Late score helps Kaiser rally past Roosevelt for second straight win

Rayden Aoki | Special to SL

Call them the Cardiac Cougars.

Kaiser notched its second straight win in row in dramatic fashion for the second time in as many weeks, rallying from a score down with just 6:13 on the clock to take back the lead, then relied on its bend-but-not-break defense to close out the 27-24 victory over Roosevelt.

"I have faith in our team," said Dillon Reis. "We're definitely a second half team and I know we can play hard."

Sean Connell found Keagan Lime with 4:09 left in the game from seven yards out for what would be the eventual game winner, as Lime came down with a Roosevelt defender on a 50-50 ball that was ruled a ultimately ruled a catch.

On the ensuing possession, Roosevelt got the ball back with good field position on its own 45 but faced a third and long situation after two straight incompletions. Ioane Kamanao's pass on the next play was picked off by Jadsen Dias, giving the Cougars back the ball with just under three minutes left.

"It was huge," said Reis of the defensive stop. "Our defense has definitely gotten better the last few games."

Kaiser then turned to Dillon Reis and the run game to close the contest out, and two first downs on four rushes later, the home team finally was able to go into victory formation.

Reis, who had a quiet 129 yards on 23 carries, scored the first points of the game on a 12 yard rumble with 8:27 in the first, tallying more than half his total in the opening quarter alone. He then went relative quiet until the fourth, where his six carries for 52 yards kept the chains, and the clock, moving when the home team needed it most.

"Just wanted to play hard," said Reis. "This was a great team we faced and they played hard too."

Connell also had a relatively quiet night of his own, completing 14 of 27 passes for just 191 yards, but three touchdown passes, in particular a 75 yard connection to Jesse Shinagawa were big.

"On the route, I saw the safety on the other side got off my man and from there it was just open field," said Shinagawa of the play. "Beautiful ball by Sean too."

Shinagawa logged his second 100 yard game of the season, and the long TD reception was his first of 2023.

Roosevelt went stride for stride with Kaiser the entire evening, and Kamanao put up some nice numbers in defeat, passing for 244 yards and three scores and adding 69 yards and another with his legs. His favorite target, Keawe Davis, hauled in eight passes for 137 yards and two touchdowns.

Defensively, the Cougars were led by JT Richards, who had eight total tackles and two TFLs. Roosevelt's Ezekiel Soon had quite an evening, registering six tackles, 2 1/2 TFLs and an interception.