Mililani running back Vavae Malepeai celebrates after scoring one of his three touchdowns on the evening in a win over Kailua. Malepeai had 171 rushing yards on 20 carries to lead all ball carriers. Johnny Wilson | Special to SL

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Sat, Sep 26, 2015 @ Kailua [ 6:00 pm ]

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Mililani

45

Kailua

21

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Mililani (10-3-0)	0	7	23	15	45
Kailua (7-3-0)	0	7	0	14	21

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Noah Auld 154 yd 2 TD

Kaysen Higa 221 yd 4 TD

Gabriel LeLesch 50 yd

Vavae Malepeai 171 yd 2 TD

Noah Ah Yat 68 yd 1 TD

Makana Tauai 85 yd 1 TD

KAILUA — With two of its three superstars on offense sidelined, Mililani turned to its workhorse in the backfield to shoulder the load Saturday night.

Vavae Malepeai rushed for a season-high 171 yards with two touchdowns to lead the Trojans to a come-from-behind 45-21 win over host Kailua before a homecoming crowd of about 1,500 fans on a blustery night at Alex Kane Stadium.

Mililani, the reigning Division I Oahu Interscholastic Association and state champions and the third-ranked team in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Power Rankings, played without star wide receiver Kalakaua Timoteo — who sat out with an ankle injury — and overcame the loss of quarterback McKenzie Milton — last year's All-Hawaii Offensive Player of the Year — who suffered an apparent shoulder injury early in the game.

Milton, who leads the state with 1,963 passing yards and 26 touchdowns through the air, took a punishing hit from Kailua defensive end Christian Mejia as he released a pass downfield just three plays into the contest. He did not return and was taken directly from the stadium to a hospital for further tests.

"Definitely our heart goes out to McKenzie and his family, but it's part of the game," Trojans' coach Rod York said. "Unfortunately it happened, but the next guy steps in and we move on."

Sophomore Kaysen Higa — who had attempted just 12 passes on the year entering the game — stepped in for Milton and ended up throwing for 221 yards and four touchdowns.

It was not, however, without struggle. Higa was intercepted on the very first pass he threw, which was tipped near the line of scrimmage and fell into the hands of Kailua defensive lineman Elias Wong. Higa's first 10 pass attempts fell incomplete, although a few were due to drops by his receivers.

"They were wide open, but he just wasn't making the throws and when he did, we dropped them, so we ran the ball a little more and our defense played good and kept us in the game," York said.

At halftime, with the game tied at 7, Higa was 3-of-15 passing for 41 yards. He went on to complete all six of his second-half attempts — to five different receivers — for 180 yards.

"At halftime the coaches told me to just stay focused and keep working and to just trust the guys around me," Higa said. "The guys around me picked me up and helped me continue the game."

The Trojans altered their play-calling to utilize more short passes and the pass-catchers delivered on their end by turning several in big gains, including Makana Tauai's 85-yard touchdown that gave them the lead for good at the 8:28 mark in the third quarter.

"Kaysen doesn't really have a big arm, so we just had to take what we could get," Tauai said.

York also gave Kailua's defense — which entered the game having allowed an average of 66.7 rushing yards per game — a heavy dose of Malepeai. The University of Oregon-commit picked up 114 of his yards after halftime, including a 14-yard TD run that was part of a 23-point third quarter for Mililani. He also scored late in the game on a 31-yard screen pass from Higa.

"We had to get our run game going and part of it is my fault because I've got to call the plays tailored to (Higa's) strengths and not call plays like McKenzie Milton is back there," said York, who challenged his team at the intermission.

"They had to play together and decide if they want to do it or not," York said. "It's just a matter of them doing that. That's been our problem the whole year: deciding mentally whether we want to do it or not, so I'm proud of the guys that they came through. We were down two of our playmakers, but the other guys stepped up and the core of the team rose."

Malepeai said he took on the onus of filling the void left behind by both Milton and Timoteo.

"I mean, football is a team sport, but I definitely felt like I had to bring up my leadership more and be more vocal for the team," said Malepeai, whose 2-yard TD run tied the game midway through the second quarter. "It was just a matter of waking the team up and letting them know that we had to stick together because if we aren't going to do this together nothing is going to work, but once we're together the only people that can stop us is us."

Mililani got a safety to make the score 16-7 at the 6:47 mark in the third quarter when Kailua punter Noah Auld was unable to handle a high snap and batted the ball out of the back of the end zone.

The Trojans got the ball back right away and capitalized with Malepeai's second TD run and extended their lead to 30-7 on a 31-yard scoring strike from Higa to Bryson Ventura following a Surfriders' three-and-out.

"Nothing was really different (in the third quarter), we jut had to execute our plays and work harder," Tauai said. "Even though it was tied (at halftime), we were thinking we were down 14, so we would come out harder."

Kailua got to within 38-20 following a 3-yard Dalton Kalama touchdown run with 7:32 to play, but opted to kick the extra point to trim the deficit to 17 points rather than attempt the two-point conversion to make it a two-score game.

The Surfriders ended up going three-and-out on its final two possessions, which ended with a turnover on downs and a punt, respectively.

York gave credit to Kailua for forcing his team to dig deep.

"They're great; we knew we were in for a battle," York said of the eighth-ranked Surfriders, who dropped to 6-2 overall and 5-2 in league play. "They play hard football, they come at you for four quarters and my hat goes off to (coach) Joe Wong and their staff and those kids. We'll probably see them again."

Auld finished with 154 yards and two touchdowns on 13-of-28 passing and was not intercepted.

The win was Mililani's third straight and sealed the Blue Division's top seed and an accompanying first-round bye in next month's 12-team OIA tournament, but the celebration was a subdued one as most of the players had Milton on their minds.

"That's like a brother to me," Malepeai said. "Thinking about it, I'm just holding back tears."

The Trojans will be without middle linebacker Jalen Olomua for their regular-season finale at Moanalua next week after he was ejected for drawing a targeting penalty on a hit on Auld in the fourth quarter.

Kailua has a bye next week and can clinch the second seed in the Blue and a first-round bye with a Farrington loss against Campbell.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly cited another Mililani player as being ejected.