Tua Tagovailoa threw four touchdown passes in the first half as No. 2 Saint Louis overwhelmed Faga’itua of American Samoa 55-6 on Friday night at Aloha Stadium.
Tagovailoa, a junior with 15 college scholarship offers, completed nine of his 14 pass attempts for 185 yards. Though two passes were dropped, he still engineered touchdown drives in all four of the series he played before sitting out the remainder of the game. By then, Saint Louis had a 28-0 lead early in the second quarter and reserve QB Chevan Cordeiro took over the offense.
"Tua’s great. We tried to blitz him and he escaped," Vikings coach Suaese "Pooch" Ta’ase said. "It didn’t turn out the way we wanted to, but that’s competition. That’s the only way you can learn, to fail. We’ll learn from it when we watch the film. Our field position didn’t help us early in the game. We appreciate our JV at the end (playing the last two series).
Saint Louis’ front seven won most of the battles in the trenches.
"You can’t give a good team like Saint Louis any help. We knew they were big up front. We wanted to make some first downs to give our defense some help," Ta’ase added. "Coaching on the same field as Cal Lee is an honor. We wish them the best of luck."
The Crusaders didn’t get a lot of reps for players returning from injury, like WR Drew Kobayashi. But defensively they look much improved this season — unless you have the unique expectation level of Lee.
"We were very inconsistent. We made some bad plays as well," Lee said. "Special teams, they blocked a (PAT) kick. Not real good. Not crisp. Maybe I shouldn’t be expecting something like that. I just expect too much, maybe. I just like to see a swarm. Maybe after I look at the film, it won’t be that bad."
The humidity and heat took a toll on Faga’itua’s two-way players. Running back/linebacker Oly Ta’ase rushed for 48 hard-earned yards in the first half and finished with 56 before succumbing to leg cramps.
"It’s tough for them," Lee said. "No place to practice, to sacrifice and then play a game. Practicing at Kapiolani Park. Living in a hotel, you don’t get into a routine. We don’t see too many running teams. To see two tight ends, that’s the only way you find out and they were physical. There were some good points."
Tagovailoa’s ability to tuck the ball and run gave the Vikings fits. The 6-foot-1, 215-pound southpaw rushed four times for 50 yards. His first two scoring strikes found Leelan Oasay from 10 and 12 yards out. Then Tagovailoa eluded a heavy pass rush to find running back Jon Manalo between the hashmarks. Manalo broke through two tackles and weaved his way through the defense for a scintillating 69-yard touchdown.
After Tagovailoa hit Saitaua Lefau on a crossing route for a 36-yard catch-and-run to paydirt, he was done for the night.
Saint Louis’ defense was tough on Faga’itua, a powerhouse program in American Samoa. The Vikings switched out of their usual spread offense in favor of a double-tight-end set to muster some offensive momentum. They scored on Raemos Fano’s 37-yard bomb to Malaki Peko Thompson with 7:03 to go in the second quarter, cutting the lead to 28-6.
But the Crusaders defense never relented after that. Cornerback Jalen Saole had two interceptions, including one that set up the next TD, a 2-yard burst by Jahred Silofau.
Tanielu Evaimalo, who had a fourth-down stop on a Vikings run early in the game, had another big play shortly before the half. Evaimalo, a senior defensive lineman, stripped the ball from Vikings running back Sam Talivaa at the Faga’itua 20-yard line and raced to the end zone to give Saint Louis a 41-6 lead.
Saint Louis finished with 390 yards of total offense, including 125 rushing yards on 26 attempts. Faga’itua tallied 241 total yards.
