In recent years under head coach Kip Botelho, you’d be much more likely to see 46 pass plays from Pac-Five instead of running plays.
That wasn’t the case at Kaiser Stadium on Saturday night as the Wolfpack pounded their way to 146 rushing yards on 46 carries in a 28-8 win over Kalani.
Three different Pac-Five players — Bruce Shewalter, Laitin Bradley and Evan Ramirez all 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 got 60 yards on 13 carries from Shewalter and 55 yards on 18 carries from Ian Canute.
Fautanu, who played both ways, played a large part in Pac-Five establishing its dominance in the trenches.
“He’s our leader on the field,” Bolteho said of Fautanu, who has scholarship offers from UNLV and Hawaii. “He’s a great kid.”
Pac-Five played two quarterback a half each. Senior Makana Bertelmann led Pac-Five to a 21-0 halftime lead going 6-for-11 for 89 yards with a 24-yard touchdown pass to Wilson Huynh.
Huynh, who had a defender draped all over him, had the ball pop into the air before he caught it as he was going 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.”
Sophomore Rocket Uechi got some work in in the second half and was 2-for-10 for 27 yards.
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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