MARK MOLINA | Staff Writer
The stone-faced, serious demeanor St. Joseph Academy running back Melik Kauachi has while racking up the yards doesn’t completely translate to off-the-field situations.
In fact, the junior rusher seems to be taken out of his comfort zone when fielding questions about his early season performance.
When Kauachi was asked his thoughts on his fast start, he wasn’t about to let himself be singled out.
“I can’t do it alone,” he said. “The whole team is doing it, it’s not just me. We put in a lot of work during the summer. None of the numbers I have would be possible without my offensive line. They’re the ones who make the holes for me.”
SJA coach Tino Villarreal said being humble is just who Kauachi has been since entering the program as a seventh-grade student.
“He’s always been great,” Villarreal said. “He’s always been a leader, and just does his job, is a good teammate and remains humble the whole time.”
During the first month of the season, Kauachi has been the workhorse and then some for SJA, racking up 718 yards and six touchdowns in four games.
Among those games is a pair of 200-yard performances, including a Week 1 showing in which Kauachi lit up Grulla for 222 yards and two scores on the ground and finished the night with 348 all-purpose yards. Also, he has rushed for at least 125 yards in every game so far.
While Kauachi has become the Bloodhounds’ go-to offensive option, Villarreal says that setup isn’t always ideal and leaves nothing to the imagination of the defense.
Still, it’s the position the Bloodhounds’ program, which has seen its numbers dwindle recently, has found itself in.
“In any football team, the distribution of the football is important if you want to give people a hard time,” Villarreal said. “When you have to isolate yourself and depend on one guy, it makes you one-dimensional. Unfortunately, due to circumstances, we’ve been there and Melik has done a great job carrying that load for us.”
Last season, Kauachi showed signs of promise as a sophomore but was overshadowed by what resulted in a 2-8 campaign.
Now that the team has gotten off to a 2-2 start, the Bloodhounds’ leading rusher said it has been simply experience and the volume of carries that have made the difference.
“I was given more opportunity to run the ball through better holes,” he said. “(Carrying the ball) the ball brings my confidence up, but I don’t really care if I even gain 100 yards or more, as long as the team is winning. I wasn’t expecting this (many carries), I’ve just had more opportunities than last year and have run the ball better. Sometimes I don’t even know what I’m thinking, so I just get the ball and start running, trying to hit the hole and make the best out of it.”
That volume can be daunting, but Villarreal said Kauachi prepared well in the offseason and has held up through 103 touches in four games.
“There are a lot of guys that get that many carries, and you see them at this point of the season and they’re bruised up.” Villarreal said. “Melik is sill at 100 percent.”
With four big performances under his belt, Kauachi said the notoriety comes with standards he must live up to, but he believes he is ready to take that on.
“People come up to me and say that, ‘The game is on you,’” Kauachi said. “It makes me nervous, and I say that the game is on the team. Still, the more yards you get, the more confident you get and you feel like you can take on anyone. Although, I don’t like to be the person that feels like they’re getting good and gets ahead of themselves, but I definitely have set a bar for myself.”