The normally pass-heavy Pac-Five Wolfpack got in some work on the ground Saturday night.
Three different Wolfpack players rushed for touchdowns and head coach Kip Botelho dialed up 46 running plays to only 21 passes in a 28-8 win over Kalani at Kaiser Stadium.
Bruce Shewalter, Laitin Bradley and Evan Ramirez scored on runs of 2 yards or less to give Pac-Five (1-1, 1-1 ILH D-II) its first win of the season in just the second-ever meeting between the two schools.
“It’s always nice when you win,” Botelho said as the team boarded the bus. “We’ve got a lot of work to do — a lot of young guys on the team. We’re still learning how to come out and practice hard every day.”
Running behind big Leif Fautanu (6-3, 300 pounds) at left tackle, the Wolfpack finished with 146 rushing yards.
Quarterbacks Makana Bertelmann and Rocket Uechi each played a half, with Bertelmann going 6-for-11 for 89 yards and a touchdown to give Pac-Five a 21-0 lead at the break.
Senior slotback Wilson Huynh caught the touchdown from 24 yards out on a ball that was batted into the air once before Huynh caught it on the way to the ground.
“Coach told me to always keep my eyes on the ball and never let it leave my eyes, so that’s what I did,” Huynh said. “It happened to be in my hands.”
Kalani dropped to 0-3 overall and remained 0-1 in OIA Division II games since the league doesn’t count games against the ILH in league standings.
The Falcons did score their first touchdown of the season with 27 seconds left in the game when Nicholas Sakamoto found Javan Montiho over the middle for a 15-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-10.
“Defensively we did great because we didn’t let them score until the last seconds,” Huynh said. “Offensively we’ve got to work on the pass more.”
The Wolfpack bounced back from a 17-15 loss to Roosevelt last week on a game-winning field goal with no time on the clock.
“That was a tough one,” Botelho said with a grimace. “We’ve still got a lot to learn. (The new alliance) is great for us because there are a lot of different and exciting matchups for us.”
Huynh, who caught two passes for 35 yards, agreed.
“We have competition that we can compete against instead of playing (bigger) opponents,” Huynh said. “The competitive level is all equal and everybody has a chance to win in this.”
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GAME SUMMARY
Pac-Five 28, Kalani 8
At Kaiser Stadium
>> Pac-Five (1-1, 1-1) 7 14 7 0 — 28
>> Kalani (0-3, 0-1) 0 0 0 8 — 8
P5 — Bruce Shewalter 2 run (Cy Shimamura kick)
P5 — Wilson Huynh 24 pass from Makana Bertelmann (Shimamura kick)
P5 — Laitin Bradley 2 run (Shimamura kick)
P5 — Evan Ramirez 1 run (Shimamura kick)
Kalani — Javan Montiho 15 pass from Nicholas Sakamoto (Sakamoto run)
RUSHING — Pac-Five: Shewalter 13-60; Ian Canute 18-55; Bradley 5-20; Evan Ramirez 5-14; Micah Kong 2-4; team 1-(minus 2); Bertelmann 2-(minus 5). Kalani: Sakamoto 13-46; Montiho 2-12; Jake Lee 4-4.
PASSING — Pac-Five: Bertelmann 6-11–0-89; Rocket Uechi 2-10–0-27. Kalani: Sakamoto 11-35–3-80.
RECEIVING — Pac-Five: Huynh 2-35; Angelo Coluccio 2-26; Chansen Oshiro 1-36; Kong 1-14; Ramirez 1-3; Canute 1-2. Kalani: Jonathan Cai 3-23; JerickRobinson 2-24; Noah AhSam 2-16; Montiho 2-15; Lee 1-1; Brayden Miguel 1-1.
