Waianae QB Sheldon McLeod passed for 230 yards and three touchdowns on passes of 76, 23 and 22 yards to lead No. 11 Waianae to a season-opening win. CJ Caraang | SL

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Waianae's Alvin "Kolu" Quisquirin-Sabagala runs the ball against Waipahu. CJ Caraang | SL

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Fri, Aug 2, 2019 @ Waianae [ 7:30 pm ]

---

Waipahu

20

Waianae

35

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Waipahu (4-6-0)	0	14	6	0	20
Waianae (1-8-0)	21	0	7	7	35

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Sheldon McLeod 230 yd 3 TD

Cody Marques 130 yd

Alvin Quisquirin-Sabagala 148 yd 1 TD

Alfred Failauga 237 yd 2 TD

Delson Cordeiro 80 yd 1 TD

Jeff Badua 41 yd

WAIANAE — Sheldon McLeod passed for 230 yards and three touchdowns to lead No. 11 Waianae to a season-opening 35-20 win over No. 9 Waipahu in a non-league football game at Raymond Torii Field Friday night.

The Seariders (1-0) built a 21-point first quarter lead, but saw the Marauders (0-1) rally to within a blocked PAT of tying the score midway through the third quarter, before eventually pulling away to secure the victory in first-year coach Mike Fanoga's debut with the program.

"It feels great," said Fanoga, who brings more than 30 years of college-level coaching experience to Waianae. "The players deserved it, especially this community — they deserve this — and I felt good about what we did this whole week, preparation, and that's what wins the game, it's all about preparation and getting your players ready for a good team like Waipahu."

Waianae churned out 467 yards of total offense, but it was a tale of two halves. It opened with an aerial attack in the first half before turning to its ground-and-pound run game after the intermission. McLeod had 194 passing yards by halftime.

"We opened up straight off with the passing game. I'm sure they expected us to run, but we came out straight passing," said McLeod, a 6-foot, 180-pound senior quarterback. "We executed the pass correctly and got two touchdown passes (in the first quarter)."

The Seariders capped their first three possessions with touchdowns. They marched 61 yards in seven plays after receiving the opening kickoff. The drive culminated with Alvin "Kolu" Quisquirin-Sabagala's 1-yard TD run on fourth-and-goal.

After Waipahu went three-and-out on its first drive, Waianae scored in just one play. Kaai Tamaboan-Kaeo caught a short pass from McLeod in the right flat that he turned into a 76-yard TD pass. Saege Ayala ran in the two-point conversion to make it 14-0 with 5:46 left in the first quarter.

A few minutes later, the Seariders extended their lead with McLeod's 23-yard TD pass to Ayala, who was aligned wide to the right of the formation and had one-on-one coverage.

"I thought our kids showed up tonight on both sides of the ball," Fanoga said. "I was really proud of our offense. Our offense did a great job moving the ball and scoring points, so I'm proud of my offense."

Waianae's Alvin "Kolu" Quisquirin-Sabagala runs the ball against Waipahu. CJ Caraang | SL    Purchase image

Conversely, the Seariders punished the short-handed Marauders in the second half by running the ball 22 times for 204 yards (9.3 yards per carry).

In all, Waianae ran 38 times for 232 yards — led by Quisquirin-Sabagala's 148 yards on 16 attempts — while its quarterbacks attempted 22 passes and completed 12 of them for 235 yards.

"They key was running the ball and that's what makes great holes for those guys," Fanoga said.

Fanoga noted that several players moved to the offensive line this week to help with a shortage of available bodies there.

"We had some injuries this camp, so that's why we had to shuffle people around. We had a couple guys banged up, but hopefully we'll get ‘em back this coming week," he said.

McLeod completed 11 of his 21 pass attempts and overcame two interceptions. He was sacked four times in the first half, but just once in the final two quarters.

"They were doing good," McLeod said of the makeshift offensive line. "Waipahu was blitzing seven and the line was picking up six, but the last guy was just getting through so, I mean, the linemen did a great job, I think, all game and they really pushed, especially in the second half and the first quarter."

Waipahu finished with 353 yards of total offense, led by running back Alfred Failauga's 24 rush attempts for 237 yards.

Failauga scored on a 55-yard TD run one play into the second quarter to get his team on the board and then the Marauders' defense got a pair of takeaways that the offense ultimately capitalized on.

Chase Kaseli's interception led to a 16-yard TD run by Cody Marques that made the score 21-14 with 4:16 left in the second quarter. In the second half, Waipahu recycled Tarynce Antolin's pick off of McLeod into a 1-yard TD run by Failauga to cut the Seariders' lead to 21-20 (the PAT was blocked) with 5:48 remaining in the third quarter.

"I just told them to fight through and that this is a part of life — this is what happens in real life — you just gotta make it happen so we just gotta go out there, keep fighting, keep plugging away and keep doing what we're doing. Believe in what we're doing," Fanoga said.

Two plays after Waipahu scored, Ayala went untouched down the left sideline for a 46-yard TD run and Joshua Cid tacked on the extra point to extend it back to a 28-20 lead for the Seariders with 4:56 left in the third quarter.

The Marauders answered with a heavy dose of Failauga on their next drive. They got all the way to the Waianae 10-yard line, but turned it over when Zion Tootoo forced a fumble that was recovered by Taison Faasuamanu at the Seariders own 26-yard line.

After the turnover, Waianae orchestrated a 12-play, 74-yard drive that culminated with a 22-yard TD pass from McLeod to Delson Cordeiro on fourth-and-goal to close out the scoring. Cordeiro finished with five receptions for 80 yards.

"Coach has a lot of confidence in us," McLeod said of his team's fourth-down success Friday night. "If anything is under 10 yards then we're going for it, we got the green light. We only punt in very severe situations, but for the most part we're going for it. He believes in our offense, our line, our receivers and me, as the quarterback, to execute."

Marques was 12-of-21 passing for 130 yards without an interception.

It was the second straight year that the teams met to open the season. Waipahu came away with a 34-13 home win over the Seariders on its way to the OIA and state Division I championships.

"I think they're much improved, they're a lot more disciplined," Waipahu fifth-year coach Bryson Carvalho said. "Hats off to coach Mike and I think they're going to have an outstanding year this year."

Waianae has already matched its win total from a season ago, when it lost its first five games and finished with a 1-8 overall record (1-4 OIA Open Division).