Arizona State's Brandon Rodd and University of Hawai'i's Samson Satele greeted each other near the middle of the field after the game, offering congratulations and best wishes for the future.

Rodd, a junior left tackle and 'Aiea High School alum, and Satele, UH's senior center who hosted Rodd on his recruiting visit, had nothing but nice things to say about each other.

Unfortunately for Rodd, the same thing couldn't be said for his trip to the Islands. As one of five players with Hawai'i ties on the Sun Devils' roster, the 41-24 loss to the Warriors last night in the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl made for a bittersweet return home.

When he was talking to Satele, "I just told him good luck and have fun in the league, and hopefully I'll see him there next year," Rodd said.

Satele said Rodd's chances of making it to the NFL were good.

"He's good," Satele said. "He just has to work hard and represent Hawai'i."

Satele said it is "always fun to play against Polynesians. They can be from California or where ever, or guys from Hawai'i like Jeremy Perry from Oregon State or Brandon Rodd."

Rodd, freshman offensive lineman Shawn Lauvao from Farrington, freshman offensive lineman Ian Scheuring from Radford, senior cornerback Chris Price from Hawai'i Prep and Alex Fa'agai, who attended Waipahu before transferring to the Mainland, all made the trip home.

"It was bittersweet," Lauvao said. "The loss sucks."

Lauvao said he wanted to send ASU coach Dirk Koetter out with a win in his last game as coach with the Sun Devils.

Rodd shared Lauvao's sentiments: "I'm just upset because we didn't get to send the coaches out on the right note, or the seniors out on the right note."

But Lauvao also said Hawai'i's offense was "a lot better than what we expected."

ASU junior Josh Barrett, who intercepted one of UH quarterback Colt Brennan's passes, said he expected UH's offense to perform the way it did, but the Sun Devils "came out in the first half with a lot of energy. In the second half we didn't have as much a sense of urgency as we had in the first half."

Rodd said he was disappointed the Sun Devils' offense couldn't keep up with UH.

"You have to give credit to UH," he said. "We had them down but they came back. They took it to us. There's nothing to say. We got beat. We'll take it like men. Their offense caught on fire and we couldn't match it."

As he observed UH's post game haka, he commented that the Sun Devils have a lot of Polynesians on their team as well, "and we thought about doing the haka, but that's their thing. We respect it, and they do an awesome job. It gets us fired up when they do it."

He said when hearing Hawai'i Pono'i before the game for the first time in his college career, it fired him up.

"I came out so jacked up," he said "I love this place. But we lost, and you can't be in a good mood when you lose."

Lauvao said: "I was really excited when I heard that. It reminded me that I was home."

Rodd was looking forward to driving home right after the game, instead of getting on a plane to fly back to Tempe, Ariz.

"When (my teammates) are boarding the plane, I'll be at home chilling," he said of spending the night in 'Aiea Heights. He's depending on his family to "pick me up and make sure I have a good time tonight.

"It would have been nice in front of my home crowd. You see all those orange shirts? That's my home crowd."

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com.