After playing two games down to the wire at Kaiser Stadium, Kaimuki coach David Tautofi enjoyed a little less stress on Saturday.
Sophomore quarterback Jordan Solomon came off the bench to throw three touchdowns passes and the Bulldogs cut down on their mistakes to breeze past Roosevelt 28-7 in an OIA Division II game at Kaiser.
Kaimuki (2-1, 2-1) had an eventful start to the season, winning an overtime game against Waialua before losing a lead in the final two minutes of a loss to Kalani last week.
The Bulldogs responded with a change at quarterback. Calton Joseph started the first two drives and led the Bulldogs to a score before giving way to Solomon, who finished 9-for-19 for 106 yards and the three scores.
“I could tell the boys were focused. This whole week was up to the coaches and how we could get the best product from our players,” Tautofi said. “We came with a game plan to open up our offense. We had Calton come in (first) and that might have given (Roosevelt) a little surprise, but for us it was good.”
Kaimuki ran the ball five times for 38 yards on its first drive with Joseph’s 1-yard quarterback sneak giving the Bulldogs an early 8-0 lead.
Solomon, who set the Kaimuki single-game passing record with 331 yards in a win over Waialua two weeks ago, got his first snap to begin the Bulldogs’ third drive.
He threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Bailey Uehara early in the second quarter and then connected on a 24-yard screen pass to Ieke Seei-Cleveland, who took it to the end zone for a 22-0 Bulldogs lead at the break.
Solomon added a 10-yard touchdown pass to Andries Toussaint in the third quarter to give Kaimuki its largest lead at 28-0.
“I was more relaxed and I think we were all more relaxed,” Solomon said. “We were able to run the ball. (Elijah Lemalu) brought a lot of spirit when he got the ball and had a sense of urgency to gain more yards to try to score.”
Seei-Cleveland finished with 65 yards on 12 carries and added 34 receiving yards. Lemalu, who had carried the ball twice all season, finished with 46 tough yards on 13 carries.
Kaimuki finished with 156 yards on the ground.
“We saw that we could exploit (the Roosevelt defense) in the beginning and establish our (running game),” Tautofi said. “Sometimes you don’t know who is going to show up, but that’s what our team is about. Elijah wasn’t running like this in practice and all of a sudden he shows up.”
Seei-Cleveland also had three tackles and two fumble recoveries on defense. Linebacker Mana Mahiai had eight tackles and a sack and helped hold Roosevelt (1-3, 1-2) to 113 total yards.
The Rough Riders got 80 of those yards on a 10-play drive capped off by quarterback Shastyn Kekahuna’s 15-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
