Hawaiian Electric Game of the Week
Seariders to visit Red Raiders in battle of unbeatens




The Waianae football team's mantra of taking things "one week at a time" has served it well so far.

The Seariders are the state's lone 3-0 team after road wins over ranked teams in Kamehameha and Kapolei, followed by last Friday's 16-point victory over Moanalua in their home opener.

This Friday, however, they will face their toughest test yet in the form of defending Division I state champion, Kahuku.

The Red Raiders (2-0) are not only the top-ranked team in the state, they are the 25th best team in the country, according to USA Today's Super 25. They have won their last 15 games dating back to the beginning of the 2015 season.

"Kahuku is a great team. They're not ranked No. 1 for nothing," said Waianae coach Walter Young, whose sole focus is on Big Red this week. "We're going to go out with the best game plan we can and Friday night the best team who executes and so on will come out on top."

While Waianae is battle-tested, the Red Raiders' two games this season — both wins by at least 34 points — have come against a pair of unranked opponents in Leilehua (0-3) and Aiea (1-1). The Seariders' three opponents have a combined record of 4-4.

"It doesn't matter who they've played before," Young said of Kahuku. "They're playing us this week and the way we look at it, everyone brings their best game against us, so I'm very sure they're going to be prepared and I know we've got to be prepared. I don't think it matters who either of us have played so far; it's Waianae versus Kahuku."

It'll be a rematch of a state semifinal won by Kahuku, by a score of 13-0, en route to its eighth title. A regular season game between the teams last year also resulted in a shutout, 30-0, in favor of the Red Raiders. In fact, Big Red has won the last 15 meetings against the Seariders.

Not that any of that matters to Young.

"As I've been saying the whole time now, we take it one week at a time," said Young, who led Waianae to a 9-4 record and earned All-Hawaii Coach of the Year honors last season. "It's good to be 3-0, but we're going to go into this weekend 0-0 and take it one game at a time."

Waianae is the next highest-ranked team in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Power Rankings from the Oahu Interscholastic Association, holding strong at the No. 4 spot this week. A win Friday would mark its first 4-0 start to a season since 2007.

The Seariders have relied on a stable of running backs and a hard-nosed offensive line to average 228 rushing yards and 36 points per game. Rico Rosario (287 rush yards, 5 total TD), Kade Ambrocio (145 rush yards, 3 rush TD), Javen Towne (138 rush yards, rush TD) and Jorell Pontes-Borje (137 rec. yards, 3 total TD) have shared the work load with quarterback Jaren Ulu (361 pass yards, 4 pass TD, 2 INT).

Ulu has thrown for more than 100 yards in each of his first three games this season and has completed 58.5 percent of his attempts.

"We're trying to be more balanced offensively, but we're going to try and see what works and if it's working, we're going to stick with it," Young said.

Kahuku's defense will surely have something to say about that. Opponents have managed 152 yards per game, including less than 11 rushing yards.

Young said keeping his defense off the field will be a key for his offensive unit.

"Kahuku is very known for their defense, so offensively we have to be very prepared to go against their defense," Young said. "They're big, they're fast, they make plays. We've got to go out there and secure the ball on offense and on defense we've got to see if we can get some takeaways, some three-and-outs and we'll be OK."

The Red Raiders have been relatively balanced on offense, averaging 149 pass yards to 175 rushing. Running backs Harmon Brown (5.4 yards per rush, 2 rush TD) and Steven Lombard (6.5 ypr, 3 rush TD) have been the top ball carries. Freshman quarterback Sol-Jay Maiava (191 pass yards, 2 pass TD, 0 INT) brings another dimension to an otherwise run-first attack.

"They've got a lot of people they can put in and they've got good talented running backs that can run behind them and now they've got a real good, young quarterback who can throw the ball around and is pretty mobile," Young said. "That makes it a little harder because now you can't prepare for one thing — the elephant package — you've got to look at it like they can come with the spread package, too."

The winner of Friday's game will move into sole possession of first place in the seven-team OIA D1 Blue. Kickoff between the Seariders and Red Raiders is slated for 7:30 p.m.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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