Pearl City gallops past Roosevelt in OIA D2 opener


PEARL CITY - Gallop: 1. (noun) The fastest pace of a horse, with all feet off the ground together in each stride. 2. (verb) Progress rapidly in a seemingly uncontrollable manner.

That's exactly what the Chargers did to the visiting Roosevelt Rough Riders in a 34-6 victory Friday night. Pearl City scored five touchdowns, including one coming off special teams, in a resounding win to open the 2014 season.

"We feel real good with tonight's victory," said Chargers coach Robin Kami. "The last couple years, we started off real slow. Finally, I told the kids ‘let's start off fast and score quickly' so hopefully we can ride the momentum. Kids came out really fast today."

Pearl City scored early and often in the first half. On their first drive after forcing Roosevelt to punt, it took only three plays for the Chargers to find the land of six. Chargers tailback Dominic Maneafaiga carried the ball twice (12 yards, 5 yards) before quarterback Jordan Taamu connected with wide receiver Garrett Kanamu for a 25-yard score in the corner of the end zone.

"Jordan did a great job tonight," said Kami. "O-line did a great job blocking for him and giving him time and he threw the ball where it's supposed to be."

"We did a good job tonight; offense and defense," said Taamu. "We executed a lot of plays. Trying to take each game one at a time."

The Chargers put up another touchdown on the very next drive; this time capitalizing on a defensive turnover. Senior linebacker Zebadiah Selu scooped up a Roosevelt fumble at the Rough Riders 25 yard line and brought it down to the 10 for the offense to takeover.

Two plays later, Taamu called his own number and scored on a two yard rush. The touchdown by the senior quarterback put Pearl City up by 13 at the 6:56 mark of the first quarter.

"Defense did a great job; holding (Roosevelt) to six points," said Kami. "Roosevelt's a good team that it's just too bad they had 15 players that couldn't play. They're a better team than that."

A three-and-out forced by the Chargers defense set up the next Pearl City score. A short punt by the Roughriders allowed Dominic Maneafaiga to navigate his way through the punt team for six points.

Maneafaiga wasn't finished yet.

The senior also caught a two yard pass out of the back field for a two yard score. When the second half started, Maneafaiga showed even more dominance as he rushed for a 31-yard touchdown after carrying the ball four times on the previous four plays before the score (3-yards, 3-yards, 8-yards, 1-yard).

"I think we did really good on our first game," said Maneafaiga. "That was all my line, all the blocks. I could not have done it without them."

His score put the Chargers up 34-0 at the 8:13 mark of the third quarter. A missed PAT in the first quarter kept the running-clock from starting.

"Dominic had a outstanding game, said Kami. "Running the ball very well, good blocking out there. He did a great job for us tonight."

Pearl City (1-0) travels next week to play Waialua.



Reach Aven Santiago at [email protected].