By Andy Walter

DOVER — It’s taking a little longer than planned, but the Delaware State football team will make it to Hawaii for their season opener.

The Hornets’ traveling party missed its flight to Honolulu on Monday because of a scheduling issue with a bus company.

DelState took a bus to New York’s JFK Airport so it could make the 10-and-a-half hour flight non-stop to Hawaii..

According to DSU spokesperson Carlos Holmes, the group had to be split up into four groups, with each one taking a different flight.

He said everyone from DelState was slated to have reached Hawaii by midnight on Wednesday.

Holmes pointed out that DSU officials had built an extra day into the team’s travel plans in case there were any issues.

The Hornets are slated to face Hawaii on Saturday at midnight ET in their season opener. It’s the first time the two programs have met.

Wertz Motor Coaches of Pennsylvania issued a statement on the situation saying “an internal scheduling malfunction in our reservation system” led to a delay in the buses picking up DelState’s team in Dover.

“We deeply regret the disruption this caused to the team’s travel plans,” read the statement from Wertz president Claude Alvarez.

The story got some national attention when a number of media outlets reported that Delaware State’s football team missed its flight.

Even without the travel issues, the Hornets face a big challenge against the NCAA Division I FBS Rainbow Warriors. Various betting lines have made Hawaii at least 38-point favorites for the contest.

Delaware State went 1-10 last fall with its only victory coming against non-NCAA program Virginia University of Lynchburg.

Second-year DSU coach Lee Hull knows his team has its work cut out for it.

“I just want to go and play well and see these guys compete,” Hull said last week. “That’s the biggest thing — compete for 60 minutes, keep the blinders on, don’t look at the scoreboard. Just play, just fight, execute, be fundamentally sound, be disciplined. ... If those things happen, then it’s a positive.”

The Hornets have to turn right around and go to Connecticut for a game at Sacred Heart on Aug. 31. They have an open date the following week.