Hawaiian Electric Game of the Week
Menes to host Mules with first place at stake




First place in the Oahu Interscholastic Association's Division I football standings will be at stake when No. 13 Moanalua plays host to No. 11 Leilehua this weekend.

The Mules (3-0 overall, 2-0 league) hold a half-game lead on Na Menehune (2-0, 1-0) entering Friday night's clash in Salt Lake, but their respectively resumes aren't all that similar.

Whereas Leilehua has won each of its first three games by an average of 20 points — including back-to-back shut outs to open the season — Moanalua has eked by with their two victories coming by a combined three points.

"We've had a rough start actually, but I'll take it," Na Menehune coach Savaii Eselu said.

Moanalua did not play in the opening week of the season before pulling off a 21-20 stunner over then-No. 8 Iolani with a game-winning Griffin Motas' field goal as time expired. It followed that up last weekend by erasing three separate Kailua leads to escape with a 19-18 victory.

"They can push," Eselu said of his players. "They definitely can push. They don't really rely much on coaches now, it's more repetition and a perfect-effort kind of thing. Even though the score showed that it was a down-to-the-wire kind of thing twice, they were still locked in, they still knew what was going on, where we were able to do it and so on and so forth, but they showed that they have a great grasp of everything."

Eselu's offense is averaging 389 yards per game, most of it coming from senior quarterback RJ Javar (325.5 pass yards per game). Javar has completed 59 of his 86 pass attempts (68.6 percent). He threw two touchdown passes in of Na Menehune's two games thus far, but has also been intercepted five times — four of them coming against the Surfriders last week.

"RJ's production has been a little bit of a surprise for me," Eselu said of Javar, who transferred from Mililani prior to the season. "I had an idea he'd be a good trigger man, but the expectation on what we saw from him since his transfer period, he hasn't really scratched the surface yet and he knows it."

Javar has already developed a connection with his slotbacks, Jansen York (15 catches for 228 yards, TD) and Rudy Kealoha (18 for 212). York also played at Mililani last season.

"Rudy and Jansen have been going at it — sometimes kind of too competitive — but it's been a breath of fresh air to see that competition every day and it's also been sparking the wideouts (Dacyres Domingo and Lawsen Lee) and forcing them to kind of get in on the action," Eselu said. "Going into it, it was always Rudy, Rudy, Rudy, (but) now going into it, it's Rudy, Jansen, DeCyres and Lawson, so it's a good support crew we have."

Eselu added that he's been tweaking a few things to Javar's liking and comfortability.

While the wins have been nice, the execution can be improved upon, Eselu noted.

"If I had to put a number on it from a scale of one to 10, I would say, based on what we have done this week, it should be at least a seven," Eselu said. "We gotta be able to clean this thing up in all three phases of the game and once that happens, I think we'll be OK and we don't have to have a squeezer down to the very last second, so I think we did a lot more cerebral stuff (in practice) this week and it should be a lot cleaner; that's kind of my hope."

Javar and company will be tested by a Leilehua defense that is holding opponents to just 156.3 yards (66 rushing, 90.3 passing) and 4.3 points per game.

"They are legit and we are not taking anything for granted. We're taking it for full face value," Eselu said.

The Mules have recorded 17 sacks, five fumble recoveries and two interceptions through their first three games. Junior defensive end Kiaka Pio has 4 1/2 of those sacks and also forced a fumble in last Friday's 23-13 win over Waipahu.

"That front four there's some ballers," Eselu said of the Mules' defensive line. "They caught our attention and the only thing we don't know is what they eat, that's pretty much it. They're a different team from last year and I might even go as far as to say that from what I've seen they might be a team of character and not characters, which is a strong testament to coach (Mark) Kurisu's ‘triple F' philosophy that I've been hearing about."

That would be "faith, family and football," as the Leilehua often echoes.

So far, it's resulted in another F for the Mules: fun.

"So far, so good. We're progressing," Kurisu said. "It's good to see our kids from where we first got them in February, to see how much they've begun to jell and come together."

The Mules opened the season with a 35-0 win over Open-Division Farrington and pitched a second straight shutout with a 14-0 win over Kailua in week two. Kurisu said the momentum began with solid outings in scrimmages against Konawaena and Kahuku the week before the season opener.

"They presented different challenges — as any offense would — but we just gotta simplify it for our boys, let them play fast and be able to adapt to personnel during the game," Kurisu said.

Kurisu said the first few weeks have revealed to him growth in his players since since last year's 8-3 campaign.

"A lot of the game experience has helped them form last year. We were in a bunch of tight games, even tight losses, and that kind of build them up for this year in terms of how to prepare their minds, keep their heads in the game and even when things may not be going right, just how to stay positive and focus on doing their job," Kurisu said. "They've learned that as long as you put in the work, good things happen and that's allowed a lot of the momentum to come our way, just by playing through adversity."

While Leilehua's defense has drawn most of the attention, Kurisu said the offense has continued to progress under offensive coordinator Andrew Manley and first year starter Kalei Akagi, a junior wide receiver-turned-quarterback.

"It's been a lot better in terms of the direction we're moving. For coach (Manley), it's been his third first-year quarterback in three years, but he hasn't had somebody who has been running that show for two years straight," Kurisu said. "I think Kalei is doing enough right now to manage the offense and I think we have some guys that have stepped up on the line of scrimmage — our big boys — help us get the run game going and take some pressure off of Kalei and the receiving corps."

Akagi has completed just 44.4 percent of his pass attempts, but has also run for two touchdowns in addition to his four TDs through the air. Eselu said Akagi at the quarterback position presents a unique set of challenges.

"From my perspective that was probably the most solid decision to put Akagi at QB, just because of what he presents," Eselu said. "This boy got wheels and you gotta really honor that because if the pass breaks down, I mean, this guy can pop it open just by simply rolling out, so it makes it a chess match."

Kurisu has also been pleased with the production from junior slotback Jonathan Vasquez, who posted 116 receiving yards and a TD in the win over Farrington.

"He's a first-year guy on varsity. He played for us sophomore year on the JV, but he's shown the potential to be explosive on offense and he's doing a great job punting for us, which really helps us on the special teams side of it," Kurisu said.

Defensively, Na Menehune have held opponents to 255 yards (146.5 rushing, 108.5 passing) per game.

Ultimately, Kurisu feels it will come down to who wins the line of scrimmage.

"Any time you look at any football game, I'm always going to say it boils down to the o-line versus d-line match-ups, that's where it's going to be won, in the trenches," Kurisu said. "Even though teams like to pass, it's still about the play up front in the trenches."

The last time the met, Moanalua came away with a 23-10 road win over Leilehua at Hugh Yoshida Stadium on Sept. 14, 2018.

Kickoff Friday is scheduled for approximately 7:30 p.m., or about 25 minutes after the completion of the 5 p.m. JV game.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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