Milton's six TD passes powers Mililani past Kapolei, 67-21


MILILANI — Another week, another Mililani blowout.

Quarterback McKenzie Milton passed for a career-high 513 yards and six touchdowns to lead Mililani to a dominating 67-21 win over Kapolei at John Kauinana Stadium Saturday night.

The Trojans, who are ranked atop the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Division I Football Power Rankings, scored the final 32 points of the game to improve their record to 3-0 in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I Blue conference.

"We had some miscues and our execution could have been better, but overall I'm proud of the guys," Mililani coach Rod York said. "We worked hard. We won the third and fourth quarters, which we pride ourselves in doing."

Milton, a 6-foot, 180-pound senior, completed 33 of his 45 pass attempts to seven different pass catchers. He threw touchdown passes of 12, 60, 16, 41, 7 and 7 yards and was neither sacked nor intercepted.

Wide receivers Kalakaua Timoteo (10 catches for 193 yards, 2 TDs) and Bryson Ventura (10 catches for 113 yards, 2 TDs) were Milton's favorite targets. Timoteo, who along with Milton has verbally committed to the University of Hawaii, sat out the first quarter due to disciplinary reasons, but certainly made his presence felt for the final three quarters.

"It was my fault and it was selfish decisions that made me sit out the first quarter and nobody can make up for that but me, so part of me wanted to do that, but the other part of me just wanted to be there and do whatever I could do for the team, whether it was blocking or catching the ball," said Timoteo, who hauled in a 60-yard score early in the second quarter and a 7-yard score in the third. "Either way I just wanted to contribute and make an impact."

Ventura pulled down a 12-yard touchdown in the first quarter, which gave Mililani a 13-0 lead, and a 7-yard scoring strike late in the third. Andrew Valladares was on the receiving end of Milton's fourth TD pass, late in the second quarter, which ignited the Trojans' 32 unanswered points.

Running back Vavae Malepeai, who was held in check for 21 yards on 11 carries in the first half, factored into three scores. He ran in a 2-yard touchdown to cap the Trojans' first drive of the night, caught a 16-yard TD pass from Milton midway through the second quarter and added a 1-yard run into the end zone early in the third. Malepeai finished with 108 rushing yards on 20 attempts.

"We pride ourselves on depth, too," York said. "We hold 93 guys on the roster and we expect everyone to be strong, do their job and I'm proud of the whole team because the next guy stepped in and it showed that the core of the team is what stands tall, not any individual. No one is bigger than the team."

Kapolei closed to within 27-21 on Taulia Tagovailoa's 3-yard touchdown pass to Ezra Savea with 2:30 left in the second quarter, but was held scoreless the rest of the way.

The Hurricanes put up 277 yards of total offense in the first half, but got just 132 after halftime.

"It was just more mentally," York said of any defensive adjustments at the intermission. "We weren't doing all the things execution-wise, so once we got on the guys, told them to settle down and they got it done."

Tagovailoa, a freshman who was making his first career start at quarterback, finished 33-of-60 passing for 395 yards with three touchdowns and one interception.

"I thought he played great," Hernandez said. "He played really, really well. I don't know what his stats were, but he threw for what, three-hundred yards, which is pretty awesome for a freshman in his first start."

L.J. Esperas led all players with 13 receptions for 220 yards. Jaymin Sarono hauled in 12 passes for 82 yards, including a 10-yard touchdown in the second quarter.

Ultimately, however, it just wasn't enough to keep pace with Mililani's prolific offense, which is averaging 63 points and 504 yards per game and has outscored the opposition 189 to 56 on the year.

"They have the best talent in the state, period," Hernandez said. "You can slow them down for a while, but I mean, it's pick your poison. They are the most talented team in the state and you can game plan all you want for them, but they just have so much weapons and they hurt you with so many weapons that it's tough to keep up. We had a freshman quarterback starting for his first start and on top of that we made mistakes, so all of those things together didn't really help us."

It was the third consecutive loss for the seventh-ranked Hurricanes, who fell to 1-3 overall and 0-3 in league play.

"Well, we've got to right the ship, because there's no easy game, there's no cruise game on the schedule, so you've got to be prepared for the next one, which is Moanalua and they look tough," Hernandez said.

Kapolei will host Moanalua (2-2, 1-2) Saturday, while Mililani will visit Liberty (Henderson, Nev.) for a non-league Friday. The Patriots fell to No. 3 Saint Louis, 43-16, at Aloha Stadium Saturday night.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].