Sateles hold line
against Vandals
One of the concerns facing the Hawaii football team entering last night's game with Idaho was the status of the offensive line.
With injuries taking center Derek Fa'avi and guard Uriah Moenoa (also the backup center) out of the lineup, the Warriors lined up with a few familiar faces in new places.
The Warriors officially gave up three sacks -- UH head coach June Jones took the blame for one of those -- but kept quarterback Tim Chang clean most of the night and drew praise from their coach.
"We got beat twice, but overall I thought the kids played well up front," UH offensive line coach Mike Cavanaugh said. "I'll know more when we dissect the film, but overall I thought they did pretty good."
The most notable switch was guard Samson Satele moving to center. He hadn't played in the middle since early in his high school career and managed to get the shotgun snaps back to Chang without incident during his stint last night.
"Samson was on the money all night," Chang said.
Satele said it took awhile to adjust to making the line calls, but he eventually settled down and felt comfortable in his new spot.
"Everybody helped me out during the week, Derek, Uriah, Coach Cav," he said. "Everything they taught me helped me tonight."
Hercules Satele, Samson's cousin, made his first start at guard and shared time with Phil Kauffman. Brandon Eaton started at guard for the third straight game and Jeremy Inferrera and Tala Esera manned the tackle spots.
"We had a lot of things going on this week, but when it came down to it we pulled together and worked everything out," Eaton said.
Michael Lafaele played center late in the game. He had been moved to defensive line earlier this season when injuries depleted the Warriors' front four.
The redshirt freshman said he didn't know he would be back on offense until the coaches informed him during a team meeting Thursday night.
"The calls were in the back of my head -- I know them," Lafaele said.
Hawaii's Tim Chang looked to throw against Idaho in the third quarter of last night's game.
Jones praised his players, including Chang and receiver Jason Rivers, praised his defense's second-half performance and said his team will have to be near its best "to even be on the field with the two teams we're getting ready to play," in the next two weeks. "It's going to be tough, but we're going to do it," he said.
Jones then launched into an emotional tirade against Hawaii's media, noting in particular a Saturday Star-Bulletin story that read in part that Hawaii was saving some of its injured starters against Idaho in hopes of healing up for Northwestern and Michigan State; and a Friday front-page Advertiser article that chronicled fan unrest following Hawaii's lopsided losses at Boise State and Fresno State.
"It's a shame," Jones said. "You think sometimes that you're hurting me. But you're hurting the school, you're hurting the team, kids who love each other, who play their asses off. I never thought I would see it happen in Hawaii."
A choked up Jones addressed the topic for several minutes, even mentioning Channel 2 anchor Joe Moore by name.
"I'm probably going to take a lot of heat for saying what I'm saying," Jones said.
Rolo, the sequel: UH second-year freshman quarterback Jack Rolovich made his long-awaited debut, replacing Chang early in the fourth quarter after the Warriors built a comfortable 45-21 lead.
Rolovich, the younger brother of former UH star QB Nick Rolovich, completed four of seven passes for 37 yards, and he directed a nine-play, 52-yard scoring drive that ended with Kala Latuselu's 4-yard TD run for the final score.
His most impressive -- though definitely not effective -- pass was a long bomb that was intercepted by Idaho's Herbert Cash.
"You get so pumped up to play, but that first series, you just got to get out of the way," Rolovich said.
Good connection: Idaho's Bobby Bernal-Wood made two spectacular plays on first-half touchdown receptions from quarterback Michael Harrington.
The senior wide receiver put a move on Warriors safety Leonard Peters to gain entrance into the end zone on his 8-yard first-quarter TD catch.
Then, in the second quarter, Bernal-Wood leaped over Hawaii cornerback Turmarian Moreland in the end zone to grab Harrington's 14-yard fade.
Bernal-Wood came into the game ranked second in the nation in receptions per game with 7.91. He finished last night's game with nine catches for 139 yards.
Harrington, the brother of Detroit Lions quarterback Joey Harrington, completed 14 of 20 passes for 196 yards, and he didn't throw an interception before being pulled for backup Brian Nooy in the fourth quarter.
Not so full house: Last night's gathering at Aloha Stadium was the smallest of the season. The crowd was announced at 30,864 tickets sold and 24,739 through the turnstiles.
The last time the tickets-issued total dipped under 31,000 for a UH regular-season contest at Aloha Stadium was on Sept. 11, 1999, when 28,762 were sold for the game against Eastern Illinois. UH ended a 19-game losing streak that night.
Last year's Sheraton Hawaii Bowl between Hawaii and Houston drew 29,005.
The smallest "home" crowd in the June Jones era was 12,863 when UH played Montana at Maui's War Memorial Stadium.