Mililani's Mene Perese lays a hit on a Moanalua player. Nicholas Gervais | Special to SL

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Moanalua RB Ishmil Scott runs in the open field against Mililani. Nicholas Gervais | Special to SL

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Mililani QB Jarin Morikawa throws a pass attempt against Moanalua. Nicholas Gervais | Special to SL

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Sat, Aug 11, 2012 @ Mililani [ 7:00 pm ]

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Moanalua

21

Mililani

31

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Moanalua (5-5-0)	0	0	6	15	21
Mililani (10-3-0)	0	24	0	7	31

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Jarin Morikawa 251 yd 2 TD

Maxwell Fiatoa 110 yd

Dayton Furuta 16 yd 1 TD

Ishmil Scott 99 yd 1 TD

Colton Dayacos-Gaspar 86 yd 1 TD

Donald Lambert 49 yd 1 TD

MILILANI - Jarin Morikawa is hardly satisfied.

Despite throwing for 251 yards with two scores and no interceptions in Mililani's 31-21 non-league win over Moanalua Saturday night, the senior quarterback mostly lamented about his performance.

A crowd of about 1,200 at John Kauinana Stadium saw the host Trojans (1-0) build a 24-0 halftime lead then hang on for the season-opening victory over Na Menehune (0-1).

"We had the flats open a lot and I missed some throws," said Morikawa, who finished 24-of-45 passing. "We had guys open, the receivers were running hard tonight, the (offensive) line was giving me plenty of time."

Trojans Rod York echoed the sentiments of his quarterback.

"We made a lot of mistakes, but we still took care of Moanalua," York said. "We made a lot of mental mistakes and committed a lot of undiscipline-type penalties, which falls on me, and it will be corrected."

The teams combined for 36 penalties, including 17 by Mililani for 164 yards.

York was also unpleased with the lack of production he got from the Trojans' rushing attack, which managed 65 yards on 25 runs.

"We need to run the ball a lot better than we did tonight and I need to call more run plays," said York, who is calling offensive plays this season. "We rotated four backs tonight just to try and see who would step up and we're still at the same place as when we ended our scrimmages. We're still trying to find our backs."

After a scoreless first quarter, Mililani manufactured a 10-play, 61-yard drive that was capped by a 2-yard touchdown run by Dayton Furuta. The Trojans lined up in an unbalanced line and Furuta, who was aligned deep in the I-formation, received the toss right from Morikawa and plunged into the end zone. Following the Mark Matas PAT, the score was 7-0 with nine minutes and 13 seconds left in the second quarter.

Moanalua turned it over on its ensuing possession when quarterback Maxwell Fiatoa was stripped by KK Padello and fellow defensive linemen Rex Manu recovered the loose ball for Mililani. Two plays later, Morikawa connected with Bronson Ramos for a 7-yard scoring play, with 8:29 left to make it 14-0.

Na Menehune answered with a 10-play drive, but it eventually stalled and they were forced to punt away and the Trojans took possession at their own 28-yard line. Morikawa eventually made them pay with his second touchdown pass on an 8-yard strike to Colton Dayacos-Gaspar. The receiver found a hole in the Menehune zone with 3:18 left and the PAT by Matas extended his team's lead to 21-0.

"Colton did good tonight, he was getting to his spots and no one was on him so I was getting him the ball and letting him do his thing," said Morikawa, who connected with seven different receivers in the game.

Mililani added a score just before halftime as Ryan Carlomany made a 32-yard field goal as time expired to make it 24-0 at the intermission.

"Our defense did a great job tonight," Morikawa said. "They held (Moanalua) down in the first quarter when we couldn't get anything going. In the second quarter we finally started rolling around and getting some rythym in our offense."

Moanalua got on the board midway through the third quarter on a 36-yard run by Ishmil Scott. On the scoring play, Scott received the toss right from Fiatoa, followed a block by his wide receiver and went untouched to paydirt. The extra point was no good and the Trojans' lead was cut to 24-6 with 6:34 left in the third.

Fiatoa was knocked out of the game late in the third quarter and replaced by backup Micah Kaneshiro. Two plays into the fourth quarter, with the Mililani pass rush closing in on him, Kaneshiro threw up a deep ball along the left sideline, which found the hands of Donald Lambert. Lambert made a juggling catch between two Trojan defenders before crossing the goal line and Landon Ogawa added the PAT to cut Mililani's lead to 24-13.

Moanalua coach Arnold Martinez expressed his frustration with the 19 penalties his team committed for 180 yards.

"We had a string of penalties that just destroyed us," Martinez said. "We'd stop them on drives and then give them a penalty to extend their drive and then on offense, we'd get a little bit of something going, but then we'd have a penalty that would kill our drive, so we have to clean that up."

Morikawa added a score with 5:30 to play on a 4-yard scramble off a broken play-action pass play. Moanalua closed the scoring with a 15-yard Kaneshiro touchdown pass to Jason Sharsh in the game's final minute.

York credited his defensive unit, which allowed just 13 first downs, and held Moanalua to 1-of-11 on third downs. Mililani got five sacks on the two Na Menehune quarterbacks.

"Our d-line and our defense kept us in the game," York said. "In the beginning we struggled - in the entire first half - and our scores came off of a short field or off turnovers, so it was set-up by our defense. We knew that our d-line and our defense would be our strength, but at the same time, we have to get it going offensively."

It was the first varsity game played at the new FieldTurf surface at Kauinana Stadium. A small ceremony during pre-game included State Rep. Marilyn Lee and Sharon Kauinana, widow of the former Mililani athletic director, who is the stadium's namesake.