OIA Football
Kailua stays unbeaten with 34-21 win over Campbell


  



Fri, Sep 4, 2015 @ Kailua [ 7:30 pm ]


Final 1 2 3 4 T
Campbell (2-8-0) 13 8 0 021
Kailua (7-3-0) 14 13 0 734
Noah Auld 165 yd 3 TD
Kawika Ulufale 181 yd 2 TD
Gabriel LeLesch 40 yd 2 TD
Kawika Ulufale 14 yd 1 TD
Noah Esprecion 111 yd 2 TD

KAILUA — For one-and-a-half quarters Friday night, Kailua found itself in a back-and-forth affair with visiting Campbell. The rest of the game, however, belonged to the hosts.

Noah Auld threw three touchdown passes and Gabriel LeLesch ran in two scores to help Kailua to a 34-21 win over Campbell at Alex Kane Stadium Friday night.

The Surfriders, who are ranked eighth in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Division I Football Power Rankings, got five sacks — four by defensive end Christian Mejia — and two interceptions from their defense to improve to 5-0 overall and 4-0 in league play to move into sole possession of first place in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I Blue conference.

Second-year coach Joseph Wong was pleased with the victory, but quickly played down his team's unblemished record.

"It's nice, but you know this second half of the season is the meat of the division, so we've just got to keep it going," said Wong, whose team went 0-7 in a year ago. "We've got to keep everybody healthy, take care of one another out there on the field — at practice, take care of our classwork — and hopefully everything transfers over to the field."

Auld, a senior quarterback and third-year starter, completed 13 of his 22 pass attempts Friday. He threw touchdown passes to Isaiah Damo-Agcaoili (14 yards), Martin Tigilau (15 yards) and Koolau Gaspar (10 yards), all coming in the first half.

Tigilau, a 6-foot senior, entered the game leading the team in all major receiving categories, but was held to two catches for 24 yards by Campbell. Damo-Agcaoili, a 5-foot-4 senior, picked up his slack, hauling in five receptions for 97 yards — both season-high marks.

"It's that philosophy that we have at Kailua that it's ‘next man up,' and if you're going to take away Tigilau and you're going to take away Gaspar, then we've got Auld and we've got (Damo-)Agcaoili and if not (Damo-)Agcaoili, then we've got (Christian) Mejia and (Kawehe) Kohatsu in the slots," Wong said. "Like I said, it's just the next man. Take away somebody and hopefully the next man up will step up and make that play for us."

Damo-Agcaoili's touchdown catch with 1:13 left in the first quarter tied the game at 13-apiece before Jonavan Lee tacked on the extra point.

Campbell drove 80 yards in 11 plays on its ensuing possession, which was capped by a 3-yard touchdown pass from Kawika Ulufale to Noah Esprecion, and included a pair of conversions on third-and-long. Ulufale ran in the two-point conversion to give his team a 21-14 lead with 9:56 left in the second quarter. T

However, Kailua answered in just six plays. Tigilau pulled down a short pass from Auld on third-and-3 before stretching across the goal line for the score. Lee's PAT tied it at 21-all with 6:51 until the half.

The Sabers then turned it over on downs on their side of midfield and the Surfriders took over at the 39-yard line. Five plays later, on fourth-and-5, Gaspar caught a tipped pass for a 10-yard touchdown, but the PAT was blocked.

Regardless, the score gave Kailua the lead for good.

The score remained 27-21 until late in the fourth quarter when LeLesch punched in a 3-yard touchdown run that was set-up by Mark Lagazo's interception of Siaosi Soto.

Kailua scored on its opening drive of the game on a 1-yard plunge by LeLesch, which punctuated a 10-play, 62-yard drive.

However, the Sabers found the end zone on its next two possessions. Ulufale scrambled in from 25 yards out for their first score and hooked up with Esprecion for a 20-yard scoring strike to cap their next drive, which put them ahead 13-7 with 3:53 left in the opening quarter.

It was just the second time this season that the Surfriders trailed an opponent, but it didn't last for very long.

Just six plays later, Auld and Damo-Agcaoili hooked up for their 14-yard pitch-and-catch.

Defensive end Christian Mejia had four of Kailua's five sacks for the game and defensive back Kalei Kealoha-Machado also had an interception in the win.

Esprecion led all pass-catchers with 11 grabs for 111 yards. Ulufale finished 16-of-32 passing for 181 yards with an interception for the Sabers, who managed just two first down by rush. They were just 4 of 13 on third downs.

Kailua picked up 21 first downs (nine by rush, nine by pass and three off Campbell penalties) and converted on 3 of 10 third downs.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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