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Saturday, August 19, 2000
Fiaseu runs wild The last Oahu Interscholastic Association football coach to beat St. Louis sat in the stands, and his son helped coach Mililani last night.
for Crusaders
The 5-foot-11, 220-pound senior
Kahuku falls in Rockies
rushes for 154 yards on just eight carries
to spark St. Louis past Mililani in a
prep preseason football gameBy Dave Reardon
Star-BulletinBut the presence of Hugh and David Yoshida wasn't enough to offset some typically hard-hitting Crusader defense, the rushing of Pesefea Fiaseu and the speed of Daniel Inferrera.
The defending state champions weren't in peak form, but they were strong enough to beat one of the better teams in the OIA, host Mililani, 36-10, in front of about 3,000 fans as both teams opened the preseason.
The Trojans looked good at times -- though not as mighty as current University of Hawaii athletic director Hugh Yoshida's 1984 Leilehua Mules, who beat St. Louis, 10-0, in the Prep Bowl.
For awhile, last night's game was similar to that rock 'em, sock 'em title match of 16 years ago -- until Fiaseu took over after a scoreless first quarter.
Even though Crusader quarterback Kelika Higa had trouble finding his receivers, draw plays to Fiaseu were effective enough for touchdown runs of 73 and 19 yards in the second quarter.
The 5-foot-11, 220-pound senior rushed for 154 yards on just eight carries and played less than one half.
"He does it with or without blocking," St. Louis coach Cal Lee said. "Sometimes he had to make his own trail to the goal line."
Despite Fiaseu's powerful running, the Trojans hung around until early in the fourth quarter, when St. Louis sophomore Bobby George connected with Inferrera on a 65-yard scoring pass, making it 23-3.
"Daniel's the fastest player on our team. The confidence he got tonight will help him," Lee said. "We've got a lot of good receivers. Maybe too many for our own good."
George hit the Interscholastic League of Honolulu sprint champ with another touchdown pass, this one with 2:43 left. It came after Mililani's Kepa Morris scored on a 17-yard run with 5:42 left for the first touchdown against St. Louis in more than three games.
Lee said it was too early to start thinking about George displacing the senior Higa.
"Bobby showed a lot of promise, but the hat's still on Kelika," Lee said.
Linebackers Joseph Lobendahn and Ikaika Curnan put their hats on Mililani ball carriers. Lobendahn made eight tackles and Curnan was in on seven as the Crusaders held the Trojans to 99 total yards.
Mililani's Brian Daniels ran for a hard-earned 33 yards on 11 carries in the first half before giving way to Morris in the second.
"This game was a challenge our coach put out for us to see how good we'd do against one of the best teams in the nation," Daniels said.
"I think we did a pretty good in spots."
Mililani coach James Millwood said losing to the team ranked as high as No. 8 in the nation will pay off later.
"Our players don't realize it now, but this game is going to help them a lot during the season," Millwood said.
"(St. Louis) is so well-coached. We'd have some success on defense, and they'd come back with counters and traps. We'd play tight and they came back with the deep pass."
St. Louis 0 17 0 19--36 Mililani 0 3 0 7--10
Scoring summary
StL -- Pesefea Fiaseu 73 run (Ha'a Bento kick)
Mil --FG 22 Vance Harris
StL-- P. Fiaseu 19 run (Bento kick)
StL -- FG 35 Bento
StL -- Daniel Inferrera 65 pass from Bobby George (kick failed)
Mil -- Kepa Morris 25 run (Harris kick)
StL-- Inferrera 18 pass from George (Bento kick)
StL -- Donnie Vercher 45 interception return (kick failed)
Individual statistics
Rushing--St. Louis: Fiaseu 8-154, Prince Brown 12-87, Bronson Beaver 2-5, Kelika Higa 1-(-12), George 2-(-15). Mililani: Morris 8-45, Brian Daniels 11-33, Xavier Sequeira 9-15, Mitchell Rose 2-9, Kali French 8-(-35), Team 1-(-1).
Passing--St. Louis: Higa 6-21-0--41, George 5-6-0--125. Mililani: French 5-14-1--32, Mitchell Rose 1-4-1--1.
Receiving--St. Louis:. Inferrera 2-82, Tito Sallas 2-35, Kainoa Fernandez 1-16, Frank Rivers 1-14, Ross Dickerson 2-8, Daniel Rodrigues 1-8, Jason Rivers 1-7, Keahua Bowman 1-(-4). Mililani: Morris 2-22, Edgar Castillo 2-14, Jose Santos 2-(-3).
