Pearl City's Dominic Maneafaiga carries a Radford defender for extra yards on a carry. Evan Asato | SL

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Sat, Oct 25, 2014 @ Pearl City [ 6:00 pm ]

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Radford

20

Pearl City

35

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Radford (6-4-0)	0	14	0	6	20
Pearl City (8-3-0)	7	6	15	7	35

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Jordan Taamu 215 yd 5 TD

Andrew Morgan 147 yd 3 TD

Dominic Maneafaiga 57 yd

Andrew Morgan 56 yd

Garrett Kanamu 81 yd 1 TD

Thomas Reid 79 yd 1 TD

PEARL CITY — Jordan Taamu tossed five touchdowns to five different receivers to lead D2 No. 5 Pearl City (8-1) over No. 6 Radford (6-2 OIA D2, 6-4 overall), 35-20 in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division 2 semifinals at Edwin "Bino" Neves Stadium on Saturday night. The Chargers beat the Rams earlier, 34-26 on Sept. 20 and ended their season tonight.   

The Chargers go back to the OIA title game for the second consecutive year and clinch a spot in the First Hawaiian Bank Division II Football State Championships. Pearl City will face Nanakuli (9-0), who defeated Kalani (4-5), 20-14 next week Friday at Aloha Stadium. 

"The first time we played Nanakuli and they beat us and outplayed us in the second half. They gave us a life lesson and we got to finish. Football is four quarters so hopefully the kids learned to play all four quarters to win this game," said Pearl City coach Robin Kami. 

Taamu passed for 215 yards on 19-of-32 passing and rushed for 27 yards on six attempts. Dominic Maneafaiga was held to 57 rushing yards, but caught four passes for 45 yards and a touchdown and Garrett Kanamu led all Pearl City receivers with six catches for 81 yards. 

"We stepped up and our leaders picked up the whole team in the second half because we were down by one point and we didn't want it to end. The seniors went all out, and wanted to leave it out on the field, that was our main goal to win this game to get to the championship," said Taamu. 

After Radford went three-and-out, Jordan Taamu threw a 4-yard touchdown to Israel Kaleo, and Dominic Maneafaiga's PAT made it 7-0 late in the first quarter. 

"The game plan was simple— to stick with our basic offense and establish the run, but in the first half they were shutting down the run and told Jordan to look out for the pass and second half we have to regroup and come out with some energy," said Kami.

Radford tied the game at 7 after Andrew Morgan threw a 10-yard touchdown to Chance Cacatian. 

The Chargers went 80 yards on eight plays as Taamu threw his second touchdown to MJ Keopuhiwa for 5-yards, but the kick was no good. 

"I said to do what you normally do, don't hesitate and it came naturally to him and what we do in practice," said Kami, on reassuring Taamu.

Radford recovered the onsides kick attempt on the Pearl City 49-yard line. 28 seconds later, Morgan threw a 26-yard touchdown to Thomas Reid, and Kara Downey's PAT gave the Rams a 14-13 lead going into halftime. 

"They were explosive on offense, especially number 15 (Reid) and 19 (Lugo), we had a hard time watch them on the verticals. In the first half, we tried bump and run and second half we dropped back a little bit and hopefully they came to us and once we took the lead, we backed off and they came to us," said Kami, on defense.

Taamu threw three more touchdowns in the second half to help the Chargers pull away from the Rams. Pearl City used a 59-yard, 10 play drive capped off by Taamu throwing a 6-yard touchdown pass to Keelan Domingo-Ishikawa. He found Maneafaiga for the 2-point conversion to give the Chargers a 21-14 lead. 

"We watched film for two weeks and had more time to prepare. All the receivers were working all week—working on routes, open windows and timing." said Taamu.

Taamu's two touchdown passes late in the third and early in the fourth helped Pearl City pull away from Radford for good. After Radford went three-and-out and a decent return, Taamu threw a touchdown pass to Maneafaiga and threw his fifth touchdown to Garrett Kanamu for 20-yards. 

"Our offensive line did well and I give them props. Our running backs find small holes and we tell them to run hard no matter what and the line will have your back no matter what," said Taamu.

The Rams added a touchdown Andrew Morgan threw a 15-yard touchdown to Justin Lugo for the last score of the game. Morgan threw for 147 yards three touchdowns and an interception and Thomas Reid caught three passes for 79 yards to lead the Rams receivers. 

Last season, the Chargers made it to what was then the OIA White title game and lost to Kaiser, 41-21 and lost to Kauai, 13-7 in the state tournament. This year, Pearl City hopes to change that. 

"Last year we came up close, but we didn't finish. We're looking to finish with a championship and D2 state championship," said Taamu. 

"That helps when we can be there one more time. The seniors did a great job for getting us there for our juniors to get that one year of experience under their belts and hopefully they feel more comfortable going to the Stadium," said Kami.