Kapolei quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa passed for 403 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Hurricanes in a win over Castle. Leighland Tagawa | Special to SL

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Fri, Aug 26, 2016 @ Castle [ 7:30 pm ]

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Kapolei

40

Castle

21

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Kapolei (10-3-0)	2	15	7	16	40
Castle (4-5-0)	7	7	7	0	21

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Jaylen Uyemura-Lee 131 yd 1 TD

Taulia Tagovailoa 403 yd 3 TD

Jeremy McGoldrick -1 yd 1 TD

Antoneo Brown 37 yd 1 TD

Cade Smith 82 yd

Jaymin Sarono 134 yd 3 TD

KANEOHE – Quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa overcame a shaky first drive then finished with 403 yards passing and three touchdowns to lead No. 8 Kapolei over Castle, 40-21, Friday night at the Knights' stadium.

The Hurricanes improved to 3-1 overall and 2-1 in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I Red, while the Knights dropped to 2-2 and 1-2.

Tagovailoa completed 30 of 44 passes and was intercepted by Chasen Palaylay-Shuford, who earlier returned a fumble 55 yards for one of Castle's three TDs.

Tagovailoa, who had TD passes of 10, 10 and 38 yards to Jaymin Sarono, was hardly touched behind his offensive line. Yet, he was somewhat erratic early. He hit his first five passes, then missed on his next five. On two occasions, he completed nine passes in a row to finish strong.

"We had some drops, we had some misfires," Kapolei coach Darren Hernandez said. "People sometimes think about him in a different light because he's so exceptional. He's a sophomore only, but he's progressing."

Castle, meanwhile, seemed to run out of gas in the second half, when Tagovailoa was into his rhythm.

"They know they have to play four quaerters," Castle coach Nelson Maeda said. "They battled for a half and part of the third, but we didn't play hard the whole game. Kapolei took advantage of our miscues and came on top."

It was Castle that jumped-started the game. Winning the coin toss, the Knights elected to receive and promptly scored on a nine-play, 65-yard drive that culminated with wide receiver Jeremy McGoldrick scoring from 30 yards on a double reverse. Cheyden Costa's PAT put Castle ahead, 7-0, eight minutes, 55 seconds into the game.

The Hurricanes looked like they were on their way to tie the game when they found themselves at the Castle 6 after eight plays. But incomplete passes on first, third and fourth down, plus a seven-yard run by Josh Kansana, saw Kapolei come up empty.

With Castle backed at its 2, Dylan Naehu sacked Cade Smith in the end zone for a safety to pull Kapolei to 7-2 with 1:12 left in the first quarter.

The Hurricanes took the lead for good in the second quarter with big runs – 21 and 11 yards by stocky fullback Antoneo Brown (5-11, 285), who then capped the drive with a 2-yard TD plunge with 7:12 and then another run on the 2-point conversion to make it 10-7. He made an impact not only for Kapolei's ground game, but against would-be tacklers.

"He gives us a different look at 285 in the run game," Hernandez said. "That's the kind of guy (offensive coordinator) June Jones really likes."

With Tagovailoa on a roll, he guided another TD drive that ended with a 10-yard TD pass to  Sarono with 1:27 left in the half to make it 17-7.

But the relentless Knights, now with Jaylen Uyemura-Lee at QB, connected with starting QB, now playing running back, on a 54-yard pass play. That aided in Uyemura-Lee's 6-yard TD pass to McGoldrick with no time showing on the clock and pull Castle to 17-14 at the half.

The Knights went with Uyemura-Lee at QB to give Smith opportunities either running or catching the ball, Maeda said.

The Hurricanes took the second-half kickoff and wasted little time added to their lead on another 10-yard TD pass from Tagovailoa to Sarono to make it 24-14.

Meanwhile, Castle could not generate any offense on its next two series, but scored when Wyatt Perez lost a fumble after an 11-yard gain that Palaylay-Shuford returned for his 55-yard TD to pull Castle to 24-21 with 58 seconds left in the third.

But Castle's offense continued to labor against the Hurricanes' defense, which came up with its second safety of the game in the fourth. The Hurricanes managed to add two more TDs – a 3-yard run by Perez and 38-yard TD pass from Tagovailoa to Sarono to seal the game.

The safety came on the same double-reverse play that gave Castle a TD. From their 27, the Knights lost 26 yards on the play. Two plays later, Henry Nakamura-McCoy caught a pass in the end zone was brought down by Adam Berg.

"It looked like we had some receivers pop open, but Jeremy (McGoldrick) just didn't have time to pass. The protection broke down; it's too bad because it would've been nice."

Maeda said he called for a gadget play because the offense was being stymied in the second half.

"Second half, we kind of stagnated," he said. "The score came from the defense. We were trying to force something to get us going."