Kailua kicker Naia Graham kicked a record-tying 57-yard field goal during the first quarter to put the Surfriders on the board first and also added in 7 PATs for his team during a match against Kaimuki. Sean Nakamura | SL

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Kailua running back William Kailimai celebrates with teammate Marcus Malepeai after scoring a touchdown against Kaimuki. Kristen Izumigawa | Special to SL

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Kaimuki's Randon Tuitama looks for running room against Kailua. Kristen Izumigawa | Special to SL

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Kailua running back William Kailimai charges through Kaimuki defenders for yardage gain. Sean Nakamura | SL

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Sat, Sep 21, 2013 @ Kailua [ 6:30 pm ]

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Kaimuki

32

Kailua

52

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Kaimuki (1-7-0)	6	6	14	6	32
Kailua (2-7-0)	17	14	7	7	52

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Noah Auld 195 yd 2 TD

Tevita Lino 141 yd 2 TD

William Kailimai 157 yd 4 TD

Randon Tuitama 51 yd 1 TD

Christian-Taylor Scheer 86 yd

Fano Tuisila 72 yd 1 TD

KAILUA - Behind running back William Kailimai and the historical foot of Naia Graham, Kailua celebrated homecoming by beating Kaimuki, 52-26, Saturday night in O'ahu Interscholastic Association Red East football at Kailua stadium.

Graham, a junior, drilled a 57-yard field goal to tie Hilo's Christian Daog's mark set in 2009 at Kamehameha-Kapalama.

Kailimai rushed for 157 yards on 15 carries, scoring on runs of 5, 15, 56 and 34 yards for the Surfriders (2-4 overall, 2-2 Red East), who improved their postseason seeding opportunity.

The Bulldogs (1-5, 0-4) showed some fight, outscoring Kailua, 20-14, in the second half.

"Our team gave us a second half I'm proud of," Kaimuki coach Clint Onigama said. "All we ask of them is to play their hearts out. I know at times, things got emotional for them. But at the same time, I liked the way they finished this game and I like their resilience.

The first half was delayed about 30 minutes when Kaimuki's Sio Kelekolio suffered a stinger, according to Onigama. He left the field by ambulance.

"He'll be fine," Onigama said. "He had a good stinger. A lot of what they did was precautionary. But we're very glad that he was very responsive. I think he's going to be OK."

Kailua won handily despite 21 penalties for 200 yards, including eight personal fouls, one of which had an unsportsmanlike conduct tagged on to it. Eight of Kaimuki's 15 first downs resulted from penalties.

"Penalties, obviously, were dominant in the second half," Kailua coach Gary Rosolowich said. "We're not going to be successful if that continues. We have to take care of that.

"It was a sloppy second half. We talked about the challenge that was going to take place in that kind of environment. It was difficult at times because of the sloppiness the way things were happening. We needed the win. It was a key win in terms of playoff seeding."

There were 12 touchdowns between the teams, but the scoring started with Graham's record-tying field goal. It came after Matthew Gaspar's 16-yard interception return to the Bulldogs' 44. Kaimuki's defense stiffened and the Surfriders were stuck at Kaimuki's 42 after a sack by Sage Valeho.  In came Graham, who drilled the ball with ease between the uprights to yards to spare. He didn't use a place-kicker's tee either.

"I was pretty confident," Graham said. "I have to credit my snapper, my line and my holder. I just looked up and it was good. I was excited. I just went up there and kicked it."

Graham, who plays soccer, said he kicked one from 61 yards in practice several weeks ago.

But when Kailua's offense got kicking, Graham's foot was needed only for seven PATs.

Noah Auld's 50-yard completion to Christian-Taylor Scheer set up Kailimai's first TD, a 5-yard run with 1:30 left in the first quarter to increase Kailua's lead to 10-0.

Ten seconds later, Caleb Crawford returned an interception 15 yards for another TD to make it 17-0.

But JR Betiru's 97-yard return on the ensuing kickoff to the Kailua 1 set up Jorge Rio's rushing TD on first down with 58 seconds left in the quarter to pull Kaimuki to 17-6.

Auld made up for Kaimuki's score with an 8-yard TD pass to Christian Mejia 15 seconds into the second quarter to make it 24-6. The drive was aided by a 44-yard completion by Auld to Matthew Bishop.

On the ensuing kickoff, Keka Viela's return of 48 yards to the Kailua 30 set up - with the aid of a roughing the passer penalty on Kailua - Tevita Lino's 22-yard TD pass to Randon Tuitama with 9:25 left in the half to cut the Bulldogs' deficit to 24-12.

But Kailua scored on its last two series of the half on Kailimai's 15-yard TD run at 3:48 and Auld's 7-yard TD pass to Koolauloa Gaspar with 17 seconds left in the half to make it 38-12.

Relentless Kaimuki started the second half with a 11-play, 93-yard drive that ended with Kainalu Spencer's 12-yard TD pass to Kuali'i Moefu to pull the Bulldogs to 38-19.

But Kailimai wasn't done doing damage. His 56-yard TD run with 3:38 left in the third quarter boosted Kailua's lead to 45-19.

Kaimuki answered quickly. A 53-yard completion from Lino to Fano Tuisila, plus a personal foul tagged on against Kailua set up Tuitama's 13-yard TD run to make it 45-26.

Kailimai still had gas in the tank late in the game when he scored on a 34-yard run on fourth-and-1 with 4:11 left to double the Surfriders' lead to 52-26.

Sean Noda's 83-yard kickoff return to the Kailua 5 set up Kaimuki's final score, a 5-yard TD pass from Lino to Tuisila to make it 52-32.