OIA Football
Failauga, No. 13 Waipahu run past Castle


Brandon Ching | ScoringLive
August 10, 2019, 1:16am

  


Fri, Aug 9, 2019 @ Castle [ 7:30 pm ]

Waipahu

49

Castle

28

Final 1 2 3 4 T
Waipahu (4-6-0) 13 0 22 1449
Castle (2-7-0) 0 7 0 2128
Mana Kahoopii 186 yd 3 TD
Cody Marques 217 yd 2 TD
Chazz Tom 20 yd 1 TD
Alfred Failauga 338 yd 5 TD
Kala Estocado-Matthews 122 yd 1 TD
Solofa Setu 127 yd 2 TD

KANEOHE — There's no stopping Alfred Failauga.

The senior running back rushed for five touchdowns in the second half to lift No. 13 Waipahu past Castle, 49-28, to open up Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I play at the Knights' field Friday.

Failauga had 11 carries for 63 yards and lost a fumble in the first half but finished the game with 39 carries for 338 yards. He scored touchdowns from 22, 18, 3, 8, and 3 in the second half and averaged just over 8.6 yards per carry.

"We get inside there and train, I stay back at practice, just doing bleachers, sleds here and there. But together as a team, we're going to move forward and do what we have to do," Failauga said of the extra work he puts in to endure heavy workloads.

"First half we made adjustments at halftime with our blocking scheme. We felt we could feed Al (Failauga) the ball. That's the luxury of our offense, we took what they gave us. Al did his thing tonight," Waipahu coach Bryson Carvalho added.

Failauga has 4,535 career rushing yards to date and would need at least 97 yards to break the 4,631 mark set by Vavae Malepeai (Mililani '16) to be the all-time rushing leader in Hawaii.

"The record is great and respect to all those players on top there. Hats off to all of them. If I beat the record, it would be really good for me, it would mean a lot to the community, to my family, friends who believed in me," Failauga said.

Waipahu signal caller Cody Marques threw for 217 yards on 9-of-15 passing and two touchdowns both going to Solofa Setu, who finished with four catches for 127 yards.

Marques connected with Setu for 70 and 16 yard scores to put Waipahu up, 13-0.

The Marauders had a chance to pad their lead getting down to the Castle 15, but a holding penalty and two consecutive sacks by Harley Lyman and Jaydon Kaio knocked Waipahu out of scoring position and forced a punt.

"The second quarter and fourth quarter were nearly identical in a sense where we had guys falling asleep or letting up. I don't know what it was, but we have to make sure we correct it and play Black Flag football the whole game," Carvalho said.

Castle quarterback Kila Kaio extended the drive with a 40 yard pass and five plays later, Chazz Tom got the Knights on the scoreboard with a 4-yard run and trailed, 13-7 going into halftime.

Logan Lauti muffed the opening kickoff in the second half and Rison Leong recovered it for the Knights. Waipahu's defense held firm and stopped Tom for no gain as the Knights turned it over on downs at the Waipahu 4.

The Marauders went to Failauga six times during their seven play drive and he scored on a 22-yard run, but the pass failed to make it, 19-7.

Waipahu's defense redeemed turnovers into Failauga touchdowns as Genesis Nakagawa's fumble recovery led to an 18-yard run and Failauga ran it in for two. Chase Kaseli's 38-yard interception return set up a 3-yard touchdown to go up, 35-7.

Failauga's fourth touchdown gave the Marauders a 35-point cushion, but Mana Kahoopii mounted a comeback for the Knights.

"We had costly penalties on that one drive that allowed the game to get closer than it should have. If we kept focus and was mature about that drive, we had two 15-yard penalties," Carvalho said. "Last year that was a big issue with discipline. We have a special thing brewing, but we have to clean it up."

Kahoopii came in late in the third quarter and finished with 186 yards on 10-of-13 passing, no picks, and three touchdowns. He threw 29, 44, and 20 yard touchdown passes to EJ Dydasco, Jonah Figueroa, and Kala Matthews as Castle closed the gap 42-28 with over four minutes left.

Failauga added his fifth touchdown from three yards out to put the game away.

This was a rematch of the 2018 OIA Division I championship game with the Marauders winning, 32-3. Waipahu improves to 1-1 overall, 1-0 league while Castle dropped to 0-2 overall, 0-1 league. 

Waipahu heads to Wahiawa to take on No. 14 Leilehua on Friday, Aug. 16. Castle has next week off before hosting Aiea on Saturday, Aug. 24.


Reach Brandon Ching at [email protected].




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