OIA Football
No. 9 Leilehua rolls No. 8 Farrington, 33-6, to clinch Red 2nd seed


  



Fri, Sep 29, 2017 @ Leilehua [ 7:30 pm ]


Final 1 2 3 4 T
Farrington (5-5-0) 0 0 0 66
Leilehua (6-3-0) 10 7 13 333
Konapiliahi Andres 165 yd 2 TD
Stephen Eter 48 yd 1 TD
James McGary 125 yd 1 TD
Stephen Eter 53 yd
Jeremy Evans 49 yd 2 TD
Chad Silva 57 yd

WAHIAWA — After starting the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I season 0-2, Leilehua reeled off its fifth win in a row to clinch the Red second seed after beating Farrington, 33-6, Friday on senior night at Hugh Yoshida Stadium.

The Mules, ninth in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Division I Football Power Rankings, improved to 6-2 overall and 5-2 in the Red. The No. 8 Governors dropped to 4-4 and 4-3 to take the third seed. Farrington has the head-to-head tiebreaker on Kailua (3-3), which plays Red champion Mililani (6-0) Saturday night.

"I'm real proud of them as a team, as a coaching staff," Leilehua coach Mark Kurisu said. "We've come a long way. I think I believe as a program we could be this good, even though we don't have what everybody else has. We're not going to complain or cry about it. We're just going to coach up the kids. (If) we do that right, they can reach standards and levels they never believed they could hit. You saw that tonight. I think you saw it all season. It's pretty incredible."

The Mules have two weeks before their next game, which will be the OIA Playoffs quarterfinals, but they won't be resting on their laurels.

"It feels good," Leilehua QB Konapiliahi Andres said. "We punched our ticket, but me and my teammates aren't going to let this get to us, not let it get to our heads, not be complacent. We're going to use this and whatever lessons we learned tonight, we're going to use that for our next game."

Andres passed for 165 yards, including TD passes of 24 and 4 yards to Jeremy Evans. Akoni Makue-Tom kicked four field goals and running back James McGary rushed for 125 yards, including a 46-yard TD to lead the Mules' charge.

The win was somewhat costly, as McGary, center Kenoa Tilimwar and defensive lineman Austin Michael all suffered some type of ankle injuries and did not return to action. They are anticipating on being ready in two weeks.

"One of my teammates rolled on my ankle," Tilimwar said. "It's all right."

The Mules' defense was impressive, limiting the Governors to 155 yards of total offense and seven first downs. Linebacker Richard Shimasaki led with six tackles, while defensive end Braxton Victor had two sacks and Donovan Ugalino added another. Kalani Iman and Aaron Kenigton each had an interception.

Farrington's woes began on its first play from scrimmage. Right off the bat on first down, the Governors were called for delay of game, the first of 13 penalties totaling 83 yards. In that same series, a shotgun snap over QB Chris Afe-Alaivanu went for a 15-yard loss.

"For us, we're off and on," Farrington coach Randall Okimoto said. "We have to stay consistent. We start off with a penalty, delay of game and stuff like that. We just have to be ready for the game. That's on us. We have to be ready mentally."

Farrington averted the shutout in the fourth quarter when wide receiver Stephen Eter went to QB. He passed for 48 yards, including an 18-yard TD pass to Bobby Alualu-Alo and scrambled for 53 yards on the ground. But he threw an interception late in the game that led to Tom-Makue's fourth field goal.

Tom-Makue kicked field goals of 49, 41, 31 and 23 yards.

Farrington did not cross midfield until its fifth series of the game. But on fourth-and-goal at the Leilehua 16, Sunny Kanamu Jr. blocked a 34-yard field goal attempt by the Govs.

As the Red third seed, Farrington will play Blue sixth seed Radford in a first-round game next weekend.



Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at [email protected].




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