Leilehua's Randy Neverson breaks away from a pair of Waianae defenders on his way to the endzone. Jim Lebeau | Special to SL

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083014_Leilehua_vs_Waianae-9.jpg - Jim Lebeau | Special to SL

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WAIANAE — Randy Neverson was quite the busy body Friday night.

The senior running back factored into three touchdowns to help Leilehua remained undefeated with a 46-27 win over Waianae in an Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I Red game before about 2,000 fans at Raymond Torii Field.

The Mules, who are ranked eighth in the ScoringLive/OC16 Division I Football Power Rakings, improved to 3-0, while the 10th-ranked Seariders dropped to 1-2.

Neverson threw a 36-yard touchdown pass to Austin Molina to open the scoring, rushed for a 21-yard score later in the first quarter and added a 17-yard touchdown reception from Kalanimoku Pauole just before halftime.

"I've got to say it feels pretty good," said Neverson, a 6-foot, 205-pound senior running back. "It's Waianae and they're always a competitive team, so we just had to come out and do what we had to do."

Pauole, a senior quarter, threw for 219 yards with three touchdowns on 10-of-22 passing and Molina, a senior receiver, finished with a pair of touchdown receptions.

Leilehua benefitted from four first-half turnovers by Waianae, which it recycled into 21 points.

"That's huge to give us a short field," Mules' coach Nolan Tokuda said. "Our defense came up big for us tonight and got our offense going, because we struggled early on — but Waianae's defense was impressive — so the defense basically bailed us out."

The Mules held a 20-0 lead until defensive back Ikaika Paaoao-Ahina got the Seariders on the board with his 32-yard interception return. However, Pauole threw his second and third touchdown passes of the game on the Mules' last two first-half drives to send them into the intermission up, 34-7.

Waianae got a pair of touchdown passes and a 14-yard scoring run by Jurick Valdez in the second half, but never got within 19 points the rest of the way.

The Seariders managed just 50 rushing yards on 34 attempts and committed 15 penalties for 128 yards, including five false starts and four personal fouls.

Quarterback Ioane Kaluhiokalani completed 11 of 23 passes for 137 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Stanton Spencer finished with four receptions for 91 yards, including a 15-yard touchdown grab from backup quarterback Jorell Pontes in the closing seconds.

Maika Koko notched four sacks and Nayton Kuresa three to led the Waianae defense. Koko also caught a 6-yard touchdown pass from Kaluhiokalani early in the third quarter.

Waianae recorded just 15 first downs for the game and was just 5 of 13 on third downs.

Lauriano Lucas caught two passes for 127 yards, including an 86-yard first-quarter touchdown pass from Pauole. Eight different players caught a pass for the Mules, who were flagged nine times for 100 yards. Soga Eli had a team-high six tackles, including one sack.

Leilehua played without running back Ikaika Piceno, who was nursing a hamstring injury he suffered against McKinley last week.

Note: The varsity game did not kickoff until nearly 9 p.m. and did not conclude until almost midnight. Leilehua's JV team did not depart its Wahiawa-campus until 4:30 p.m. because its buses arrived 30 minutes late. As a result, the JV game started nearly half an hour late.