Faith Lutheran rocks Kaimuki like a hurricane

Using a surgically sharp spread offense, Faith Lutheran of Las Vegas ran away from Kaimuki for a 49-18 nonleague football victory Sunday at Aloha Stadium.

Luckily, the Crusaders (1-1) didn’t have to find cover from hurricanes Madeline and Lester. The latter one, which traveled by about 140 miles north of Honolulu overnight, caused this game to be moved from Saturday at Roosevelt to Sunday in Hawaii’s biggest house.

The visitors scored on their first possession en route to their first victory of the young season. Running back Saundre Spiller, who found openings up the middle all day, did the bulk of the work on that drive with gains of 10 and 15 yards before backup quarterback Sagan Gronauer scored on an 8-yard run.

Gronauer, a sophomore, came off the bench for starter Christian Marshall, who hurt his ankle. The Crusaders didn’t miss a beat with the youngster in there.

“It was great that a young guy, Sagan, came in and stepped up and played well,” said Faith Lutheran head coach Vernon Fox, a former NFL safety with San Diego, Detroit, Washington and Denver. “We try to train all of our guys so that whoever is in there, there’s no dropoff and we have the same level of efficiency.”

Efficiency? Check that off the list. Gronauer passed for 186 yards and three touchdowns aside from his rushing TD. The spread-out offense helped Spiller to find big holes up the middle for 116 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries.

“We practice really fast, high-tempo, no-huddle,” Fox said. “A lot of what we do is predicated on that. We try to keep our opponents on their heels, guessing.”

Brandon Hann, who missed his first extra-point attempt, kicked field goals of 37 and 45 yards and he was good on his last six point-afters. Both of his field goals came in the first half as the Crusaders built a 33-0 lead at the break.

“We have faith in the coaches and faith in each other,” said 6-foot-4 wide receiver Elijah Kothe, who caught seven passes for 131 yards and a touchdown. “We’ve got a nice, tight unit and when we’re like that, we’re good.”

Undersized Kaimuki (2-2) did not get much of anything going until the second half.

“In the beginning, we didn’t help ourselves much, just a lot of miscues, little things, muffed snaps, a bunch of things that built up,” Bulldogs head coach David Tautofi said. “It makes a big difference in a football game what you do in the first quarter and we never really gave ourselves a chance.”

One of those bad snaps that sailed over punter Siah Maiava’s head resulted in a 27-yard loss and led to a Crusaders touchdown — Gronauer to Eric Ho for 8 yards — for a 16-0 cushion late in the opening quarter.

Another miscue, an interception thrown by Bulldogs quarterback Jordan Solomon, was returned 21 yards for a touchdown by Alec Netski for a 23-0 bulge with 9:19 to go in the first half.

“The first half killed us a lot with mental mistakes and we got out of the game too early, but the second half we came out better and with a better mind-set,” said Kaimuki wide receiver Andriess Toussaint, who finished with three catches for 75 yards and a TD.

Solomon, who passed for 238 yards despite a slow start, connected with Maiava for second-half touchdowns of 12 and 3 yards, with the latter coming on the game’s final play.

Earlier, Kothe ended his day with a 19-yard TD catch before the Crusaders’ Clay Shipley recorded a safety by getting to Solomon in the end zone and forcing him to intentionally ground the ball.

“We picked a heck of a weekend to come, with the hurricane watch and all of those things going on, so there was some apprehension and anxiety in the air,” Fox said. “When the game got canceled on Saturday, really at that point you’re just hoping that we can pull off a game. But for that turn of events to turn into us playing at Aloha Stadium, we really feel blessed. It was divine organization. It wasn’t by chance or luck.”