on the line, the Warriors didn't.

For 56 seconds they stood as at their tallest this season. They stood their troubled ground and they inspired as they did so.

They did it with Peters and Patton holding things tight on the back end and Amani Peters and the defensive line turning up the heat on the front.

So assured, were they that Peters would dive through the advertising signs and roll up to the mobile KFVE camera truck after breaking up a pass in the end zone and get up with a smile. The linemen would rub their taped hands as if in relish and the linebackers paw the turf.

"Not getting in from the 3-yard line was disappointing," Nevada coach Chris Ault said afterward.

When their third victory against two losses, this one against the conference defending co-champion, was over and the Warriors gathered in a circle around their head coach near midfield, June Jones told them, "We didn't win it the way we should have won it," they all knew what he was talking about.

The Warriors probably would have won this one comfortably, if not going away after leading 41-21. With Brennan having a one-for-the books night hitting on 36 of 47 passes for 419 yards and four touchdowns; with Nate Ilaoa running for a career-high 151 yards and Davone Bess catching 10 passes for 139 yards, this one could have been put to bed before the fourth quarter.

But a defense that struggled to find consistency, getting pushed around in the second quarter and pitching a shutout in the third, had what it needed, a heart, when it needed it most.

That (end zone stand) was 'game time' right there," Patton said. "That's when it is the hardest and when and defense wants to prove itself."

That, said defensive end Ikaika Alama-Francis, "is where you put your stamp on it."

And, after giving up 472 yards, the Warriors were determined not to give up one more.

"We knew it was ours to win and we weren't going to give it away there," linebacker Adam Leonard said.

Not when, as the Warriors' defense has come to believe, "We've got 'em right where we want 'em."

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.