No. 10 Seariders rally past Knights, 21-13

Defense came up big racking up two scores against Castle over on the West side of Oahu. Jim Lebeau | Special to SL

WAIANAE — Waianae's defense went on the offensive Friday night.

Defensive back Mosiah Brame and linebacker Justice Jardine each scored a touchdown to lead Waianae rally to a 21-13 win over Castle before a capacity crowd of more than 3,000 fans at Raymond Torii Field.

John Barbieto rushed 19 times for 125 yards and a touchdown to help the Seariders improve to 3-2 in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I Red, but the story was the defense.

Castle quarterbacks Stephen Lee and Willie Ewaliko dealt with pressure from the Waianae front seven all night. The Seariders forced four takeaways and got seven sacks. Jardine, Maika Koko and Nayton Kuresa had two sacks apiece.

"Our coaches told us that Castle is a scrappy team — they always come to play — and they came to play tonight," said Jardine, who recovered a fumble in the end zone in the fourth quarter. "They held us down to 21 points and we just kept playing our game. Our game defensively was just to get to the quarterback, create pressure and just to make plays happen."

Castle ended up with minus-18 rushing yards, but got 208 passing yards, including 165 from Lee on 19-of-36 passing.

"The defense did unbelievable tonight," said Barbieto, who ran in a 7-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. "They stepped up and just pulled it off for us and basically won the game for us tonight."

However, it was the visiting Knights who got on the scoreboard first on a 12-yard pass from Lee to Isaiah Lewis to cap their opening drive of the game. They held a 7-0 lead after the first quarter.

Castle's first offensive snap of the second quarter resulted in Waianae's first score, but it was a dubious one.

Lee threw a quick screen pass to his left, but it went through the hands of his intended receiver, Sione Pikula, and appeared to result in an incomplete pass. However, the whistle was never blown and Mosiah Brame picked up the pigskin and took it back 20 yards for a touchdown. Officials ruled that Lee's throw was not a forward pass, but a lateral instead and consequently a fumble.

"To be honest, it didn't look like it," Waianae coach Dan Matsumoto said. "I thought it was a forward pass, but I'm glad that the boys just kept playing. We practice that and we talk about scooping and scoring, so I'm glad that they pulled it off."

The teams went into halftime tied at 7. The score held until Barbieto's touchdown run with 4:17 left in the third quarter on a trap run behind left guard. Stanton Spencer's extra point made the score 14-7.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Ewaliko — who relieved Lee in the second quarter — was pressured deep in Castle territory and his pass was intercepted by Kuresa, who fumbled after the change of possession, but Jardine was there to cover it up in the end zone.

"Nayton picked it off and then one of our defensive players bumped into him and the ball came out and then I was there to just fall into the end zone with it," Jardine said. "All credit goes to God though."

Matsumoto credited defensive coordinator Matt Murakawa for a crafting a solid game plan.

"He just came up with a totally different scheme — we never ran it before so it was a big test for us — and the boys executed, but we still made our mistakes," Matsumoto said. "The idea was to try and put pressure on (the quarterback), but man that (Ewaliko) is a tough kid. He was still able to step up in the pocket and throw — he wasn't throwing off his back foot — he's a tough quarterback and he threw the ball well."

Castle, which scored on the final play of the game on an Ewaliko-to-Lewis 5-yard touchdown pass, fell to 1-4 with its third consecutive loss. All four losses have come to teams ranked in the top 10 of the ScoringLive/OC16 Division I Power Rankings.

Waianae, No. 10 in the latest power rankings, managed just 17 passing yards and lost a pair of fumbles. It committed 20 penalties — 12 in the first half — for 198 yards.

The last time the teams met was in an OIA Tournament first-round game last year when Waianae beat Castle, 37-7. The Seariders now lead the all-time series 24 to 6.

Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].