Moanalua's Tre'quan Henderson returns an INT against Aiea. Pete Caldwell | SL

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Fri, Sep 15, 2017 @ Aiea [ 7:00 pm ]

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Moanalua

31

Aiea

27

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Moanalua (4-6-0)	14	0	14	3	31
Aiea (2-6-0)	6	15	0	6	27

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Ty Matsunami 357 yd 3 TD

Nicholas-Alexandre Au 306 yd 2 TD

Ty Matsunami 45 yd

Makana Spencer 47 yd 2 TD

Zachary Kalahiki-Basque 131 yd 1 TD

Ezra Grace 64 yd 2 TD

AIEA — Tre'quan Henderson was at the right place at the right time.

Henderson intercepted Ty Matsunami's pass with no time left in the end zone to help Moanalua spoil Aiea's homecoming, 31-27, in a thrilling Oahu Interscholastic Association Blue Conference matchup at Aiea on Friday.

"Finally. I'm grateful for this win, it's something we needed and it's a morale booster," said Moanalua coach Savaii Eselu.

"It feels good to win our first game. We have to work hard and have to win to try and make it to the playoffs," said Henderson.

After being outscored 213 to 39 in their first five games, Na Menehune break through to win their first game of 2017 to improve to 1-5 overall, 1-4 league. Moanalua closes out the regular season at Kaiser on Sept. 22 and hosts Radford at Aiea on Sept. 29.

"Main thing is our attitude and we have to carry ourselves in the highest regard possible," said Eselu.

Na Alii drop to 2-4 overall and close out the regular season at Waianae on Sept. 22.

Moanalua forced seven overall turnovers: six interceptions and one fumble recovery, three of those turnovers resulted in points.

Makana Spencer rushed for two touchdowns and Ezra Grace hauled in two more in the second half to lead Na Menehune. Nick Au threw for 306 yards on 28-of-43 passing to help lead Moanalua to their best offensive performance to date.

Griffin Motas booted a 22-yard field goal with 1:07 left to extend the lead, 31-27. Na Alii started on their own 19 and gained five first downs on the drive to get all the way down to the Moanalua 15 with about 10.3 seconds remaining. Matsunami bought time and heaved it toward the end zone, but Henderson was there for his fourth pick to fittingly end the game.

"I was listening to my defensive back coach and he said to stay back and if I see the ball, pick it off. I wanted to go get the ball," said Henderson.

"We knew they had to take a shot. At the same time we had to stay disciplined and once the quarterback gets out of the pocket, that's when things tend to fall over. We did a great job at the end and Trequan did well," said Eselu, on the defense bending and not breaking.

Both teams who are similar in roster and personnel size found the matchup beneficial and made it exciting all the way down to the last 10 seconds of the game.

"I told the kids, you didn't give up and played until the last 10 seconds. We had our opportunities, it could've gone either way," said Aiea coach Wendell Say.

Aiea opened up the game with a four-play scoring drive that covered 90 yards and 1 minute 26 seconds capped by Matsunami's 34-yard touchdown to Zach Kalahiki-Basque, but Kaitlyn Hamilton's PAT failed for a 6-0 lead. Kalahiki-Basque caught a game-high nine passes for 131 yards.

Matsunami finished the game with 357 yards on 22-of-45 passing.

"He started off well and once he started forcing the ball and trying to make something happen, it's something we have to learn to be smarter. Moanalua is a heck of a team, you have to play all four quarters," said Say, on Matsunami.

Moanalua answered back to reclaim the lead after Na Menehune's Micah Kim gained 18 yards off a fake punt to Aiea's 19 and three plays later, Makana Spencer scored on a 5-yard run and Motas' PAT gave Na Menehune a 7-6 lead.

"I told the kids you have to expect anything. When you don't have a win and you want to get in the playoffs, you're going to do what you can do to win," said Say.

Following Henderson's first interception, Na Menehune redeemed the turnover into points and pushed the lead to 14-6 after Spencer's second rushing touchdown with over 9 seconds left in the first quarter.

Matsunami connected with Allen Keohokapu for a 47-yard gain and a personal foul face mask penalty pushed Na Alii into the red zone. Matsunami found Bautista for an 11-yard score and Bautista returned the favor by throwing the 2-point conversion to Matsunami to tie the game at 14.

Moanalua turned it over on downs on their own 35 and Aiea made Na Menehune pay after Matsunami threw a 16-yard touchdown to Teron Kitashima to make it, 21-14 with 4:49 remaining and that lead held until halftime.

Na Menehune recycled Micah Kim's interception and answered three plays later after Nick Au threw a 29-yard touchdown to Ezra Grace to tie the game at 21.

Moanalua would later reclaim the lead after Chad Mann, Jr. recovered the fumble and returned it to the Aiea 5-yard line and Au immediately found Grace again to go up, 28-21 with 1:55 left in the third.

Henderson would pick off Matsunami again, but Na Menehune couldn't capitalize and lost 39 yards off of bad snaps which forced Moanalua to punt from their own end zone. Babu Capanag returned the punt 45 yards, but Hamilton's kick was too short to trail, 28-27 with 6:03 left in the fourth.

Aiea came up empty-handed after Austin Magote's pick and Na Menehune received the ball with 3:44 remaining. Na Menehune was 3 of 5 converting fourth downs and Au swung it to Kim on a fourth-and-7, and he gained 29 yards to Aiea's 5 with 1:31 left. Three Na Menehune rushing attempts forced three consecutive Na Alii timeouts prior to Motas' field goal attempt.