Scrimmage notes from Moanalua-Pearl City


One of the final scrimmages of the weekend took place at Bino Nieves Stadium when Moanalua, of the Oahu Interscholastic Association's Division I Blue, visited Division-II Pearl City Saturday night.

Junior quarterback Alakai Yuen threw a pair of touchdown passes and ran for another as Moanalua got the better of Pearl City, 38-7.

Yuen threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Michael Feliciano, who opened the scoring with a 7-yard TD run to cap the first Na Menehune possession, and connected with Kaimi Kini for a 35-yard scoring strike. He also found the end zone on a 24-yard second-half scamper.

Rodson Kealohi scored Moanalua's only other touchdown on a 1-yard run on the final play of the scrimmage. Blake Tom also hit a 32-yard field goal for the visitors.

Pearl City's only score came on a 35-yard touchdown pass from Nalu Simon to Elijah Parrish in the first half.

The score was tied at 7 in the first quarter, but Na Menehune scored the final 31 points to pull away from the Chargers.

Here are a few more notes on each team:

Moanalua
• The defense, which uses a 3-4 base formation, is built on speed. Kealohi, who will also see time on offense at slotback, running back and quarterback (as Yuen's back-up) on offense, was inserted at one outside linebacker spot and made a number of tackles in the backfield, including one sack.
• Senior safety Kyle Bender recorded an interception to end Pearl City's first drive. Bender came from the back side of the play, across the field to pick off Simon, which set-up Feliciano's TD run.
• Feliciano's speed has been highly-touted by head coach Jason Cauley for two years now, but his shiftiness and vision were on display Saturday. He showed patience, read his blocks well and the ability to change directions quickly.
• The offense is progressing well, but is still not able to operate as quickly as Cauley would like. Expect that to improve as Yuen gains experience over the course of the season.
• Yuen is more athletic than he appears and has "escape-ability" when pressured, but sometimes held on to the ball too long. He'll have to do a better job protecting the ball — and himself — when he decides to take off and run.
• Junior linebacker-turned-cornerback Kea Rodrigues batted away at least four passes, but probably should have intercepted at least two of them.

Pearl City
• The offensive line is fairly big, by D2 standards, but struggled to protect Simon, a first-year varsity member.
• Simon took all of the snaps at quarterback, a sign that it fall solely onto his shoulders this Fall. He threw a nicely-placed pass to Parrish, who ran a corner route to the back left pylon, on the 35-yard TD pass, but the Chargers struggled to sustain drives for most of the night. Simon was picked off twice and lost a fumble on the first play of Pearl City's fourth drive — all in the first half. Many of his misses came on passes that were too low for his receivers to handle.
• The run game didn't fare much better, but that should improve with the development of the offensive line.
• Defensively, Pearl City struggled to keep contain around the perimeter, allowing Yuen to pick up several big gains on scambles.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].