Radford runs past Kalani to bounce back

Christian Payton (3) celebrates in the end zone with Jalin LeGrand (34) and teammates after LeGrand's interception for a score against Kalani. Greg Yamamoto | SL

HAWAII KAI — Radford turned to the ground game and got a late interception in the second half to spoil Kalani's homecoming in their 28-13 win at Kaiser Stadium Saturday.

Christian Payton caught a touchdown pass from Kalob Victorino-Avilla and rushed for 110 yards and another score and Michael Hayslett rushed for 72 yards and a score, all in the second half to help the Rams improve to 4-1.

Radford rebounded from a 34-14 loss to Kaiser (5-0) the previous week and maintains second place in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division II standings while the Falcons dropped to 3-2.

Noa Dane Fujitani recovered the fumble off Payton's rush attempt on the Radford 7 and the Falcons got on the scoreboard first with Josh Oh's 3-yard rushing touchdown on a fourth-and-goal.

After Kalani went three-and-out, Victorino-Avilla completed a 28-yard pass to Dane Fagaragan on a third-and-4 and two plays later, Payton caught a 8-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at 7.

"I think they were still feeling the effects of the loss last week to Kaiser. We were preaching all week, when you have adversity, how are you going to bounce back? It took us a little while to bounce back, but I think we found it. We had some injuries leading up to this game, but I think these guys pulled through and they showed their resilience to pull it off in the end," Radford coach Fred Salanoa said.

In the second half, the Rams turned to Payton and Hayslett. During their 12-play, 75-yard drive, Payton converted a key fourth down with a 6-yard run and he and Hayslett combined for 19 rushing yards that resulted in Hayslett's 3-yard score to put Radford up, 14-7.

Victorino-Avilla passed for 105 yards and was picked off four times, two each by Seti Taualupe and Kahikina Iaea.

"We had to do something. We had a lot of turnovers in the beginning and it was a quick change for our defense. We weren't allowing them to stay off the field long enough. We had to have our running backs pull us through," Salanoa said.

Taualupe, who was also the team's punter, was injured at the 9:44 mark in the third quarter and did not return.

Kalani recycled Iaea's second interception into points after Oh, who finished with 61 yards, rushed for his second touchdown from 4 yards out, but the holder could not handle the snap and was smothered on the attempt as the Falcons trailed, 14-13.

Radford had 190 net rushing yards and averaged 5.4 yards per carry. Payton had 71 rushing yards in the second half and scored on a 24-yard run to cap a five play, 50-yard drive to put the Rams up eight.

Each team turned it over on downs in the fourth quarter and Jalin LeGrand intercepted Logan Lim for a 43-yard pick-six to ice the game.

Lim threw for 90 yards on 10-of-25 passing.

Kalani was 2 for 13 on third down conversions and 2 for 5 on fourth down. Radford was 5 for 11 on third down and 1 for 4 on fourth down.

Hayslett added two sacks, Elijah Falaniko had a tackle-for-loss, a fumble recovery and Waylon Allen added a sack and three solo tackles for the Rams' defense.

Jayden Chang had four solo tackles and one for loss, Taualupe had two tackle-for-losses for the Falcons.

Radford has a three-game homestand starting with Waialua on Nov. 20.

Kalani has a bye and plays Nanakuli (3-1), who posted a 70-26 win over McKinley, on Nov. 26.

Reach Brandon Ching at [email protected].