Football
Drought over for Kekaulike football


Stacy Kaneshiro | ScoringLive
August 4, 2019, 12:41am

  


Sat, Aug 3, 2019 @ Farrington [ 6:30 pm ]

Kekaulike

30

McKinley

0

Final 1 2 3 4 T
Kekaulike (3-7-0) 7 16 0 730
McKinley (1-9-0) 0 0 0 00

KALIHI — The Kekaulike football team probably does not need a plane to fly back to Maui Sunday. Na Alii players are on cloud nine after snapping a 41-game losing streak with a 30-0 win against McKinley Saturday night.

The non-league football season opener for both teams was played at Farrington's Skippa Diaz Stadium at Kusunoki Field.

The Maui Interscholastic League's Na Alii (1-0) had winless seasons from 2015 to 2018. The last time they had won was Sept. 5, 2014, at Kamehameha-Maui (23-13) in a season they finished 1-8. It is the school's fifth win since 2011.

"I can't even tell you how great it feels," Na Alii senior quarterback Franco Melgar Matich said. "These guys worked really hard. We're drilled each and every day. You have to work hard and give it your all."

Na Alii coach Tyson Valle had a good feeling his team would break the streak this season.

"Basically, in the offseason, we saw more than 30 guys out on the field training," Valle said. "It goes to show, like everybody says, if you have a good offseason, you could have a good season."

Melgar Matich accounted for 172 of his team's 367 yards of total offense. He passed for 104 yards on 8-of-15 passing, including a 10-yard TD pass; he rushed for 68 yards, including a 4-yard TD run. Besides booting three PATs, he also had a 24-yard field goal.

Na Alii's defense was stout against the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division II Tigers (0-1), who contributed to Kekaulike's losing streak with a 31-14 non-league win on Maui last year.

The Tigers, who were without last year's starting quarterbacks Alexandria Buchanan and Keanu Pimental, were contained to 73 yards of offense. McKinley did not make a first down until the second half. Na Alii registered three sacks and interceptions by Kris Bartahan and lineman Kali Kuhaulua, who also rushed for a TD.

"Defensively, I think we're stronger than we've seen in the past," Valle said. "Our D-line, we have to give credit to them. They're quick up front so it opens up a lot of gaps for everybody else."

Kekaulike set the tone early after winning the coin toss and receiving the opening kickoff. Na Alii moved 56 yards in nine plays with the 5-foot-11, 230-pound Kuhaulua punching in for a 2-yard TD run. Melgar Matich's PAT gave Na Alii a 7-0 lead with seven minutes, 17 seconds in the first quarter.

Kekaulike scored on its next series, which included a successful fourth-and-8 run from McKinley's 26 to the 10 by Melgar Matich. The play set up Melgar Matich's 10-yard TD pass to Tani Kaholoaa with 9:35 in the second period. The missed PAT kept the score 13-0.

Kekaulike's Trey Hunter left the game at halftime due to an apparent rib injury, but not before hauling in two passes for 45 yards and returning a punt 59 yards for a score. Leighland Tagawa | SL    Purchase image

Trey Hunter, who left the game at halftime for the hospital by car with an apparent rib injury (according to Valle), had a hand in his team's next two scores.

With 8:20 left in the half, Hunter returned a punt 59 yards for a TD to increase Na Alii's lead to 20-0.

Later in the period, Hunter returned a punt 29 yards to the McKinley 40. Faced with fourth-and-13 from McKinley's 43, Hunter ran a fake punt for 22 yards to keep the drive alive to set up Melgar Matich's 24-yard field goal with 1:39 left in the half to give Kekaulike a 23-0 lead into the intermission.

Na Alii capped their final scoring drive with fourth with four third-down conversions before Melgar Matich scored on a keeper from 4 yards with 8:59 in the game.

"It feels real good," Valle said of the win. "But the real work still has to be done. We've set a good foundation these past three years. We finally got the first ‘W' for these guys, but like I said, the work is still there."

Melgar Matich said the victory is the jump-start the team needed.

"Today's game gave all of our players a really big confidence boost," he said. "They did a lot of things that they themselves didn't think they could do."

Kekaulike is off next weekend, but McKinley opens league play against Roosevelt Friday night.


Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at [email protected].




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