Pac-Five quarterback Kainoa Ferreira passed for 312 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Wolfpack to an Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division II season-opening victory against Saint Francis. Jim Lebeau | Special to SL

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Jim Lebeau | Special to SL

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Fri, Sep 11, 2015 @ Aloha Stadium [ 7:45 pm ]

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PAC-5

29

Saint Francis

18

Final	1	2	3	4	T
PAC-5 (3-3-0)	10	13	0	6	29
Saint Francis (4-4-0)	0	6	6	6	18

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Wembley Mailei 52 yd

Kainoa Ferreira 312 yd 4 TD

Jonah Luis-Mateo 81 yd 1 TD

Jonah Luis-Mateo 17 yd

Clayce Akeo 167 yd 2 TD

It wasn't the prettiest of games, but Pac-Five will take it.

Despite five second-half turnovers, the Wolfpack hung on to beat Saint Francis, 29-18, Friday night in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division II season opener at Hawaiian Airlines Field at Aloha Stadium.

"That's just mental breakdowns," Pac-Five coach Kip Botelho said. "But we haven't played in three weeks so…I'll take it. We just have to get better."

Kainoa Ferreira passed for 312 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Wolfpack (3-0 overall, 1-0 ILH) over the Saints (2-3, 0-1), who are still looking for their first league win in their third season. Wide receiver Clayce Akeo was the primary target, hauling in eight passes for 187 yards and two TDs, including an 85-yarder. 

The Saints, who trailed 23-6 at the half, did not help their own cause by turniing the ball over five times in the second. Ferreira was 19 of 38, but was intercepted four times.

"We couldn't execute, offensively," Saints' first-year coach Kip Akana said. "The turnovers. We were give opportunities to score; they hit us on a couple big plays. We lost some jump-ball plays. Defensively, except for those jump-ball plays, we played well enough to stay in the game. But hat's off to Pac-Five; they executed a little better."

For the Wolfpack, seventh in the Hawaiian Electric Division II Power Rankings, their only offense was the passing game; they had negative-14 rushing yards on 15 carries.

"This whole week, we couldn't run team-O (team offense) because we didn't have any linemen," said Botelho, referring to injuries. "Three starting linemen (were) out, so we ran minimal team -O this week."

The Saints were the opposite, rushing the ball 48 times for 197 yards. Running back Jonah Luis-Mateo led all rushers with 18 carries for 81 yards, including a seven-yard TD run. Saint Francis had just 61 yards passing from 6-of-20 passing.

The Saints cut their 23-6 halftime deficit early in the second hafl when Isaac Crichton blocked a punt that was recovered at the Pac-Five 12. Two plays later, Luis-Mateo scored on a seven-yard run, but the 2-point conversion run failed, as the Saints pulled to 23-12 with 9:38 in the third quarter.

Crichton intercepted a Ferreira passs on the Wolfpack's next series, but the Saints failed to capitalize and were forced to punt. Yet again, Ferreira was intercepted, this time by Roland Merrill at the Pac-Five 45, but the Saints lost a fumble two plays later at the Pac-Five 42.

After Pac-Five punted, the teams exchanged turnovers on successive plays. Saint Francis lost a fumble and Merrill came up with his second interception on the next play.

Saint Francis woiuld turn over the ball on its next three series after Pac-Five punted and a missed field goal. It was a fumble on a center's snap at the Saints' 15 that set up an insurance score, Ferreira's six-yard TD pass to Daven Pila.  The PAT was blocked to keep it 23-12 with 5:30 left in the game.

The Saints threatened on their next series, starting at their 14, but fell two yards shy of a first down at the Pac-Five 8. But the Wolfpack, who could not establish a run all game, netted zero yardage after two plays. On third-and-10, Ezra Inayoshi-Dudoit picked off a high pass and returned it 30 yards for a TD to pull to 29-18. The Saints were going for 2, but a false start pulled them back to the 8, where they failed on a run play.

Pac-Five took the lead after its first series of the game after Saint Francis punted. The Wolfpack used five pass plays to travel 55 yards, scoring on Ferreira's 30-yard TD pass to Akeo with 6:33 in the first quarter. Tyler Fukuroda's PAT gave Pac-Five a 7-0 lead.

Later in the quarter, the Wolfpack cashed in on a Saint Francis fumb le at its own 28. That set up Fukuroda's 22-yard field goal with 48 seconds in the first quarter to make it 10-0.

The Saints pulled to 10-6 in the second quarter when quarterback Scott McLeod rushed into the end zone from the 4 with 4:57 in the half. But the Saints failed on a run during the 2-point conversion.

The Wolfpack then pulled away in the closing 4:33 in the half. First, Ferreria's 85-yard TD pass to Akeo make it 17-6. Ferreira then tossed a six-yard TD pass to Jarrod Infanted with 2:31 left to make it 23-6 at the half.