With the offense clicking, it would have been easy for the Hawai'i defense to go into cruise control.

Not last night.

Wanting to set a high standard to kick off the new season, the Warriors' defense maintained its intensity despite leads of 28-0 at the end of the first quarter and 42-0 at the half, en route to a 63-6 thrashing of Northern Colorado at Aloha Stadium.

"We wanted to set our starting point at a high limit," defensive coordinator Greg McMackin said. "I was happy with the guys that they came out and they played intense, they kept it up and we got to play a lot of players. They kept the intensity right to the end."

"We wanted to set our personalities for the season," linebacker Adam Leonard said. "We just wanted to come out and try our best. We know our offense can put points up on the board, we just gotta do our job."

It was domination at its finest for the defense. Hawai'i limited the Bears to 182 net yards on 63 plays from scrimmage. Six different players totaled eight tackles for lost yardage. The Bears failed to cross midfield until about a minute left in the third quarter. And that happened when the Warriors were assessed a personal foul penalty that gave the Bears possession at the UH 46. The Bears eventually reached UH's 10, but failed on a 28-yard field-goal try when the snap slipped through holder Jason Caprioli's hands, turning the ball over to UH at its 30.

Alas, the shutout was spoiled after Max Hewitt's interception of Tyler Graunke set up the Bears' TD, a 5-yard quarterback draw by Mike Vlahogeorge. Keenan Jones blocked the PAT to keep the Bears at 6.

"I'm sure everybody was pretty disappointed about that," Jones said of the shutout bid. "We really wanted to keep them to a goose egg, but you know, they scored and it happens. Better 63-6 than 24-48. It was a good game."

Jones also had an interception later in the game that set up UH's final TD to make it 63-6. The pass was short, so he had to come back for the ball, lunge forward and fall to maintain possession.

"I like doing whatever's going to help the team out," Jones said of his PAT block and interception. "I just have to do my job. That's what the coaches talked about all week: get on the field, do your job."

Just as the offense set the tone early by scoring on its first five series of the game, the defense did the same, causing the first turnover on the Bears' first offensive series. On first down, linebacker Leonard blitzed and batted down Dominic Breazeale's pass. On second down, lineman Michael Lafaele stopped running back David Woods for no gain. On third-and-10 from the UNC 25, Woods went up the middle, but was hit first by safety Keao Monteilh with Leonard delivering the next blow that popped the ball loose for cornerback Gerard Lewis to recover at the UNC 23, setting up UH's second TD of the game that made it 14-0.

"It was between me and Adam," Monteilh said with a smile. "One of us popped it. He came up to me and said, 'I popped the ball out.' I made the initial hit, but we're still trying to figure it out."

Leonard concurred that Monteilh made the first hit, adding his hit right after jarred the ball.

Linebacker Brad Kalilimoku led the assault with nine tackles, two for lost yardage. He also was credited with a pass breakup. Although the Bears rotated quarterbacks, that didn't faze the defense, which treated each the same: with a lot of pressure.

"We just tried to stay calm and play football," Kalilimoku said. "We played defense the way we know how to play. They can change whatever, but we have to stick to our job and stuff."

Having established a high standard to start the season, the Warriors hope to improve from last night.

"I was happy with their intensity, but we can get a lot better," McMackin said.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.