OIA Football
No. 8 Waianae wears down Castle, 36-20


  



Fri, Aug 21, 2015 @ Castle [ 7:30 pm ]


Final 1 2 3 4 T
Waianae (9-4-0) 14 8 7 736
Castle (3-6-0) 0 8 6 620
Willie Ewaliko 101 yd 1 TD
Jaren Ulu 78 yd 1 TD
Javen Towne 102 yd 4 TD

KANEOHE — Waianae used a punishing ground attack and got four touchdowns from running back Javen Towne in a 36-20 win over Castle Friday night.

The Seariders, who are ranked eighth in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Division I Football Power Rankings, pounded out 325 rushing yards and held possession for long periods of time to wear down the host Knights. They improved to 2-1 overall and 2-0 in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Red Division.

Castle, which ran exactly half the number of plays offensively that Waianae did, fell to 1-2 overall and 1-1 in league play.

Towne, a 5-foot-7, 165-pound junior found the end zone on runs of 1, 15, 16 and 12 yards. He finished with a team-high 19 carries for 102 yards. Senior fullback Ezekiah Moniz-Hopeau ran for a game-high 132 yards on 17 carries.

"They did fairly well on the ground," Seariders' first-year coach Walter Young said.

Waianae ran the ball 64 times, averaging 5.1 yards per attempt. It picked up 20 of its 27 first downs for the game by rush.

"I think even though the coaching staff has changed, it's a typical Waianae team where they're going to ball control you," Castle coach Nelson Maeda said. "I don't know how many plays we had in the first half, but the offense wasn't on the field very much and when we did get on the field it was three plays and out, so it made it worse."

The Seariders set the tone early, driving 76 yards in 16 plays on its opening possession, which was capped by Towne's 1-yard plunge into the end zone on 4th-and-goal.

"That drive established the run and set the tempo for the game," Towne said.

Tate Ebel's extra point gave Waianae a 7-0 lead with 2:18 left in the first quarter.

The Seariders executed a surprise onside kick on the ensuing kickoff, which was recovered by Kanai Mauga at the Knights' 44-yard line. Three plays later, Towne went off tackle right to scamper in for a 15-yard score to give his team a 14-0 lead after one quarter.

"Our coach noticed that the kid was bailing so we tried it," Young said.

Castle got its first score from its special teams' unit. Royce Simeona-Townsend blocked a Makana Roque-Gonzales punt, which was scooped up and returned for a 26-yard touchdown by Elijah Villanueva. Jeremy McGoldrick ran in the two-point conversion to cut Waianae's lead to 14-8 about midway through the second quarter.

However, the Seariders put together another long drive to answer. They drove 77 yards in 12 plays — including three third-down conversions — highlighted by Towne's 16-yard run up the middle to pay dirt with just 40 seconds left in the first half. Towne ran in the two-point conversion and Waianae held a 22-8 lead at the intermission.

"That's always the plan," Young said of the long drives by his offense. "With our offense we try to shorten the game, so I was pleased with how we drove the ball for a decent amount of plays."

It was more of the same in the second half as the Seariders capped a 10-play, 57-yard drive with Jaren Ulu's 10-yard scoring strike to Moniz-Hopeau with 3:27 left in the third. Ebel tacked on the PAT to extend his team's lead to 29-8.

Castle made it a two-score game late in the quarter when Willie Ewaliko hit McGoldrick for an 8-yard touchdown pass, but the extra point was no good and the score remained 29-14.

Towne found the end zone once more midway through the fourth quarter on his 12-yard touchdown run on another fourth down. Waianae was 9 of 16 on third-down conversions and 3 of 4 on fourth downs.

"They executed well," Maeda said of the Seariders' offense. "With what they run you have to play assignment football. If you're going to pick a particular guy, then they're just going to hand off to someone else or they're going to play-action you and throw it past you, so they have a nice package there and it forces you to defend the whole field."

Ewaliko added a late score for the Knights on a 2-yard scamper to close out the scoring.

Towne, who now has seven rushing scores on the season, did most of his damage on the edges, while Moniz-Hopeau barreled up the gut of the Castle defense.

"We were trying to come up the middle more," Young said. "They were blitzing us, so we were trying to come under that blitz. They came hard and played every down hard, so we had to come up with something."

Ewaliko finished with 101 yards through the air on 11-of-19 passing. McGoldrick, who caught 10 passes 173 yards and four touchdowns in a win over Campbell last week, was held to two grabs for six yards Friday night. He intercepted a pass on defense for the Knights, who were held to 189 yards of total offense in the loss.

Perhaps the lone downside for the Seariders were penalties. They were flagged 20 times, including six personal fouls, for 164 yards. The Knights commited eight penalties for 97 yards.

Both teams return to the field Friday. Castle will visit Waipahu (1-1), while Waianae will visit Leilehua (0-2).



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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