Kapaa held Lahainaluna to just 55 yards of total offense in a 24-0 win in the First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA Division II semifinals. Glen Pascual | Special to SL

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Sat, Nov 14, 2015 @ Vidinha Stadium [ 3:00 pm ]

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Lahainaluna

0

Kapaa

24

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Lahainaluna (7-6-0)	0	0	0	0	0
Kapaa (9-1-0)	0	12	12	0	24

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Teili Fonua 11 yd

Etuati Storer 9 yd

Kalena Harder 98 yd 3 TD

Dylan Delatori 18 yd

Kalena Harder 8 yd

David Kawabata 8 yd

LIHUE, Kauai — Third time's the charm for the Kapaa Warriors. 

After coming up short in their previous state tournament appearances in 2011 and 2014, No. 2 Kapaa stifled No. 9 Lahainaluna, 24-0, in the semifinals of the First Hawaiian Bank/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division II Football State Championship at Vidinha Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The Warriors (9-0 overall), who are the top seed and ranked second in the Hawaiian Electric/ScoringLive Division II Power Rankings, advance to their first-ever championship appearance and will play second-seeded and top-ranked Radford (12-0 overall) at 4:30 at Aloha Stadium on Nov. 20.

The ninth-ranked Lunas, who made their sixth-straight semifinals appearance, end their season at 7-6 overall.

"Everything thing we practiced for didn't surprise us, it's just they were a better team," said Lahainaluna coach Garret Tihada.

"It's great, but we're not done yet. We want to win it all. It's great to win the semis, but I think we want the whole thing," said Kapaa coach Philip Rapozo.

Kalena Harder, who was promoted from JV and filled in for Kekoa Kaluahine-Cacal scored three rushing touchdowns to lead the Warriors. Kaluahine-Cacal, the Warriors leading rusher, left the game with a stinger according to Rapozo.

The Kauai Interscholastic Federation champions had 218 net rushing yards and tallied 18 first downs.

"It's definitely a team effort and I give credit to my receivers and line. They did a really good job and it paid off," said Harder, who rushed for 98 yards on 20 carries.

"We knew Kalena could do it, in fact I tried to bring him up all season. Mentally he felt he wasn't ready for varsity and we didn't want to force him so after the last game of the season he said he would move up and we went with that," said Rapozo, on Harder.

On their opening series, Kapaa drove all the way down to the Lahainaluna 1, but Kaluahine-Cacal coughed up the football and Siale Hafoka recovered the fumble. However, the Warriors would bounce back from there.

"We moved the ball, Lahainaluna bent but didn't break and they made it hard on us. We made the mistake of fumbling and give them credit for holding us," said Rapozo.

Ikona Fernandez blocked the punt and Akauola Tatofi returned the ball to the Lunas' 27, nine plays later, Teili Fonua kept it for a 3-yard score. Fonua came in to relieve Kurt Napoleon after he was hurt. Napoleon and Kaluahine-Cacal should be good for next week's game.

After Lahainaluna went three-and-out, Harder scored from 9 yards out on a drive that covered 62 yards on seven plays, but the run failed as Kapaa took a 12-0 lead going into halftime.

Kapaa started in great field position at the Lunas' 35. On a fourth-and-4 from the 14, the Warriors tried to attempt a 31-yard field goal, but they were able to get the Lunas to jump offsides. On the next play, Harder scored another 9-yard touchdown.

On the ensuing kickoff, Lahainaluna's Enele Scanlan fumbled the ball and Dave Joel recovered it near the Lahainaluna 6-yard line. The Lunas had too many players on the field that pushed it to the 3 and Harder scored his third touchdown for the final score of the game.

The Kapaa defense shut out their seventh-straight opponent of the season and held the Lunas to minus-1 yard net rushing for the game. Lahainaluna struggled to get any rhythm and finished with 16 yards of net offense and two first downs.

"They showed why no one can score on them in the regular season. We couldn't generate any kind of offense today. That's our job offensively, keep our defense off the field and we didn't do a decent job today," said Tihada.

Ola Tatofi led the team with eight tackles-- five of them were for losses, three sacks, and a fumble recovery.

"Coaches told us to stay disciplined and we watched film. I would like to thank everyone for supporting us," said Tatofi.

"I'm not surprised the way they bring pressure. They do that every day and we have a hard time running our offense against this defense," said Rapozo.