St. Francis understands it still has everything it wants to accomplish in front of it.
A week after losing an emotional game to league-leading Damien, the Saints got record-breaking performances from multiple players in a 47-6 win over Pac-Five on Saturday at Kunuiakea Stadium.
Quarterback Bubba Akana threw for a school-record 219 yards and two touchdowns and sophomore running back Jonan Aina-Chaves rushed for 117 yards and two scores and added a school-record 129 receiving yards, including a 97-yard touchdown reception, in a solid bounce-back win.
“We did a lot of running and knew we had to make things better because we beat ourselves (in the Damien game),” Aina-Chaves said. “It feels good. We can trust our passing and trust our running right now.”
Aina-Chaves became the first St. Francis player to top 100 yards rushing and receiving in the same game.
Scott McLeod added 104 receiving yards on seven receptions with a touchdown and Tyson Shimabukuro scored on a late 10-yard TD run.
The Saints finished with 361 rushing yards and 623 total yards in the win to remain a game behind the Monarchs at 3-1 in league (5-2 overall).
“We were all disappointed with the way the Damien game turned out,” St. Francis coach Kip Akana said. “The kids came back fired up and they know they let one slip away. We had an undermanned Pac-Five team that was up next and the kids had a great week of practice and were ready to get back out there.”
The Wolfpack (1-5, 0-4) played without starting quarterback Tyler Fukuroda for the second straight game and lost a few more players to injury, including running back Kaikea Gonsales.
AJ Ulufale threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Nathan Bek for Pac-Five’s only score in the second quarter.
St. Francis backup quarterback Jonah Aina-Chaves threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Lachmann Atoa in the third quarter and was 4-for-8 for 43 yards.
Bubba Akana finished 10-for-20 but was intercepted twice.
The Saints play ‘Iolani on Friday before closing the regular season against the 10th-ranked Monarchs on Oct. 7.
“We made a lot of penalties, and when we play better teams, we need to clean that up,” Kip Akana said.