“Someday,” University of Hawaii running back Dayton Furuta likes to tell the youth league flag football team he helps coach, “you’ll be here playing for the Rainbow Warriors.”

And just so there would be no confusion with the lackluster way the ’Bows opened Saturday night against Duquesne, Furuta went out and demonstrated the hard-nosed way it is supposed to be done — running over, around and through defenders to help ignite UH to a 42-21 nonconference victory.

When the 5-foot, 11-inch 250-pounder wasn’t carrying would-be tacklers with him, he was putting the ’Bows on his back in running for a career-high 114 yards on 12 carries to the relief of an Aloha Stadium gathering of 23,800.

He didn’t score any touchdowns himself, but he showed the way, physically and spiritually, for those who did.

For all the finesse of the run-and-shoot offense, sometimes circumstances call for the caveman approach, and because this night was definitely one of those times, Furuta lowered his shoulder, kept his feet pumping and delivered the tough yards on the way to a 4-1 record.

“He dishes out punishment when he runs,” head coach Nick Rolovich said admiringly.

For the first quarter Saturday night UH was dishing out golden opportunities in a game it found itself quickly trailing in 14-0 to a heavily underdog Football Championship Subdivision opponent.

Between quarterback Cole McDonald’s first interception, 155 passes into his UH career, a Cedric Byrd fumble and a free ball on the kickoff that Duquesne recovered, UH was fortunate to be behind only 14-0 before it finally got things cranked up.

Not until Furuta entered the game in the second quarter, shedding tacklers, did UH assume its first lead in five quarters, 21-14.

“We were getting frustrated as a unit with the turnovers and penalties and I felt I could be a spark,” Furuta said. “When we start making hard, physical runs, it gets our boys fired up, so I was telling the coaches on the sideline, ‘Let me be the spark. I can do it.’ I knew what I was capable of and wanted to be a spark for the team.”

Never mind that he had carried all of 12 times, total, through the first four games of the season, Furuta was diesel driven to succeed and showed it, averaging 9.5 yards per carry.

“Once he got going, we figured, ‘Let’s stay with Dayton and keep going forward,’ ” Rolovich said. “He’s come a long way with ball security since that first fumble (in the season opener) and really cares about this team. With the thin box up front, we needed to be able to run the ball.”

For Furuta, who had been a special teams performer, linebacker and backup H-back and tight end through his first three seasons at UH (one of them as a redshirt), “I hadn’t carried the ball so much since high school (at Mililani) in 2013,” Furuta said.”But I was ready.”

Afterward, with 5- and 6-year-olds from his Mililani “Savage Crew” flag football team crowded around him, Furuta talked about giving the game everything he had.

Furuta said, “I see these guys two or three times a week, on practice and on Sundays and I’m always telling them that someday they’ll play here (at Aloha Stadium), too.”

When they do, there will be few better examples to follow than the one Furuta set Saturday night.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.