Kalani holds off never-say-die Roosevelt, 10-6


HONOLULU - An interception late in the fourth quarter by Dunavan Hahn sealed the game for Kalani as the Falcons went on to beat the Rough Riders, 10-6, Friday night at Ticky Vasconcellos Stadium. With the victory, Kalani improved to 3-1 on the season.

“It was a much needed win,” said Hahn. “Words can’t even explain. Defense fought hard; offense had some struggles but they did enough to keep up going.”

After a scoreless first quarter, Kalani got on the board first with a 32-yard field goal at the 8:38 of the second. The field goal by junior Marc Teshima was his second recorded field goal of the season.

Roosevelt, playing without starting quarterback Keanu Furtado, scored the first touchdown of the night as Mana Kohooilihala connected with Shayne Teruya for a 52-yard strike. Kohooilihala was 6-of-25 throwing with one touchdown and one interception on the night. The score by Teruya put Roosevelt up 6-3 going into halftime.

Another scoreless quarter went on after halftime. Kalani, using their powerful run game, was able to score their first score with a three-yard run up the middle by Ace Faumui. The junior running back had had 14 carries for 151 yards on the ground against Roosevelt. Faumui’s score increased the Falcons lead to 10-6 in the fourth quarter.

“It was very hard to be honest,” said Faumui. “I just like to thank God for bringing our team together and coming out with the win."

The Rough Riders had a little over two minutes left to go to and try and earn their first win of the season. Finally getting into the Kalani red-zone, Roosevelt ran two dive plays in row to no success. On third down, Hahn picked off Kohooilihala after the Roughrider quarterback tried to throw the ball up to a Roosevelt player in the right corner of the end-zone.

“I just knew it was going to the number one receiver,” said Hahn. I’ve seen plays like that before so I knew I had to cheat and help. Once I saw the ball in the air, I was like ‘this is min. No ones going to take this from me.”



Reach Aven Santiago at [email protected].