The Lahainaluna High School football team has outscored a pair of preseason opponents 78-7, outgained those opponents 681 yards to 269, and jumped to three-touchdown leads in the first quarter of each game.

Now, with a bye in the first week of Maui Interscholastic League play, the Lunas are going back to fundamentals.

''Well, the score doesn't indicate anything,'' Lahainaluna coach Bobby Watson said to The Maui News. ''Fundamentally we are not that good — a lot of breakdowns, a lot of mental breakdowns on both front lines, offensive line and defensive line, and we have got a lot of work to do with our DBs.''

The Lunas have rung up a 48-0 victory over a Waiakea team that looked overmatched from the get-go, and a 30-7 win over Bonita Vista, Calif., a 2,000-student school.

In both games — as is the usual Lahainaluna approach to its spread option offense — the number of rushers hit double digits for the team in red. Twelve players touched the ball in the first quarter against Waiakea.

One of those ballcarriers has been junior quarterback Jake Manning, a first-year starter who has a team-best 134 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries, five of which have been taking a knee at the end of games. Manning is also 12-for-17 passing for 134 yards with just one interception. Wide receiver Chris Wanke has caught eight of the passes for 102 yards.

''Our running backs seem to be coming around pretty good, the quarterback is coming around pretty good, but far from where we want them to be,'' Watson said.

The Lunas are on the edge of breaking into the top 10 for The Advertiser's football poll, but that is not on Watson's radar screen at this point. Playing in Division II this season, the Lunas appear to be a contender for a state title.

They own a 27-6-2 record over the last three-plus seasons, with four of those losses coming in the last two years to Baldwin, a D-I state semifinalist two years in a row. The other losses in that time span came in the 2004 D-I state semifinals to eventual champion Kamehameha, and to King Kekaulike when the 2004 MIL title was already sewn up.

On offense, the Lunas can hand the ball to bruisers Kailas McGhee (6 feet, 220 pounds) and Simione Vehikite (6-0, 234) or slashers Jacob McCarthy (5-10, 180), Lake Casco (5-9, 160) and Blaise Smith (5-11, 160).

''We have got a few (running backs),'' Watson said. ''We are trying to make sure we get everybody involved. The more people we get involved, the more rest we can get some of the better kids, some of the skill kids.''

Over the past few years, several players have gone both ways for the Lunas. This season, only seniors Casco, Smith and Matthew Lawless are starting on both sides of the ball.

It all begins for the Lunas at the line of scrimmage. In the 4-3 base defense, linemen Joseph Lai and Vehikite have been forces, loosening things up for linebackers Bryson Williams and Cole Loewen.

Lai had four tackles for loss, including three sacks, during the victory over Waiakea.

Chauncey Kaukau, a 6-0, 290-pounder, leads the offensive line from the center spot.

''We have got to work on our get-offs on our offensive line and defensive line, sustaining our blocks a little longer,'' Watson said. ''We need to find a little more pressure from our defensive line.''

The MIL played no nonleague games last season, and Watson is glad to have them back before the Lunas open MIL play Sept. 14 against Kamehameha-Maui.

''It is always a plus when you can go back and show the kids what they are doing wrong,'' he said. ''Correct our mistakes.''

Watson is not yet ready to discuss the talk of a possible D-II state title.

''It is still hard to tell — preseason we faced a pretty good team in Bonita Vista, they were well-coached, but it still all depends what you do with the big boys in the MIL,'' he said. ''Besides Oahu, I think we are the second-best league in the state. What happened in the state playoffs last year — that says a lot for the MIL. We are looking at the MIL before anything else. We will take one game at a time and see how we do in the MIL and if we get into the playoffs then we will look at it then.''

Watson said the decision to go D-II this season came from the MIL. Lahainaluna has one of the three smallest enrollments among league football schools — along with Kamehameha-Maui and the Trojans — but they play in D-I in all other sports.

''They are looking at splitting our league by student body size,'' Watson said. ''If that is the way they want to do it then that is fine with us. We are still out to try to beat everybody in the league – it doesn't matter if we are in Division I or Division II.''

Casco, a first-team MIL All-Star last season as a wide receiver, scored on a 98-yard kickoff return, a 45-yard interception return and a 37-yard run in the nonleague games.

He is one of 22 seniors, a group from which Watson always looks for leadership.

''That is coming along pretty well,'' Watson said. ''Our senior class has really stepped forward this year, so we expect good things from them. The younger guys have been a pleasant surprise for all of us. Hopefully we can get everybody working hard and contributing to the program.''

The team returns just five starters on offense — Kaukau, Casco, lineman Kelvin Branco, McCarthy and Lawless. Lai is the lone returning starter on defense.

When asked if he will hang up his coaching whistle after 2007, Watson said, ''We will talk about that at the end of the season.''

No matter what the outcome of this season, Watson said he has seen the MIL develop into a tough league.

''No doubt, we were basically a dominant running league and now it is evolved into a passing league,'' Watson said. ''Since the state playoffs started everybody is looking at the fact that we need to get both sides of the ball going to compete in the state, so the league has definitely evolved.''