Quarterback Kale Kanehailua passed for 180 yards and two TDs and rushed for another to lead Nanakuli offensively. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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

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Kalani

14

Nanakuli

20

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Kalani (4-5-0)	0	7	7	0	14
Nanakuli (10-1-0)	6	0	6	8	20

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Kale Kanehailua 180 yd 2 TD

Tyler Ching 18 yd

Makaila Haina-Horswill 64 yd

Ace Faumui 44 yd

Keanu Momoa 87 yd

Ace Faumui 13 yd

NANAKULI - Nanakuli cashed in on two second-half turnovers to rally by Kalani, 20-14, Saturday night at the Golden Hawks' field.

The Golden Hawks (9-0) will meet Pearl City (8-1) for the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division II championship 5:30 p.m. Friday at Aloha Stadium. Both teams have secured Division II state tournament berths.

Nanakuli, fourth in the ScoringLive/OC 16 Division II Power Rankings, will be seeking its first league title since 1983, during the pre-Division I/II era. It is the Golden Hawks' first D2 title game appearance since 2012, when they lost to Radford, 21-6.

Pearl City, ranked fifth, is making its third D2 title game appearance. It lost to Kaiser, 41-21, last year, and lost to Waipahu, 9-7, in 2011.

The game was anything like the regular season meeting two weeks ago, when Nanakuli won 48-35, at Kaiser.  The teams had combined for 12 touchdowns and 769 yards of offense. This time, the defenses brought their 'A' games. The teams combined for five TDs and 321 yards. Kalani was limited to 118 yards and the defense forced two fumbles that the offense recycled into two scores to contribute to the rally.

"That was big time," Nanakuli coach Keala Watson said of the turnovers. "We spoke to our defense at the half, told them they had to pull their end of the team, make sure they don't score on us, but we had to take it a step further and create opportunities for our offense. Our defense relies on our offense a lot for the numbers, so it was nice for our defense to return the favor. Finally."

The Falcons, who were trying to control the ball on the ground to eat clock and keep the Golden Hawks' offense on the sidelines, could not hold on the ball when it mattered most.

"We turned over the ball one too many times and put our defense in bad situations," Kalani coach Greg Taguchi said. "Our defense played well; we just put ourselves in bad situations."

Quarterback Kale Kanehailua passed for 180 yards and two TDs and rushed for another to lead the Golden Hawks, who managed 203 yards. Half of their 12 penalties (for 76 yards) were for illegal procedure, which hampered their offensive series.

"It was just a lack of discipline," Watson said. "We can't be doing that against other teams when we're playing for a championship."

Leading 14-6, the Falcons bit a bullet when Clifford Cunningham missed a 32-yard field goal attempt. Kalani took over from its 20 and drove to the Nanakuli 34 when the Falcons lost their first fumble at the their own 32. Three plays later, Kaanehailua hit Makaila Haina-Horwwill on a 20-yard TD pass to pull the Golden Hawks to 14-12. Haina-Horswill tried to run in the 2-point conversion, but was stuffed by before the goal line to preserve the Falcons' lead.

After the ensuing kickoff, Kalani took over from its 37. But three plays later, the Falcons' fumbled again with Brayden Ramalia recovering for Nanakuli at the Falcons' 44. Two plays later, Kanehailua connected with Isain Wong on a 29-yard TD pass with 11:07 left in the game to put Nanakuli ahead, 18-14. Kanehailua's pass to Keanu Momoa on the 2-point conversion made it 20-14.

"I got off my pressure (from the defensive back)," Wong said of getting open on the pass play. "Then I ran my route 100 percent."

Each touchdown came within a 54-second span.

"We kept our composure, kept our intensity high," said Nanakuli linebacker Randy Manewa of the defense's performance "It was just executing all our assignments, playing with our hearts, leaving it all on the field."

After the second turnover, each team punted twice. Kalani had its last chance when it took over from the Nanakuli 48 with 3:29 left. After two-yard gain and an incomplete pass, the Falcons used a gadget. Quarterback Tyler Ching tossed the ball to slotback Blaise Manabe who was rolling right to set up and throw. But Manewa, who had backside containment, caught Manabe from behind for the sack.

"I saw him (get the ball from the QB), stuck with the running back, saw him with the ball and tackled him," Manewa said.

Then on fourth-and-16 from the Falcons' 46, Bryce Kaopua-Gallegos deflected Ching's pass in front of a Kalani receiver to turn the ball over to Nanakuli on downs with 1:46 left. Nanakuli was able to run out the remaining time.

Nanakuli got on the board first after Kalani punted after its first series. The Golden Hawks took over from their 30 and converted a fourth-and-9 at the Falcons' 29 with a 27-yard pass from Kanehailua to Momoa. After a one-yard loss and an incomplete pass, Kanehailua scored on a run up the middle from three yards, but missed the PAT to take a 6-0 lead with 7:39 in the first quarter.

Kalani took the lead midway through the second quarter with an 11-play, 48-yard drive that consumed 6:41 off the clock when quarterback Tyler Ching scored one 1-yard sneak. Marc Teshima's PAT gave the Falcons a 7-6 lead with 6:18 in the half.

Kalani increased its lead to 14-6 midway through the third quarter. Nanakuli, facing fourth-and-14 from its 44, took a 43-yard loss on a high snap from punt formation. Kalani took over at the Golden Hawks' 1 and scored on first down on Ching's sneak.