WAIANAE - Jurick Valdez led a brigade of ball carries and Waianae ran over Aiea, 42-26, Saturday night in the last opening round game of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I football tournament.

Valdez, a 5-foot-6, 165-pound senior running back, rushed for 187 yards on just nine carries, including TD runs of 78, 50 and 45 yards, to carry the Seariders (5-3) into Saturday's quarterfinals against Blue second seed Farrington at Roosevelt's Ticky Vasconcellos Stadium. Kickoff is about 5:30 p.m.

"It feels good," Valdez said of his performance. "Our blockers did their assignments, fired out great. Defense, too. We did what we had to do tonight."

Na Alii (2-6), who came from a 14-0 deficit early in the second quarter to tie the game 14-14 at the half, are done for the season.

Even though Aiea led 20-14 early in the third quarter, Waianae stayed with its ground game, a staple in the school's history. Ten different rushers combined the rush the ball 62 times for 413 yards. Waianae made 23 first downs, 17 by rushing.

"They wore us down," Aiea coach Wendell Say said. "Our kids were ready. We had a good game plan. For us, it's a numbers game to get the depth we need. I think we'll be better. We have good young kids. As long as they stay, we'll be fine."

"Our kids ran well tonight," Waianae coach Dan Matsumoto said. "We broke some long ones.

"Jurick is such a hard runner. He doesn't say much, but he comes to practice and he runs hard."

The Seariders were deliberate from the start. They scored on their first drive that lasted only five plays because of Valdez's 50-yard TD run up the middle. But Niko Kala-Mahiai missed the PAT to keep the score, 6-0, just 2:22 into the game.

On their third series of the game, the Seariders used a lengthy 87-yard drive that consumed 7:01 off the clock and ended with Royce Carrick's 2-yard TD. To make up for the missed PAT, Kala-Mahiai plowed through the line for the 2-point conversion to make it 14-0 with 10 minutes left in the half.

But Na Alii tied the game with a pair of TD passes by QB Kobe Kato to Lincoln Tappe of 5 and 29 yards.

Aiea took the second-half kickoff and scored on Rexy Kolone's 1-yad TD run with 10:25 in the third quarter, but Micah Peters-Valdez missed the PAT to keep it 20-14.

But Waianae responded with a 12-play (all runs), 71-yard drive that was capped by QB Ioane Kaluhiokalani's 1-yard run. Kala-Mahiai made the PAT to put Waianae ahead, 21-20.

Valdez put the game out of reach for Na Alii when he scored on runs of 45 yards in the third quarter and 78-yards early in the fourth quarter to make it 35-20.

Jordan Liilii spelled Kato on Aiea's next series, but Na Alii lost the ball on downs at their 40. Waianae continued to run against the worn-down Na Alii and scored its final TD on a 27-yard run by Kaluhiokalani to make it 42-20.

Kato returned to the game on Aiea's next series and scored on first down with a 72-yard TD to Kame Kim Choy-Keb-Ah Lo to pulled Aiea to 42-26.

Waianae lost a fumble to fuel Aiea's comeback hopes, but Na Alii returned the favor by losing the ball on a fumble and Waianae was able to control the ball the final 3:43 to end the game.

Kato was 16 of 31 for 230 yards with three TDs for Aiea.

Matsumoto liked his runners' efforts, but felt his team, on both sides of the ball, could have executed better.

"We're still not executing as crisp as we should," Matsumoto said. "Aiea is disciplined. We knew it was going to be something like that (close)."