Ian Van Cleve hopes the first time around against Hilo High School turns out to be instructive for his Keaau Cougars who meet the Vikings today at 5:30 p.m. in a BIIF Division I rematch.
“If nothing changes, it’s probably going to be a long day out there,” Van Cleve said of the 41-16 defeat his team absorbed back on August 27 at Wong Stadium. “You never want to take anything away from the other team by saying, ‘We gave it away,’ but the truth is, we had two interceptions in the red zone and turnovers just made the hill too steep to climb.”
The Cougars regrouped from that loss to put together a dominant 34-0 win against Waiakea, but then walked into a fight they couldn’t handle in a 66-0 loss to Konawaena.
Is it too much to ask for a little balance?
“The simple fact is we have had a tendency to beat ourselves with our own mistakes and that includes interceptions, fumbles and penalties,” he said. “Sometimes it seems we can’t get out of our way.”
Diego Pettypool has done most of the heavy lifting on offense with 736 yards passing (61-of-109), eight touchdown passes and five interceptions. He also leads the team in rushing with 335 yards on 27 attempts, a 12.4 yard average. Dane Bannister has rushed for 180 yards on 28 carries, a 6.4 yards-per-carry average.
So why not just run the ball all the time? Good question.
“In many ways, that’s what we want to do,” Van Cleve said, “but we keep hurting ourselves, it really has been self-inflicted in most cases.”
Keaau is coming off a 28-7 win against Kealakehe last Saturday that bumped its record up to 2-2, one step behind Hilo at 3-1 as both those schools chase 4-0 Konawaena.
Hilo is coming off a forfeit win against Waiakea with the bitter taste of a 51-6 drubbing by Kona back on Sept. 2.
“It hasn’t been easy,” Van Cleve said, “between the mistakes on the field and the injuries, we just have to try to clean things up and get better, really, in all phases.”
Tracking down Hilo quarterback Kaohu Kaluna will be a major focal point for the Cougars defense, which was dealt a serious blow when it lost senior strong safety Joseph Lyman, who suffered a broken leg. Lyman was a leader on defense and filling in for him is going to be a tall order.
“Practice has been difficult,” Van Cleve said, “with some players out and trying to move in some guys to places where they honestly haven’t had a chance to play very much.
“We’ve really been beating ourselves, so we don’t have a sense of how good we can be, not yet.”
Containing Kaluna will likely be a key for the Keaau defense. He has completed 20-of-33 for 362 yards and four touchdowns. To this point, Kaluna has not been intercepted. He has averaged 7.6 yards per rush on 20 running plays for 152 yards and two touchdowns.
Xiah Kanae leads the Vikings on the ground with 165 yards on 27 carries, an average of 6.1 yards per attempt. Kanae also leads Hilo with three rushing touchdowns, so far.