OIA Football
Defense powers No. 15 Nanakuli to semifinal win over Kaimuki


Kalani Takase | ScoringLive
October 22, 2022, 1:31am

  


Fri, Oct 21, 2022 @ Nanakuli [ 7:30 pm ]

Kaimuki

7

Nanakuli

37

Final 1 2 3 4 T
Kaimuki (4-5-0) 0 7 0 07
Nanakuli (10-2-0) 0 14 8 1537
Allen Mahoe III 97 yd 2 TD
Ofa Vehikite 51 yd

NANAKULI — The No. 1 seed is moving on. 

A year after it was a win away from a playoff berth, the Nanakuli football team finds itself a win away from a league championship. 

Led by a staunch defensive effort, the Golden Hawks punched their ticket to next Saturday's title game of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division II tournament with a 37-7 semifinal win over fourth-seeded Kaimuki Friday night. 

"This was a good team win," said senior defensive lineman Isaiah Enriquez, who came up with two of Nanakuli's 12 tackles for loss. 

The Bulldogs entered the postseason averaging more than 37 points and 444 yards per game. They managed only 163 total yards against the Golden Hawks. 

"The whole week, both sides of the ball — offense and defense — we got each other ready for this game," Enriquez said. "It was a mindset; we said we was going come in and win and we did."

Nanakuli's defense surrendered only 12 first downs to the Bulldogs, whose lone score came on a 23-yard touchdown pass from Iosefa Letuli to Jeremiah White just before the end of the first half. 

Kaimuki pulled to within 14-7 at the intermission with that score, but it was all Golden Hawks the rest of the way. 

Nanakuli opened the second half with a short field after the Bulldogs failed to recover an attempted onside kickoff. Instead, Kainalu Lewis covered it up and the hosts proceeded to march 50 yards in seven plays, capped by Allen Mahoe III's 1-yard touchdown run with 10 minutes and one second left in the third quarter. Hansen Salausa-Kaawa completed a pass to Richard Federico for the ensuing two-point conversion to make the score 22-7. 

Kaimuki's first possession of the second half ended with a punt and its second resulted in a turnover on downs. Maika Peralta dropped Avin Tanioka for a four-yard loss on first down and a few plays later — with the Bulldogs going for it on fourth-and-4 — a few Nanakuli defenders were there to stop Ofa Vehikite for a 2-yard loss. 

"The defense did an amazing job, as they always do; We have an amazing defense," Mahoe expressed. "It's just great how, even if we struggle, we know we have a defense that got our back."

Six plays after the change of possession — and two plays into the fourth quarter — Mahoe turned the right corner for an 8-yard TD run. David Kalili ran in the two-point conversion that followed to stretch it to a 30-7 cushion. 

The Golden Hawks noticeably pushed the pace on offense out of the intermission with an uptempo, no-huddle attack. 

"For us, it's just about taking numbers wherever we can get it; playing basketball on grass," Nanakuli coach Kili Watson said. "We saw that we had three-on-two on the outside, so attacking that area, attacking that with some tempo definitely, it was a good adjustment."

Mahoe noted that fatigue began to play a factor for Kaimuki in the second half. The Bulldogs had numerous players suffer from muscle cramps that caused frequent stoppages in play. 

"That was good because we realized how gassed they were getting, so we figured if we turned up our tempo a little bit we could make some big plays," said Mahoe, who had 11 total touches for 106 yards from scrimmage. 

Mahoe led all players with 97 rushing yards on 10 carries. 

"It was a pretty big game for us, honestly. Execution wise, though, I feel like we struggled a little bit in the start, but after a little while, after the first half, we kind of got our gears going and we started rolling," Mahoe said. 

Nanakuli stumbled a bit out of the gates, as Mahoe alluded to. It lost a fumble on just its second play from scrimmage and then came up empty on its second possession, which resulted in a turnover on downs despite goal-to-go from the 7-yard line. 

However, Kaimuki went punt-interception-punt on its first three drives and Nanakuli got a boost of momentum from Mahoe's 43-yard run off of right tackle to penetrate the red zone. Three plays later, Christian Asinsin powered his way into the end zone from eight yards out on a third down to open the scoring. 

The PAT was no good, but four plays into the Bulldogs' ensuing drive, Enriquez came up with a fumble recovery to get the ball back to his offense. 

"I just seen the ball rolling through the guy's leg that I just thought of as a cheeseburger," Enriquez quipped. 

Nanakuli's offense then orchestrated an 11-play, 86-yard drive that took more than five minutes off the clock and culminated with a 26-yard touchdown run by David Kalili. The drive included a key conversion on fourth-and-10 that saw Lewis, the punter, scamper for a 12-yard run on a fake punt. That came four plays after Salausa-Kaawa hit Mahoe for a nine-yard completion to move the chains on third-and-5. 

"We picked up plenty (momentum) with that. The offense, they always just do their own thing; we know they got our back, they always do. When we need them the most, they step up," Enriquez said. 

Asinsin closed out the scoring with his 6-yard TD run with about five minutes remaining. 

Salausa-Kaawa completed 12 of his 20 passes for 134 yards without an interception. Nathan Pele-Tukumoeatu caught five passes for 52 yards and also carried the ball seven times for 35 yards. 

Nanakuli averaged 7.1 yards per rush behind its offensive line of Francis Paaluhi, Jayden Dela Cruz, Darryl Hoapili, Mykennessey Conrad and Shane Calarruda. 

The Golden Hawks (8-1) ran for 15 of their 24 first downs. They were 5 of 7 on third-down conversions and allowed only one sack by the Bulldogs. 

Kaimuki was only 1 of 9 on third downs. It allowed three sacks of Letuli, who only attempted six passes; He completed four of them for 56 yards with one interception before he left the game a few minutes into the third quarter due to an apparent upper body injury. 

"You know, first half I thought we played pretty well," Kaimuki coach Reid Yoshikawa said. "We were playing up and up and that injury to our quarterback — it just, it deflated the whole game for us."

The Bulldogs (4-5)  were also playing with heavy hearts after sophomore lineman Nicholas Talavou Semeatu passed away last week due to a medical condition. During the pregame captains' meeting and coin toss, Semeatu's No. 77 jersey was brought to midfield by his teammates. 

"We lost a loved one, one of our guys last week Thursday, so it was already pretty difficult already to get the team ready and focused, but that's no excuse, but I thought overall we played tough and hats off to Nanakuli, they were the better team tonight and all season," Yoshikawa said. 

Just prior to the start of the second half, the public address announcer at Nanakuli acknowledged Semeatu's passing and expressed the condolences from the Golden Hawks to the Semeatu family and the Bulldogs. 

"That affected me," Yoshikawa admitted. "That kinda affected me because that kid was the epitome of being a role model and a leader and he had a big heart, he was a big dude and you know, I'm very grateful to Nanakuli for doing that for us tonight."

Watson took a moment in his postgame comments to express his sympathies to Yoshikawa's bunch. 

"I had a good conversation with coach Reid before the game. I'll be honest, I wasn't aware of it and when he told me — you know as a coach, we're here for more than the game. We're here to help these men through life and I mean, a loss like that is tough and it's devastating and I feel for him and my condolences go out to him and to Kaimuki's football program," Watson said. 

Nanakuli will face Kaiser, which rallied to a 31-24 overtime win over Pearl City in the other semifinal Friday night, at Mililani's John Kauinana Stadium at 4 p.m. on Oct. 29. Both teams will represent the OIA in next month's First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA Division II State Championships. 


Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




Show your support

Every contribution, no matter the size, will help ScoringLive continue its mission to provide the best and most comprehensive coverage of high school sports in the state of Hawaii and beyond.

Please consider making a contribution today.

ADVERTISEMENT


IMAGE GALLERY


MORE STORIES

No. 1 seeds Aiea, Kailua to face off for OIA Division I baseball crown

Na Alii posted a 3-1 win over Roosevelt behind Aidan Yoshida's complete game, while two pitchers combined...

Sabers, Na Menehune to meet in OIA semifinal round Monday

Campbell defeated Roosevelt in four sets Thursday, while Moanalua topped Waipahu in the nightcap as both...

Late surge propels Kapolei to mercy-rule win over Kalani

The Hurricanes found their offensive groove in the late stages, scoring 14 runs down the stretch to back...

Kapaa takes down Kauai for second straight league win

Bob Manintin pitched six strong innings as the Warriors snapped the Red Raiders' seven-game winning streak.

Waianae holds off Castle; Mililani next

Teizsha Kaopuiki hit two home runs to power the Seariders in the opening round of the OIA Division I...

Surfriders erase early deficit, pull away from Falcons

Ninth-ranked Kailua scored 10 unanswered runs behind six scoreless innings of relief from DJ Kauahi to...