Mililani's Kainalu Wong celebrates after an interception against Farrington. Steve Erler | Special to SL

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HALAWA — Mililani turned the tables on Farrington Thursday night.

The Trojans answered questions surrounding its rush defense with a strong showing by its own ground game in a 71-28 win over the Governors before a crowd of about 6,000 fans at Hawaiian Airlines Field at Aloha Stadium.

Running back Vavae Malepeai, a University of Oregon-commit, gained 136 of Mililani's 304 rushing yards and scored three touchdowns in a key Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I Blue conference battle.

The Trojans, who are ranked third in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Power Rankings, improved to 5-1 overall and moved into sole possession of first place with a 5-0 league mark by handing the sixth-ranked Govs their first loss of the year to drop them to 4-1 (5-1 overall).

"Farrington was a good team," said Malepeai, who averaged 9.1 yards on each of his 15 carries. "I tip my hat off to them, but football is all about executing your job and playing together and tonight we just came out on top on that. It feels good but we've just got to get better and better."

Quarterback McKenzie Milton hooked up with fellow-University of Hawaii-commit Kalakaua Timoteo on three of his four touchdown passes on the night. Milton threw for 284 yards on 22-of-30 passing and also rushed for 80 yards and another score.

Mililani racked up 609 yards of total offense.

"It was a closer game than what the scoreboard showed," Milton said. "Farrington is a good team, so we're happy to get the win. I guess it was sort of a statement win for us. Our defense came around. A lot of the talk was about our run defense not being good enough and they stepped up big time tonight."

The Governors were held to 284 yards of total offense and committed four turnovers — two on Bishop Rapoza interceptions and the other two coming on Challen Faamatau fumbles.

"You can't do that against a good team," Farrington coach Randall Okimoto said. "Against other teams we can make up for it, but not against Mililani. Our kids played hard, they tried their best, but that's what happens when you graduate guys. Sometimes this is the learning process and you try to prepare them not to learn this way, but for us, it seems like we have to learn this way."

The Trojans held a 14-0 lead after Milton touchdown passes of 49 yards to Timoteo and 35 yards to Andrew Vallasdares and made it 21-0 one play into the second quarter on a 13-yard scoring strike from Milton to Timoteo.

"I wasn't really focused on how many touchdowns I had, but (Milton) just puts the ball in the right place and I'm just lucky that I have a quarterback like him that makes the right reads and gets the ball to the open spots," said Timoteo, who found the end zone on each of his first three receptions and finished with five grabs for 130 yards. He also pulled down a 45-yard, over-the-shoulder touchdown just before halftime.

Farrington got within 35-21 on a 35-yard touchdown pass from Rapoza to Jathen Chaffin with 2:28 left in the second quarter and within 43-28 on Rapoza's 25-yard hook-up with Faamatau about midway through the third quarter, but Miliani scored the final 28 points of the game to pull away.

"I'm just proud of all the guys and the way they executed, but we still have a lot of work to do and things to clean up," Trojans' coach Rod York said. "Credit Farrington; they're a tough team and they're always strong and always dangerous."

Malepeai's first four rushes resulted in minus-seven yards, but he ripped off a 50-yard gain on his fifth carry and scored his first touchdown two carries later on a 12-yard run up the middle. He added a pair of third-quarter touchdowns on runs of 51 and 1 yards.

"We made adjustments on the o-line and when we decide to stick together and wake up and do our jobs that's the outcome we get," said Malepeai, who also forced a fumble while on defense. "Everything is a team thing. There's not really one man or one side of the ball. It's just a great feeling to be a part of this."

Mililani recycled three of its four takeaways into scores. Maa Tanuvasa, Jr. and Kainalu Wong each recorded an interception, Kaimana Padello notched two of his team's three sacks and Ramsey Tacadena recovered both Farrington fumbles.

Faamatau, who entered the game as the state's leading rusher, finished with 138 yards on 21 carries.

"They stepped up big," Timoteo said of the Trojans' defensive unit. "Coming in we were teased a lot about our run defense, but honestly they stepped up and they grew a pair and they made it happen."

The Govs' defense entered the game having held opponents to an average of just 28.6 rush yards per game.

"We pride ourselves in running the ball," Milton said. "We all know it starts up front and I think our passing game is better when the running game is going, so that's good. It all starts up front and they did a good job. Early on we couldn't get to the second level. In the second and third quarter they did a good job. It was good all around game."

It was the most points ever allowed by Farrington in a single game. The previous high came back in 1953 in a 67-0 loss to Punahou.

"It does hurt; that's not something we want to be proud of, of course, but you cannot blame Mililani for playing hard the whole time and just taking what we give them," Okimoto said. "Part of it, to me, at the end was us not playing hard when we should have, but to me that's no excuse. If there's any lesson to be learned by our guys, it's that you just play hard every snap. It doesn't matter what the score is — whether we're up, we're down, whatever it is — you just play hard every snap. The key is how are our guys going to respond to getting beat like this. Hopefully they come back, they go back to the drawing board, they work hard and not give up."

Both teams were coming off just four full days of rest after playing Saturday night.

It was the seventh consecutive game scoring 40-or-more points for Mililani since a 17-14 win over Farrington in the semifinal round of the state tournament last year.

ScoringLive reporters Stacy Kaneshiro and Michael Lasquero contributed to this report.