The Kapolei football team is finding that a little faith can go a long way.

The Hurricanes posted a 23-6 win over perennial-powerhouse Farrington Friday night to even their record to 3-3 in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I Blue conference and move above the .500 mark overall for the first time since they were 1-0.

It was their third straight victory and one that probably not a lot of prep football onlookers expected outside of the program itself.

"I felt like the whole state thought that (Farrington) was going to win, but I didn't feel like we were the underdogs," senior defensive back Jay Amina said. "I felt we were ready."

That they were.

The ‘Canes were never really threatened after building a 16-0 lead by halftime en route to their first varsity win over the Governors in school history.

"We're real happy," senior defensive back Jonathan "Tana" Liana said. "We always get this — it's called a spiritual feeling — and like our coaches talk about, we go out there expecting to win and while we expect to win, God will take care of everything."

Kapolei forced three turnovers — including a goal line fumble in the first half — and turned two of them into scores. One of them was Amina's 85-yard pick-6, which all but sealed the game in the final minute.

"Once I got it, I was thinking that I've just got to push, I can't give up. I just gave my all and got into that end zone," said Amina, who noted that the Hurricanes' benefitted from their bye last week. "We've been practicing hard this whole week. The bye gave us that extra week to work even harder, just so we could win this game."

That Farrington fumble — which came four plays into the second quarter and with it trailing 10-0 — proved to be a costly one.

Noah "Punahou" Mahelona recovered the loose ball in the Kapolei end zone after Govs' quarterback Bishop Rapoza failed to secure the snap from center and 13 plays and 80 yards later, running back L.J. Esperas scampered in for a 4-yard touchdown.

"We couldn't find a rhythm, we turned the ball over, we're just not in sync," Farrington coach Randall Okimoto said. "You can tell the team is not in sync. It was important that we got started early after a loss like how we lost last week (71-28 to Mililani). I feel like we did though if you look at defensively how many stops we had. Offensively, we kind of sputtered and turning the ball over on the 1-yard line wasn't helpful. I mean, we get that score and I think the game is different."

Penalties were also a telling statistic. The Govs were called for 15 infractions for 153 yards. Four of them resulted in first downs for the Hurricanes.

"There were a lot of key penalties in certain areas that affected the game and that was it," Okimoto said. "We just didn't capitalize."

Conversely, Kapolei limited itself to six penalties for 60 yards.

"That was awesome," Hernandez said. "That was real big and that's something that we try to work on. You never know during the course of the game when you're going to get called for holding or whatever it is. The personal foul stuff is the stuff that we really harp on. If it's an assignment mistake we can live with it."

Farrington actually out gained Kapolei in total offensive yards, 341 to 274. Furthermore, Kapolei converted on just one of its 11 third-down attempts — just another testament to its opportunistic defense.

"It all starts with the D-line," said Liana, who interception and subsequent 46-yard return halted Farrington's fifth second-half drive. "We're only able to do our job because the D-line brings the pressure to the quarterback."

After a season-opening 49-28 win over Kaiser, the Hurricanes dropped their next three games before going on their current three-game winning streak.

"Look at the three that we lost to: Kahuku, Mililani and Kailua, who is resurgent this year," Hernandez said. "Those are three of the best teams in the OIA and we played Mililani pretty tough in the first half and they came back and blew us out. We played Kailua very good in the second half; the first half they scored a lot on us and then against Kahuku, we played them tight in the first half and they scored on us a lot in the second half, so I think this was our first game where we actually put four quarters together of pretty good football."

Amina said a attitude adjustment can be credited for Kapolei's turnaround.

"The difference is when we lost we had more individuals, but now that we're winning it's more of a team effort, so we're not giving up," Amina said. "It's more of everyone working, rather than just one person."

Meanwhile, the Govs appears to need an attitude adjustment of their own, according to Okimoto's post game comments.

"I'm just concerned about the attitude," Okimoto said. "We're not playing — in my opinion — we're not playing Farrington football right now. We're kind of regressing a little bit because of our attitude. There's negativity on the sideline and they've just got to get over it. We just talk about winning the next play, but there's a lot of guys talking and blaming and pointing their fingers and all that stuff and we've just got to put that aside. They don't expect to lose too many games, so they've just got to learn how to handle it. Those attitudes is what we need to turn around."