Mililani WR Kainoa Wilson exploded for 129 yards and 2 touchdowns against Kaiser, in his return to action after an extended absence due to an injury. Eugene Tanner | SL

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Fri, Oct 17, 2014 @ Mililani [ 7:00 pm ]

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Kaiser

14

Mililani

54

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Kaiser (5-4-0)	0	7	0	7	14
Mililani (13-0-0)	27	13	14	0	54

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

McKenzie Milton 288 yd 3 TD

Kalawaia Judd 85 yd

Vavae Malepeai 73 yd 3 TD

Jensen McDaniel 23 yd 2 TD

Kainoa Wilson 129 yd 2 TD

Destin Moss 46 yd

MILILANI — Friday night was a long time coming for Kainoa Wilson.

After missing six games with a collarbone injury, the senior slotback reintroduced himself in a big way in Mililani's 54-14 win over Kaiser in a quarterfinal game of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I Football Tournament.

A crowd of about 2,000 fans at John Kauinana Stadium saw Wilson haul in seven passes for 129 yards and two touchdowns to help the Trojans (9-0) advance to Thursday's semifinal round at Aloha Stadium, where they will play fellow Blue Division-foe Campbell.

"I'm stoked for him," Mililani quarterback McKenzie Milton said of Wilson. "It's a shame what happened to his collarbone early on, but what a better time to come back than during the playoffs and just do what he does. He's such a special kid, super gifted, talented and just a great player. It was a good to have him back."

Milton had a near-perfect passing night, completing 15 of his 18 attempts for 288 yards and three touchdowns. One of his incompletions was a dropped pass by the intended receiver and another came on a spike near the end of the first half. He did not throw an interception and was not sacked. In fact, he went largely untouched by the Cougars' defense.

"Whoever owns the line of scrimmage is going to win the game; It's as simple as that," Kaiser coach Cameron Higgins said. "I thought offensively, for Mililani, they owned the line of scrimmage — I don't think McKenzie got touched the whole game — and offensively for us, we we weren't able to own the line of scrimmage."

The Trojans also got three touchdown runs from Vavae Malepeai, who carried just 14 times for 73 yards. They totaled 409 offensive yards and were an efficient 5 of 8 on third downs.

"The defense did a good job of stopping a real potent offense and we capitalized on a few turnovers and our guys just made plays," said Milton, who also scored on a 3-yard run late in the first half.

Kaiser, which defeated Moanalua 54-48 in a first-round game last week, came into the game averaging 29.4 points and 423 yards per game, including over 188 rushing. Against Mililani, it was limited to just 87 rushing yards and 172 in all. Running back Jensen McDaniel, who leads the state in rushing yards, finished with just 23 yards on 18 carries.

"We felt disrespected and we wanted to come out and show them how good we are," York said. "We've been hearing about how good their running back is, their receiver and all of that just served as motivation and I'm so proud of our kids for coming out and executing. We wanted to take away their strengths and make them go to their weakness and we were able to do that."

Mililani intercepted Kaiser quarterback Kalawaia Judd twice — including an 84-yard pick-6 by Tielu Mamea — and sacked him five times for losses of 30 yards.

"Once they started passing, that's when we knew we had them," said defensive end Kaimana Padello, who recorded two sacks in the win. "That's when we knew they decided to give up on the running game, but we still kept going and that's what I liked to see."

York said his defense keyed on McDaniel and the Cougars' run game during the week of preparation.

"We just had to stop the run, period," York said. "We came out and said that they're not running the ball on us and we tried our best to do that. We wanted to get them in third and long and we wanted to see if they could throw and find the holes."

Judd was harassed by Trojan defenders all night and finished 10-of-23 passing for 85 yards.

After stalling on its opening possession, Mililani scored on its next five drives to take a 33-0 lead by the 6:43 mark of the second quarter. Milton opened the scoring with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Wilson and after Palaie Gaoteote picked off Judd on the first play of Kaiser's ensuing drive, Milton hooked up with Roman Tovi for a 21-yard touchdown pass. Wilson then got wide open for a 66-yard touchdown pass from Milton for the Trojans' third touchdown in as many plays from scrimmage.

Just before the end of the first quarter, Malepeai slashed his way for a 5-yard run around right end to give Mililani a 27-0 lead after the first quarter.

"With a team like Mililani you cannot make mistakes, you've got to play sound football, or else they're going to make you pay for it and we're going to play catch up the whole game and unfortunately we didn't have enough artillery to match their offense," Higgins said. "If you help them out by giving them a short field, keep putting our defense on the field and they get tired, Mililani's going to take advantage of that."

Malepeai's 3-yard touchdown run midway through the second quarter made the score 33-0 before Kaiser got on the board with McDaniel's first of two short touchdown runs.

The Trojans held a 40-7 lead halftime and added a pair of second-half scores on a 12-yard Malepeai run and Mamea's long interception return.

Kaiser, which finished fourth in the Red Division and is ranked ninth in the ScoringLive/OC16 D1 Power Rankings, saw its season end at 5-4.

Mililani, which has been ranked second behind reigning state champion Punahou all season, can assure itself a spot in the six-team state tournament with a win over Campbell Thursday.