Kapolei DB Leonard Lee defends a pass against Farrington's Stephen Eter. Lee had two interceptions in the Hurricanes' win. Steve Erler | SL

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Sat, Sep 24, 2016 @ Kapolei [ 6:30 pm ]

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Farrington

7

Kapolei

28

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Farrington (8-4-0)	7	0	0	0	7
Kapolei (10-3-0)	7	7	0	14	28

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Taulia Tagovailoa 268 yd 2 TD

Bishop Rapoza 31 yd

Josh Kansana 22 yd

Challen Faamatau 130 yd

Kaeo Alvarez-Ranan 114 yd 1 TD

Tanu Tautolo 20 yd

KAPOLEI — Kapolei is on its way.

The Hurricanes overcame an early deficit to pull away from Farrington, 28-7, Saturday night for their fifth consecutive win and punched their ticket to their first Division I state tournament in the process.

Kapolei, the fifth-ranked team in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Power Rankings, improved to 6-1 overall and 5-1 in league play to lock up the Red Division's top seed and a first-round bye in the 12-team Oahu Interscholastic Association D1 tournament that gets underway in two weeks.

"It's a great feeling," Hurricanes coach Darren Hernandez said. "I think that for us, it's been a long time coming. I've been here since the school opened and we were Division II the first two years and actually our second year we won the White conference championship, but since then we have flirted with getting to the states, but it's been tough."

Kapolei got a strong effort from its defense, which withstood a Herculean-effort by Farrington running back Challen Faamatau, who rushed 38 times for 130 yards.

"The kid is an iron man and he was their offense," Hernandez said of Faamatau, a Second Team All-Hawaii selection as a junior last season. "They gained a lot of yards on us, I think, but we stopped them when it mattered the most. Our defense was on the field forever."

The eighth-ranked Governors, who saw a three-game win streak snapped to fall to 5-2, ran 69 offensive plays to 49 for the Hurricanes. They held the ball for nearly 30 minutes — more than 11 more minutes of possession than Kapolei did.

"It was hard but coach Brad Hewahewa, our defensive coordinator, he really got us prepared for us, told us to stop the run, and then when we started stopping the run, watch for those little pop passes to the tight end and all those little plays that they might run," said Kapolei safety Leonard Lee, who had two interceptions in the game — both of them coming after halftime.

Farrington's offense picked up 12 of its 15 first downs by rush. It ran the ball 51 times for 166 yards, but was just 7 of 17 on third-down conversions, and ultimately was held out of the end zone.

"I was proud of the defense, they bent but didn't break," Hernandez said. "They held them scoreless. They didn't score on our defense. Our motto is, ‘If they can't score, we can't lose,' and that's what we always tell our defensive guys. Coach Brad Hewahewa doing a great job again, as always, so I mean we're very happy and very proud of the effort they played with, but we actually feel like we didn't play our best game."

The Hurricanes were in an early hole after Govs' defensive back Chasen Castilliano undercut an underneath route by slotback Jaymin Sarono and picked off quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa. He went 17 yards untouched the other way for the pick-6.

"It was one of those throws where he really trusted his receiver and he just threw it a little bit behind him and it's something that we do every day in practice, so it was just one of those bad-timing throws and they made a great play on the ball. We've got to give them credit for that," Hernandez said.

After the interception, Tagovailoa found a groove, completing his next nine throws, including a pair of touchdown passes in the second quarter.

Kaeo Alvarez-Ranan made a diving grab on a 21-yard scoring strike from Tagovailoa on the first play of the second quarter. He finished with game-highs of six receptions for 114 yards.

A few minutes later, Tagovailoa hit Sarono on a post pattern for a 9-yard touchdown on third-and-goal for the go-ahead score. Sarono had six catches for 63 yards. Tagovailoa threw for 268 yards on 19-of-34 passing.

The Hurricanes took a 14-7 lead into the intermission. The teams played a scoreless third quarter before Leighton Rosa punched in a 2-yard TD run to cap a seven-play, 72-yard drive early in the fourth. Dreyden-Steele Kawewehi added an insurance score with his 3-yard plunge in the game's final minute.

The Govs did themselves no favors by accumulating 12 penalties for 95 yards, including a costly blindside block call that negated a 70-yard punt return for touchdown by TJ Tautolo with the ‘Canes leading 14-7 late in the third quarter.

"Who knows, maybe we could have gone for two and actually take the lead," Farrington coach Randall Okimoto said. "In big games like this we just cannot make those kinds of mistakes. We had a couple of inopportune penalties in certain areas that hurt us, that gave (Kapolei) the momentum to score as well."

Lee accounted for both takeaways by the Kapolei defense. His first came just a few minutes into the second half, when he intercepted Bishop Rapoza on a deep pass along the right sideline on third-and-20.

"They were running two verticals and the quarterback kind of just looked to the number one (receiver), threw it up, I thought, ‘OK, just make a play in bounds and give our offense a chance to score again,' " Lee said.

Lee's second pick — which also came on a third down — helped seal the victory with 5:54 left. He positioned himself in front of a Farrington receiver in his own end zone and timed his jump perfectly to come down with the ball.

"I was playing deep, I saw the ball in the air and I thought, ‘OK, just jump ball. Don't lose this battle,' " Lee said, a three-year starter.  

It was Lee's fourth and fifth interceptions of the season.

Hernandez had high praise for the 5-foot-11, 185-pound senior.

"Leonard Lee, in my opinion, he is the best free safety out there in the state of Hawaii," Hernandez said. "He makes big plays, he's a field general, he can come up and tackle. He's just really the heart and soul of the defense and like the quarterback back there. He was the catalyst tonight; those turnovers were really what spurred us on."

The result of next week's regular-season finale against Nanakuli is meaningless for the Hurricanes, whose only loss came against Blue Division-member Waianae back on Aug. 13.

By virtue of its first-round bye in the OIA tournament, Kapolei is assured a spot in at least the eight-team D1 state tournament. A win in the quarterfinal round would vault it into the new six-team Open Division tournament.