Coming off of a defeat against Roosevelt last week, the Pac-Five Wolfpack (3-3, 3-3) were out for redemption facing Kalaheo (0-7, 0-6) at Alex Kane Stadium on Friday.
The Wolfpack’s 31-0 shutout revealed a team in control and ready to take advantage of the Mustangs’ multiple costly turnovers.
Junior QB Chase Hedani was the playmaker of the game, utilizing his weapons both on the ground and in the air to hold scoreless a Kalaheo team that scored five touchdowns only a week ago. Hedani finished the game completing nine of 16 pass attempts for 143 yards and one touchdown.
The Wolfpack notched their first score of the night on a 5-yard touchdown run by sophomore fullback Joshua Arcayena with one minute left in the first quarter. They added a second touchdown to their lead at the six-minute mark in the second quarter when sophomore receiver Kama Espinda carried the ball 2 yards to the house.
The first two touchdowns of the game were credited to the team’s fresh perspective, according to Hedani, who said, “From last game to this game we had a different mind-set. Throughout practice, we were trying to bounce back from our tough loss at the stadium. The morale is up now so I think it’s great.”
Hedani’s lone passing touchdown was on a monster 50-yard connection with freshman receiver William Reed in the third quarter. Reed would finish with two catches for 65 yards and junior RB Micah Kong showed his own airborne chemistry with Hedani, catching two passes for 58 yards.
Hedani praised both athletes and noted the improved links with Reed and Kong specifically were effects of specialized practices, saying, “We worked on our communication a lot during practice. We were trying to get the one on ones with them and we know that they’re very talented young players, so we just tried to feed them as much as we could and they did their jobs.”
Not only were the Wolfpack successful in the receiving game, but also on the ground. Hedani, Kong, Arcayena, and senior slotback Ian Canute all rushed for more than 30 yards.
Kong and Canute were especially productive in the running game as Canute added a 78-yard run in the fourth quarter to set up his first, and the team’s last touchdown of the game on a 1-yard run. Kong had eight carries for 50 yards and Canute finished with four touches for 90 yards.
“Establishing the run game was crucial this game,” Hedani said. “It was clutch in our win. Ian had that long run and Micah was padding the ball all game.”
The Wolfpack is set to face Kalani next Saturday after a dominating victory over the Mustangs and Hedani wants to use the win as fuel.
“Hopefully we can use this momentum to keep going and hopefully we can finish 6-3,” he said.
Hooray for Div.2. Pac-5 would have a hard time if it were just ILH.