By Wes Nakama
Breaking a three-game skid with an emphatic Homecoming victory, ‘Iolani rolled past visiting Pac-Five, 42-14, Friday afternoon at Eddie Hamada Field.
Sophomore Adrian “A.P.” Perkins completed 16 of 22 passes for 172 yards and three touchdowns, with no interceptions, and Ayden Teranishi added 161 yards and one TD rushing on 20 carries as the Raiders improved to 3-3 overall and 1-1 in the ILH. Colten Amai-Nakagawa went 22 of 35 for 302 yards and one touchdown with two interceptions for the Wolfpack, which fell to 4-3, 0-1.
‘Iolani went up, 7-0, after Perkins’ 7-yard touchdown scramble capped a 15-play, 82-yard drive with 55 seconds remaining in the first quarter. But Pac-Five immediately responded with Elijah Connell-Chavez’s 90-yard kickoff return to paydirt, and Keahi Yuen’s extra point tied it at 7-7 with 41 ticks left.
The Raiders later took the lead for good when Perkins hit Jaeden Park in stride on a post pattern for a 57-yard TD strike to take the lead for good. Ty Mitsunaga’s PAT made it 14-7 with 2:50 to go before halftime. The Wolfpack advanced to the ‘Iolani 8-yard line on the ensuing possession, but a fourth-and-3 pass to the end zone fell incomplete.
Park then opened the second half with an 88-yard kickoff return back to the hale, and Mitsunaga tacked on the extra point to make it 21-7.
“It was lots of little things, whether it was a dropped ball, or a missed block …,” Pac-Five coach Kena Heffernan said. “We could point to a lot of things … but everybody’s dealing with the same thing.”
‘Iolani later put together a 12-play, 79-yard scoring drive culminating in Perkins’ 38-yard touchdown pass to Kaiaka Lau Kong, with Mitsunaga’s PAT stretching the lead to 28-7 with 4:50 left in the third quarter. After Zack Bagoyo’s interception on the next series gave the Raiders the ball back five plays later, Teranishi broke several tackles en route to a 38-yard TD scamper with Mistunaga’s extra point making it 35-7 with 3:31 still to go in the third.
“Ayden is definitely tough,” Perkins said of his 5-foot-6, 160-pound workhorse running back. “After he took a couple hits, I was like, ‘Are you OK?’ And he just says ‘Yeah, I’m OK’ and got going.”
The Wolfpack offense finally got on the scoreboard when Amai-Nakagawa found Avari Zion-Branch on a 31-yard touchdown strike with 9:50 remaining in the fourth quarter, with Yuen’s PAT cutting it to 35-14. But ‘Iolani answered three minutes later with Perkins’ 7-yard TD pass to Lau Kong to seal the victory.
“He’s gettin better every day, every week,” Raiders coach Wendell Look said of Perkins, who was making just his second varsity start after replacing injured three-year letterman CJ Villanueva early in a loss at Leilehua on Aug. 30. “CJ spoiled us, he set a high bar to live up to. A.P. knows what to do, he makes the right reads and everything, but he just needs to work on his consistency.”
Look gave credit to his defense for tightening up on four different Pac-Five trips to the red zone, denying the Wolfpack each time.
“That was the nice part — we bent, but did not break in the red zone,” Look said. “We were tough in the red zone, we made some plays on fourth down. On third down, we were terrible, but on fourth down, we were pretty good.”
‘Iolani now has the next three weeks off before a showdown with Damien on Oct. 24. Pac-Five will play the Monarchs on Friday at Farrington.
Photos: Gavin Yasunari
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