Football
Sixth-ranked Warriors get defensive in 27-15 road win over Seariders


Kalani Takase | ScoringLive
August 26, 2023, 12:52am

  


Fri, Aug 25, 2023 @ Waianae [ 7:30 pm ]

Kamehameha

27

Waianae

15

Final 1 2 3 4 T
Kamehameha (4-5-0) 14 7 3 327
Waianae (1-8-0) 0 15 0 015
George Mier 128 yd 1 TD
Jevin Bolos-Reyes 123 yd 1 TD
Alika Idica 29 yd
Moe Passi 90 yd 1 TD
Jordan Kaio 78 yd 1 TD
Ty Perkins 63 yd 1 TD

WAIANAE — Although his team got the win Friday night, Kamehameha football coach Kaeo Drummondo was not a happy camper by any stretch of the imagination.

Led by a staunch effort from its defense, No. 6 Kamehameha came away with a 27-15 road win over Waianae on a hot and humid evening at Raymond Torii Field. 

A crowd of about 1,000 fans saw the Warriors (2-0) limit the Seariders (0-3) to 137 yards of total offense in the non-league matchup between Open Division teams from the Interscholastic League of Honolulu and Oahu Interscholastic Association, respectively. 

"We were sloppy tonight, very sloppy," said Drummondo, who is in his first year at the helm of his alma mater after having guided Hilo to a pair of Division I state crowns during his time on the Big Island. 

Kamehameha turned it over a couple of times and gave up a touchdown pass on fourth down defensively, but to be sure the most egregious statistic in Drummondo's mind was the 17 penalties for 156 yards his team was flagged for. 

"It's brutal. We talk about it all week but at the end of the day, we can talk about it every single day, all day, but we gotta execute during the game and we gotta be cleaner during the game," Drummondo said.

Of the Warriors' 17 penalties, five of them were personal fouls. False starts, holding calls and encroachment penalties accounted for three apiece. There were two facemask penalties and one kickoff out of bounds. 

Consequently, six of Waianae's 16 total first downs were via Kamehameha penalties. 

"There's a lot that we gotta get cleaned up and that's the message to these guys: We gotta be cleaner Monday through Thursday. This week we weren't as clean as we wanted to be and it showed tonight, so I think we got lucky escaping with a win and we gotta get better," Drummondo said. 

Drummondo, who is also the defensive coordinator, saw his unit record 14 tackles for loss — seven in each half — including eight sacks. Sophomore defensive end/linebacker Kalei Harbottle led the way with 4 1/2 tackles for loss and 2 1/2 sacks. Five different players recorded a sack for the Warriors, who limited the Seariders to nine rushing yards on 34 carries. 

Waianae converted on just two of 12 third downs. 

"The thing I just told them is immediately after a game, you're never as bad as you feel like you are, but the unforced errors tonight were — we can't have that — I think luckily we had a lot of positives on defense that put (Waianae) in long down-and-distance situations that helped us get off the field, but as a whole overall, we gotta be cleaner," Drummondo reiterated. 

Kamehameha had 13 penalties for 126 yards by halftime, including five personal fouls. Three of them came on a single play and helped set-up a 1-yard touchdown run by Waianae's George Mier on a quarterback sneak with just 11 seconds left in the first half. 

After a facemask penalty against the Warriors on the ensuing two-point conversion, Mier snuck in again from a yard on to pull his team to within 21-15 at the intermission. The scoring play came four plays after an interception by Slater Kaleiohi halted the Kamehameha drive just outside the red zone. 

The Warriors made it a two-score game with Kain Tubania's field goal from 34 yards out at the 7:19 mark of the third quarter. Tubania stretched it to a 27-15 lead with a 22-yard field goal a few minutes into the fourth quarter. 

Waianae drove to the Kamehameha 4-yard line on its penultimate possession, but turned it over on downs after Mier was sacked by the duo of Harbottle and Triston Colby Waiamau-Galindo. 

Kamehameha's defense set the tone early. Koolau Nee jarred the ball loose from Mier and Duke Alderete-Labuguen recovered the Waianae fumble to give his team possession at the Seariders' 18-yard line. Two plays later, quarterback Jevin Bolos-Reyes scampered into the end zone from 17 yards out on a well-read read-option play to open the scoring. Tubania added the extra point to make it a 7-0 Kamehameha lead with 9:05 left in the first quarter. 

The Warriors capped their next possession with a 14-yard TD run by Moe Passi, who turned the left corner and went untouched on the play. 

Three plays into the second quarter, Mier's desperation heave on fourth-and-8 fell into the waiting hands of Jordan Kaio for a 35-yard touchdown. 

However, on the very next play from scrimmage, Kamehameha had an answer in the form of a 63-yard scoring strike from Bolos-Reyes to Ty Perkins, who bobbled the ball initially before he pulled it down and raced away from a trio of Waianae defensive backs to the end zone. 

"Yeah, that was big because (Waianae) had scored and it was nice to give our defense a little bit more breathing room," Drummondo said. "Hopefully as we go along our passing game can progress and we can expect more of those."

Bolos-Reyes, who took all the snaps at quarterback for the Warriors, attempted just seven passes all night. He completed five of them for 123 yards and was not intercepted. 

Passi finished with 19 carries for 90 yards for Kamehameha, which averaged 5.0 yards per rush and ran for 230 of its 353 yards of total offense. 

The Warriors were 5 of 10 on third downs and tallied 15 first downs, including nine via rush. 

Mier went 9-of-14 passing for 128 yards and was not intercepted. He left the game with an apparent lower leg injury in the final minute of play. 

Waianae had been shutout in its first two games this season: 49-0 at Kahuku and 41-0 versus Lincoln (San Diego). 

Kamehameha was playing its first game since a 51-7 rout of Moanalua back on Aug. 12. 

The Warriors will visit No. 8 Waipahu Friday, while the Seariders will host Kailua on Sept. 9. 


Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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