Open Mic
Trojans do their job on successful road trip




The Mililani Trojans made sure their trip to Maui was all business.

Mililani used a big second half to defeat Maui Interscholastic League Division I champ Baldwin, 49-28 in the quarterfinals of the First Hawaiian Bank/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I Football State Championships at War Memorial Stadium in Wailuku Friday night. 

The last time the Trojans traveled off Oahu was in early September of 2015, when they took on the Liberty Patriots in Henderson, Nev. It ended up being the highest scoring game that involved a team from Hawaii, but it was also a 76-53 loss for Mililani, which ended a 16-game winning streak for the Trojans. 

Two-way player Jalen Olomua said that the Mililani coaching staff made sure the Trojans brought home a win on their next road trip.

"That's all we heard from the beginning of last week," he said. "The coaches preached to us it's a business trip. No messing around, no fooling around in the locker rooms, hotel and practices."

Although the Bears were seeded fourth in the tournament, they were arguably one of the strongest team in the eight-team tourney. Baldwin was undefeated in league play and has been respectable in the Division I tournament before the HHSAA approved a three-tier format.

"We knew Baldwin is going to be a hard, rough game because they always have big aggressive guys." said Mililani senior receiver Andrew Valladares. "We had to have the right attitude and needed execute our jobs." 

Mililani took an early 14-0 lead, but trailed 21-14 at the break. That deficit grew to two scores. 28-14, when Baldwin quarterback Chayce Akaka hooked up with Bishop Wickes two minutes into third quarter. 

However, the Trojans shutout the Bears the rest of the way and scored 35 unanswered points to win convincingly over the home team. 

"We had a big conversation inside the locker room and said we didn't want to lose. We worked way too hard to lose," said Valladares.

"When (Mililani) coach (Rod) York told us that we had to execute and do our job, and do all of those things, that really got to us, and we didn't want to hurt our family that came out all the way out there and paid a lot of money to watch us play. We just want to make our community and our school proud."

Valladares, the lone starting receiver that returned from a season ago, led the comeback attempt with five catches for 213 yards and four touchdowns, three of which that came in the second half. 

He deflected praise after the game to his teammates. 

"It wasn't really all about me. It started with the O-line. Without the O-line, my quarterback Dillon Gabriel couldn't throw me nice passes. The game plan was just to work hard and to do our job. We never really had a (set) game plan (for me to get the ball). Whoever had the ball had to make a big play on it."

York also gave credit to others after the game, speaking about the efforts of those that help the team in areas off the field.

"It was a helluva of a day traveling over here, it's not easy. There's a lot of things that go into it," he said. "There are many people behind our team that does the behind the scenes type of things that makes us go." 

The Trojans will take on Leilehua this Friday in the semifinal round, the third time the teams will meet this year. Kickoff is slated for 4:30 p.m. at Mililani's John Kauinana Stadium.

ScoringLive's Shawn Sueoka contributed to this report.



Reach Michael Lasquero at [email protected].




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