Football
Kahuku rallies past Mililani to OIA Open Division football crown


  



Fri, Dec 10, 2021 @ Leilehua [ 7:30 pm ]


Final 1 2 3 4 T
Mililani (5-3-0) 14 0 0 014
Kahuku (10-0-0) 7 0 7 721

WAHIAWA — The top-ranked Kahuku football team overcame the elements, as well as an upset-minded Mililani squad en route to its record-28th league title Friday. 

The Red Raiders (8-0) rallied to a 21-14 win over the fourth-ranked Trojans (5-2) in the championship game of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Open Division tournament on a rain-drenched evening in central Oahu. A crowd of about 600 endured water-logged conditions at Leilehua's Hugh Yoshida Stadium.

"It feels good to bring it back," said junior Liona Lefau, who caught a 26-yard touchdown pass from Waika Crawford to put Kahuku ahead for good with seven minutes and 35 seconds left in the game. 

The Red Raiders fell behind, 14-0, less than five minutes into the game as the Trojans cashed in on two early interceptions — including Gavin Hunter's 50-yard pick-six. 

"We knew we made mistakes early in the game and we just needed to stay together and nobody got down, nobody had finger-pointing either way," Kahuku coach Sterling Carvalho said. 

Carvalho's crew navigated its way through uncharted territory Friday. While it had already faced Mililani once this season — and came away with a resounding 55-20 win — this one was a nail-biter until the closing minutes. 

"We told everybody, ‘One play at a time, one drive at a time' and we just kept at it, stayed together: offense, defense, special teams," Carvalho said. "Everybody believed that we could still finish the game."

Kahuku had only trailed one other time this season, when it fell behind, 7-0, to Kapolei (but went on to pull away handily, 41-7) back on Oct. 15, the opening night of the season.

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The Red Raiders faced a halftime deficit for the first time this year. But instead of pressing the proverbial panic button, they leaned on their run game and relied on their defense to grind out a successful title defense.

"We knew it was gonna be a hard fight," Lefau said. "We knew they were a good team, so fourteen-zero, we still had plenty time to play."

After it threw a pair of picks in its first four plays from scrimmage, Kahuku found success on its third possession, when it strung together a nine-play drive that included three third-down conversions. Quarterback Waika "Toa" Crawford threw an 11-yard pass to receiver Kainoa "Kaikai" Carvalho on third-and-8 and three plays later scrambled for eight yards to move the chains on third-and-8. 

His 46-yard scoring strike to Carvalho to convert a third-and-17 and cap the 60-yard drive was surely the most unlikely conversion. Carvalho hauled in the quick pass from Crawford just in front of the line of scrimmage, found a seam between a trio of receivers blocking downfield and burst through the hole to turn the short screen pass into a long scoring play. 

"Our playmakers came tonight — Kaikai, he was there. Liona with that other touchdown — like I said, we just believed and we stayed together as a team and that's what helped us persevere under these elements tonight."

The steady rainfall throughout the night forced Sterling Carvalho to alter his offensive game plan. Kahuku ran the ball 36 times for the game, with all but a dozen of those attempts coming after halftime. 

"The emphasis was to run the ball," he acknowledged. "Because of this weather, we kept it on the ground and we were able to go back to what we do best and that's how we finished the game."

Kahuku received the kickoff to open the second half and marched 67 yards in seven plays — all of them runs — capped by Clyde Taulapapa's 1-yard plunge into the end zone with 9:52 left in the third quarter. Kaikai Carvalho's PAT knotted the score at 14.

Mililani went three-and-out on its first second-half possession. On its next, it saw quarterback Emana Tarape get his passed tipped and intercepted by Lefau. The Red Raiders lost yardage on each of the next two plays and eventually punted on fourth-and-17. However, Kaimana Carvalho's punt bounced a few times and glanced off of a Mililani player before Kingsley "Manulele" Ah You covered up the live ball at the Trojans' 30-yard line. 

A few plays later — on fourth-and-6 — Crawford took a deep dropback and rolled to his right before he threw back to the left side of the field, where an awaiting Lefau caught the ball and then proceeded to muscle his way the final 10 yards through a number of defenders and into the end zone. 

"We've been practicing that play for a while now but we just didn't really need it, so we needed it at that time and we ran it, I caught the ball and I just wanted to get in the end zone," said Lefau, a 6-foot-1, 210-pound junior linebacker and tight end. 

Sterling Carvalho revealed that the play is call the "Summer special."

"Summer is (Lefau's) mom's name," he said. "So we already knew the package, you know, we practiced that for weeks so once we called the ‘Summer special,' it was in dedication to his mom. He gets kind of lost and then he pops and it worked."

Kaikai Carvalho's PAT closed out the scoring with 7:35 left to play. 

Mililani turned it over on downs at the Kahuku 43-yard line on its penultimate possession, but got the ball back with 2:28 left. It reached the Kahuku 30 after a 23-yard pass completion that would have moved the chains. Instead, however, Leonard Ah You forced the fumble and Brock Fonoimoanalua recovered it near midfield. 

With no timeouts remaining, the Trojans were unable to stop the clock as Kahuku took a couple of kneel-downs to close it out. 

"We knew turnovers were gonna be the biggest thing — I said that at the beginning of the game — and when we had our couple turnovers they were able to take advantage, but in the second half when we got those turnovers, we flipped the script and was able to capitalize on their miscues," Sterling Carvalho said. 

Kahuku starting quarterback Jason Mariteragi was intercepted by Joshua Foster on his second pass attempt — just his team's third offensive snap. Foster returned it 35 yards and Makanalea Meyer ran in the 2-yard touchdown on the very next play to open the scoring with 7:51 left in the first quarter. 

Mariteragi was relieved by Crawford at quarterback the rest of the game. However, the latter was intercepted on his very first place — which led directly to Hunter's pick-six. 

But Sterling Carvalho said the decision to stick with Crawford the rest of the way was a means of protecting Mariteragi's previously-injured shoulder. 

"We were gonna play both and then once Toa got in and we wanted to do some run plays with the quarterback and we didn't want to put Jason in harm's way, so Toa came in and he was able to bring that extra that we needed from our quarterback," he said. 

Crawford finished 10-of-16 passing for 132 yards. He also ran 10 times for 32 yards. 

The teams combined for 447 yards of total offense and six turnovers between them. 

Both teams also registered season-low marks in points scored and total yards, but the weather wasn't the mitigating factor, according to Mililani coach Rod York. 

"Nah, I mean, we play in it, you know what I mean? Kahuku's used to it, it's been raining all this week. This is actually good for us. It was a blessing, it wasn't even hard rain. It was more so that we played a tough team," York explained. 

Tarape threw for 146 yards on 17-of-27 passing and two interceptions. Nehemiah Timoteo carried 14 times for 64 yards. 

"They gave us everything and under these conditions, I mean, you know, we just had to persevere and that's what we did; we stayed together as a team," Sterling Carvalho said. 

The Trojans had an opportunity to pad their lead in the second quarter. Tarape was picked off by Malosi Lefau on the first play of the second stanza. However, the Red Raiders went three-and-out and Mililani got possession at its own 15-yard line. 

Mililani put together a 17-play drive that took nearly nine minutes off the clock, but was resigned to trying a field goal from 42 yards out. However, Makel Paiva's attempt was wide left and no good. 

"Hats off to Kahuku. They fought back and they got heart, they play well and their defense, you got two good defenses out there, you know, our defense spotted us a fourteen-point lead and we didn't take advantage of it, so hats off to Kahuku."

The Trojans were seeking their fifth league football crown and first since 2018. 

"I'll probably be tossing and turning for a long time knowing that we was up, fourteen-zero," York said. "Yeah, you can't ask for anything more than that."

The Red Raiders won their second straight OIA title. They held off Mililani in the 2019 championship game by a score of 7-3. 

Both teams have qualified for the state tournament later this month. 



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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