Mililani pounds Moanalua, 39-9, in season opener

Mililani RB Vavae Malepaeai looks for running room on a carry against Moanalua. Joshua Lopez | Mililani HS

Despite rotating two quarterbacks, the visiting Mililani Trojans still managed to cruise by Moanalua in their preseason opener 39-9. Mililani won last year's matchup 31-21 on Aug 11, 2012 at Mililani.

Mililani's Robert Faleafine, a senior transfer from Saint Louis, started the game at quarterback. The Trojans took advantage of good field position on Moanalua's 45 yard-line. Vavae Malepeai capped off the drive with a 21 yard rushing touchdown and Zach Suyat's PAT put the Trojans up 7-0 with 9:41 on the clock.

Malepeai scored another 21 yard touchdown at 5:08, but the kick was no good.

"Definitely our run game looked promising. O-line did a fabulous job and Vae and our other running backs did well and credit goes to the offensive line," said Mililani coach Rod York.

Mililani's Blake Kondo picked off a backward screen pass and took it for a 13 yard touchdown to put the Trojans up 20-0 with 1:01 remaining.

In the third quarter, Moanalua got on the scoreboard with a safety as the snap sailed over the Mililani punter's head and was tackled in the end zone.

Mililani responded with another touchdown as Kainoa Wilson scored off of a 12 yard sweep with 21 seconds left in the quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Moanalua's Micah Kaneshiro found Donald Lambert for a 20 yard touchdown and Lambert made the PAT with 11:12 remaining.

Mililani's defense stifled Moanalua and intercepted Kaneshiro 3 times and constantly pressured him all night.

"Our defense is definitely top dog. We think we got the best defense in the state, we'll find out next week when we play Punahou and the Red conference opponents," said York.

Mililani sophomore McKenzie Milton threw a 14 yard touchdown to Larry Baquiran with 9:04 remaining and another touchdown to Christopher Wong to put the game out of reach.

"We're trying to find the most consistent guy," he said of Faleafine and Milton. "We were hoping we could get it done today, but we didn't. There were still a lot of inconsistencies in their play, but they did some good things. But we got to get better," said York.

Mililani plays Punahou next week on Thursday August 15th televised on OC 16 at 7pm while Moanalua travels to play Waianae on Friday at 7:30pm.

Reach Brandon Ching at [email protected].