When the Saint Louis football team walked off Fertitta Field in Las Vegas after playing in the GEICO Bowl Series in 2019, it was unfathomable the next prep football game involving a Hawaii school would take place 608 days later.

Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, that’s where the Crusaders found themselves on Friday night.

Playing on the same field as when they lost to St. Thomas Aquinas (Fla.) in a matchup of two Top 10 teams nationally, the Crusaders had their troubles against host Bishop Gorman.

Gaels senior Cam Barfield rushed for five touchdowns to help Bishop Gorman avenge a 2019 loss at Aloha Stadium to Saint Louis with a 42-21 victory over the Crusaders in the 2021 football opener for both teams.

“He’s kind of like a Saquon (Barkley),” Saint Louis defensive back Kona Moore said. “It’s definitely early (in the season) for us. We have a lot of work to put in, a lot of things to fix.”

Saint Louis, the four-time defending state champion in Hawaii’s top division, struggled to handle the Gaels’ pass rush all night.

Senior quarterback AJ Bianco scored the game’s first touchdown on an 18-yard run in the first quarter, but was under relentless pressure, finishing 10-for-28 passing for 195 yards before giving way to sophomore Oha Kamakawiwoole for the final quarter.

Ola Apduhan scored the Crusaders’ other TD on a 3-yard run in the second quarter to tie the score 14-all.

A competitive game for most of the first half got out of hand with Bishop Gorman scoring the next 28 points. Barfield, whose electrifying 57-yard TD run put Bishop Gorman ahead 14-7, capped off efficient drives with short runs to put the Gaels ahead 28-14 at halftime.

Saint Louis had a chance to tie the game at 21, but Bianco was sacked on fourth down by Jamih Otis in Gaels territory, leading to another Bishop Gorman drive capped off by a 1-yard TD run by Barfield, who has committed to Boston College.

Barfield opened the second half with a 20-yard TD for his fifth score after freshman Micah Alejado hit leading receiver Zachariah Branch for a 37-yard completion.

Bishop Gorman finished off a 28-point run when a Saint Louis punt snap went backwards 45 yards into the end zone and was recovered by Palaie Faoa for a TD.

The Gaels, who had won 10 straight Nevada state titles before they were upset by Liberty in 2019, opened the season ranked No. 12 by Max Preps. Saint Louis, which had won 38 straight games before losing its last two, is unranked.

Alejado, a former standout with the Ewa Beach Sabers JPS program, played like a savvy senior. He attended Saint Louis in middle school before relocating.

“He made adjustments on the field. He would call out who’s coming on the blitz,” said Moore, a commit to Hawaii. “Our pass defense did pretty good. When the ball was in the air, we didn’t fold too much.”

The Crusaders wanted to match up from day one with the best possible opponent. Coach Ron Lee and his squad have a point to pivot from now.

“Our coaches said, ‘Put this game behind us and try to take the ILH. Control what we can control,” Moore added. “We needed a reality check after all this time.”