Aiea's Austin Hartbarger reached the end zone on a 16 yard pass play for a score against Kailua. Johnny Wilson | Special to SL

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Sat, Aug 30, 2014 @ Kailua [ 6:00 pm ]

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Aiea

25

Kailua

14

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Aiea (2-6-0)	7	12	0	6	25
Kailua (0-7-0)	7	0	7	0	14

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Martin Tigilau 51 yd 1 TD

Jordan Liilii 112 yd 1 TD

Paepaeiva Silifaiva-Kaeha 52 yd

Rexy Kolone 34 yd

Koolauloa Gaspar 33 yd 1 TD

Austin Hartbarger 48 yd 1 TD

KAILUA – Aiea capitalized on miscues to defeat Kailua, 25-14, to win their first game of the season at the newly dedicated Alex Kane Stadium at Kailua High School on Saturday night.  The Na Alii improve to 1-1 in the O’ahu Interscholastic Association Blue Division standings while the Surfriders, who are still searching for their first win, fell to 0-3.

The Aiea defense recovered three fumbles, one recovered in the end zone for a touchdown and the secondary intercepted Kailua quarterback Martin Tigilau twice.

“We were fortunate to get those opportunities. Kailua is a good team, they’re big, athletic and a physical team and we were able to capitalized on some of the mistakes they made and it helped us, which is good. The game was a lot closer than it seems, it could’ve gone either way and I’m glad we pulled out that win,” said Aiea coach Wendell Say.

After losing to Kaiser, 52-7, Aiea had a week off to refocus and regroup.

“We had a good practice this week and gave us time to heal and time to prepare ourselves. Kaiser was a tough game and we got most of our kids back, if not all of them. We were telling them we need to work on their efforts and cut down on mistakes. It felt like a first game for us with a lot of guys back and a lot of first game jitters,” said Say.

The Na Alii used two quarterbacks for the game: Kobe Kato and Jordan Liilii. They combined for 23 of 39 for 211 yards, two touchdowns, and three interceptions.

“For tonight,” said Say, on playing both quarterbacks. “Jordan is probably going to be our quarterback, but again he hurt his ankle and if he doesn’t stay healthy, Kobe is doing a good job stepping in, he’s only a sophomore and he’s going to get better and he asks a lot of questions and he’s improving every week.”

Kailua took advantage of great field position after Aiea was called for two offside penalties on the opening kick off, pushing the ball back to their own 30-yard line. Paepaeiva Silifaiva-Kaeha returned it 33 yards to the Aiea 33 yard line and seven seconds later on the next play, Martin Tigilau immediately threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to Koolau Gaspar and Colin Kubota’s kick made it 7-0.

Bad snaps on special teams plagued the Surfriders and the Na Alii took advantage of the turnovers. Aiea had great field position on the Kailua 35-yard line and marched to the end zone in seven plays capped off by Kobe Kato throwing a 16-yard touchdown to Austin Hartbarger and Micah Peters-Valdez’s kick tied it at 7.

Kato threw an interception and following that play, Tigilau threw an interception to Ariq Vergado-Duclayan, who returned it 49-yards to the Kailua 1-yard line. Following a false start and an incomplete pass, Jordan Liilii threw a 6-yard pass to Derryl Staples-Ogawa to put the Na Alii up, 13-7.

Another bad snap resulted in another Aiea touchdown. The ball sailed over punter Toa Uta’s head and Jimmy Dean Crowell recovered the ball in the end zone to give the Na Alii a two score lead, 19-7.

Following Kaimana Lono’s interception, the Surfriders got all the way down to the Aiea 2-yard line, but could not come away with points and turned it over on downs. Backed up on the Aiea 1-yard line on third down, Kailua’s defense responded as Christian Mejia knocked the ball out of Liilii’s hand and Kahana Albinio recovered it in the end zone to cut the lead to 19-14.

In the fourth quarter, Aiea was able to get into good field position after a good punt return and also aided by two Kailua personal foul penalties to put it on the ball on the Surfrider 18-yard line. Four plays later, Kodi Ongory-Mathias punched it in for a 1-yard touchdown to push the Na Alii lead back up to double-digits.

Kailua’s Kalei Kealoha-Machado had two interceptions and Christian Mejia had a force fumble and a fumble recovery.

Aiea will play Farrington at Roosevelt’s Ticky Vasconcellos Stadium on Sept. 6 while Kailua travels to Campbell on Sept. 5.

“We got Farrington next, shoot it doesn’t get any easier. I thought being in the West last year was tough, this (the Blue Division) is just as bad. There was no remedy, maybe this would’ve turned out a little better, but everyone is stepping up their game,” said Say. 

Note: Prior to the game, Kailua recognized and honored Alex Kane, a man who has done so much for the Surfrider community, by dedicating the athletic field and stadium in his name.