Kahuku may have lost more than the game Friday night.

The Red Raiders fell short against second-ranked Mililani, 20-7, in the title game of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I football tournament at Hawaiian Airlines Field at Aloha Stadium, but to make things worse they saw their starting quarterback, Tuli Wily-Matagi, leave the game with an apparent head injury.

Wily-Matagi, a 6-foot-3, 230-pound senior, was upended after a 20-yard gain on a run along the left sideline and landed on the side of his head and shoulder. He was attended to by team athletic trainers and helped to the sideline. He did not return to the game.

"I think he got his bell rung, so we've just got to see if he's concussed, but I have a feeling he is," Kahuku coach Lee Leslie said.

After Wily-Matagi went down, the Red Raiders turned to sophomore backup Samuta Avea to take over the reins of the offense.

"It was really tough to see Tuli get hurt," said Avea, who had thrown just four passes on the season prior to the game. "He's our team leader. I took him for granted so much and it just showed how much I depended on him. He means a lot to our team and it showed."

With his team trailing at halftime, 20-7, Wily-Matagi emerged from the locker room without his shoulder pads and helmet at the start of the second half. He wore a gray hoodie over his head, but remained active on the sideline in the third and fourth quarters.

Kahuku got the spark it needed out of halftime on Keala Santiago's 79-yard kickoff return, but failed to put points on the board and punted away.

Later in the quarter, Mililani fumbled and Kahuku took over at the Trojans' 15-yard line, but turned it over on downs after a three-and-out.

Early in the fourth quarter, Kahuku's Alohi Gilman intercepted Mililani's McKenzie Milton, but the offense went three-and-out and punted away yet again.

"We felt like we had some things open — and we missed a couple early — but we were right on game plan," Leslie said. "The defense played unbelievable and if we don't get some stupid penalties, we're right in this one, so as bad as we played we still had a chance to win the football game and we didn't get it done."

The Red Raiders, who will play Big Island Interscholastic Federation champion Hilo in a 7:30 p.m. semifinal at Aloha Stadium Friday, will prepare as if Wily-Matagi won't be available for the game.

"I knew he was nervous," Leslie said of Avea. "I didn't even get a chance to warm him up, so he had a hard time in the first half and then in the second half we had him settled down and we had some spurts of things, but obviously when you put the big (running) backs in they're going to load the box and then you've got to be able to hit that 1-of-1 stuff and we weren't able to hit it."

Avea completed 1 of his 12 pass attempts for 4 yards.

"I'm ready to get more reps in practice," Avea said, who led Kahuku to a JV Red Division title in 2013. "I've got to get my mind straight and I'm going to do the best I can for this team. I trust them and they trust me."