Pebria's 3 TDs helps Kapolei beat Kailua, 42-27

Kapolei's Triston Pebria drives through Kailua Matthew "Makaio" Gaspar's tackle for yardage gain. Sylvia Lee | SL

KAPOLEI - They were pretty for three quarters and pretty ugly in the fourth.

The Kapolei Hurricanes stormed out to a commanding 42-0 lead, then got sloppy in knocking off Kailua, 42-27, Friday night in the first round of the O'ahu Interscholastic Association Red football tournament at the Hurricanes' field.

The West fourth seed Hurricanes (6-3), No. 9 in the ScorlingLive/OC 16 Power Rankings, advance to Friday's quarterfinals against Eastern Division champion Farrington at Roosevelt's Ticky Vasconcellos Stadium. The East fifth seed Surfriders (2-7) are done for the year.

Kapolei hasn't advanced past the quarterfinals since 2007, when it lost to Wai'anae, 14-13, in the semifinals.

Tailback Triston Pebria rushed for 111 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Hurricanes. Quarterback Aizon Kahana passed for 208 yards and two TDs after passing for a combined 40 yards and no TDs in his previous four regular-season games.

"First half, we did was we were supposed to do," Pebria said. "Came out here and showed everybody what our offense is capable of."

Pebria's three TDs on runs of 8, 5 and 25 yards and Kahana's TD passes of 77 yards to Alika Sene-Bailey and 30 yards to Kepa Kaina gave Kapolei a 35-0 lead at the half.

Kapolei's defense registered six sacks, led by linebacker Kingston Fernandez's two, and got interceptions from Keoni Taylor and Sam Naulu. Kapolei contained Kailua QB Noah Auld early.

"Our plan was to keep the quarterback contained," Fernandez said. "He's a good pocket passer. We didn't want him to get out of the pocket too much. Defense did good in the first half, but I think we kind of toned it down a little bit and in the second half, we really had to pick it up. The 20-something points they had is really unacceptable to our defense."

With the 35-point differential, the second half started with the mercy-rule running clock. Kapolei scored on its first drive of the second half with its starters. Kazden Reis' 21-yard TD run made it 42-0 with 8:07 left in the third quarter.

With a commanding lead and the clock running, Kapolei put in its reserves. But four turnovers led to four fourth-quarter scores to make the game look a lot less lopsided than it actually was. That didn't sit well with Kapolei coach Darren Hernandez.

"Was 42-0, I figure we'll let everybody play and the backups went in there and didn't play very well," Hernandez said. "We gave up four touchdowns. We fell apart.

"We looked good in the first half. But if we play only one half in the playoffs, we're not going to win. We have to put together two halves that are solid. I'm happy; we won. That second half was ragged."

A fumble by Kapolei led to Kailua's first score with 10:08 in the fourth quarter to make it 42-7 with the clock still running. The Surfriders recovered the onside kick at the Hurricanes' 41 and drove to the Kapolei 1. To the Hurricanes' credit, they stopped the Surfriders on three consecutive goal-and-1 situations and got the ball back on downs. But Kapolei fumbled on the first play and Kailua's Sheadon Spencer recovered the ball in the end zone to make it 42-14 with 4:36 left in the game and putting the game clock on normal mode.

Another fumble and an interception by Peter Albinio paved the way for two more Kailua TDs.

Kapolei also was hampered by 12 penalties for 144 yards, including several helmet-contact fouls. They also had two players ejected, Hernandez said, including starting center Aaron Kapihe. Hernandez said Kapihe was being pulled down by a Kailua player by the face mask. To fend off the player, Hernandez said Kapihe pushed down on the player and that apparently was construed as a punch. Hernandez said he will review video of the play before considering filing an appeal with the league. An ejection means the player can't play in his team's next game.

"After tonight, everything that happened is in the past already," Pebria said. "We have to move on and work towards a very important game."

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at [email protected].