OIA Football
Kahuku turns over MIlilani, 50-13, for OIA Red crown


   



Fri, Nov 2, 2012 @ Aloha Stadium [ 7:00 pm ]


Final 1 2 3 4 T
Mililani (10-3-0) 0 7 0 613
Kahuku (12-0-0) 29 0 21 050
Viliami Livai 81 yd 1 TD
Jarin Morikawa 230 yd 1 TD
Aofaga Wily 147 yd 2 TD
Dayton Furuta 48 yd 1 TD
Lamone Williams 20 yd 2 TD
Ekolu Ramos 56 yd 1 TD

Hand it to Kahuku.

And that's just what Mililani did.

Two days after Halloween, the Red Raiders were treated with turnovers and used trickery to roll Mililani, 50-13, to repeat as O'ahu Interscholastic Association Red football champions Friday night at Hawaiian Airlines Field at Aloha Stadium.

The Trojans (9-2), third in the ScoringLive/OC 16 Power Rankings, turned over the ball a nightmarish eight times to the top-ranked Red Raiders (10-0). It was Kahuku's 17th league crown since the inception of the championship in 1970 and 23rd overall, the most of any OIA school.

The 50 points, 28 of them after turnovers and 14 more directly from them, is the most in an OIA title game. The previous high was Kahuku's 48-0 win against Aiea in 2001, when two champions were crowned (the other was Kailua) after the postseason was shortened because a week in the regular season was postponed by the events of 9/11.

Shortly after the game, which went to the mercy rule running clock when Kahuku made it 43-7 with six minutes, 51 second left in the third quarter, the Red Raiders were announced as the No. 1 seed for the First Hawaiian Bank Division I state tournament. Interscholastic League of Honolulu champion Punahou is No. 2.

Mililani will travel to Maui in a opening-round game against Baldwin Friday at War Memorial Stadium. The winner plays Punahou in the semifinals.

It was a tough game to comprehend or explain.

"It's all on me," Mililani coach Rod York said. "That's the bottom line."

In was an uncharacteristic performance by the Trojans, whose success was partly attributed to keeping mistakes to a minimum. York could only tell his players one thing: "We'll be back."

The Red Raiders' defense forced five fumbles - three from receivers after gains 12, 9 and 5 yards - and got three interceptions. The ubiquitous Kawe Johnson returned one 90 yards for a touchdown. He wasn't the only defender to score. Linebacker Clifford Ramseyer returned a fumble nine yards for Kahuku's last TD.

"Our defense did a great job," Kahuku coach Reggie Torres said. "They've been doing a great job for us all season."

Ironically, the Trojans' defense might have turned in a better performance. Kahuku totaled 226 yards of offense compared to Mililani's 268. Kahuku had only nine first downs (to Mililani's 16) because most of the time its offense played on a short field because of the turnovers. The Red Raiders had 44 offensive plays to Mililani's 70.

Trojans' quarterback Jarin Morikawa was 24 of 47 for 230 yards with one TD and three interceptions.

Kahuku running back Aofaga Wily only had to carry the ball half as many times from last week's 40 rushes against Leilehua. He had 147 yards and two TDs, plus he threw for one TD.

Defensive lineman/tight end Lamone Williams had the game of his life. He had two TD receptions, one coming right after he intercepted a screen pass.

After four turnovers, Kahuku had drives of 11 yards in three plays, 43 yards in three plays, 40 yards in five plays, 14 yards in one play. Its longest drive was 78 yards and that lasted only four plays because of a 66-yard gain by Wily.

Torres put the game in his defense's hand from the start. Kahuku won the coin toss and elected to defer its decision to the second half. Mililani received the opening kickoff and proceeded to turn over the ball on each of its first five possessions, enabling Kahuku to jump to a 29-0 lead after one quarter.

Mililani lost the ball on the second play of the game after Morikawa connected with Erren Jean-Pierre for a 12-yard gain. But Johnson forced a fumble that Siamau Mapu recovered at the Trojans' 43. But Kahuku went three downs and punted.

But Mililani did it again. Mapu recovered his second fumble after a complete pass to Ekolu Ramos at the Trojans' 11. On third-and-5 at the 6, Wily took a handoff up the middle. But just before reaching the line of scrimmage, he made a jump pass to a wide-open Williams in the end zone. Jake Samsel's PAT made it 7-0.

"Mililani's defense was playing us tough," Torres said. "We had to go with a gimmick play just to score; they were shutting down our running at the beginning until we made an adjustment in the second half."

"That was a first," said Wily, who added jumping to throw was part of the play's design. "That's probably once in a lifetime."

Then lightning struck a third time when the Trojans fumbled a third time after another completion, this time at the Mililani 43. Three plays later, Wily scored on a 32-yard run to make it 14-0.

The Trojans lost the ball again on their fourth series on Laselle Thompson's interception at the Kahuku 42. It appeared the Red Raiders were going to cash in again. when Wily took a handoff and tossed it back to QB Lasi Livai, who made a long completion to Thompson inside the Mililani 10. But the play was nullified by an ineligible receiver down field. Kahuku eventually punted and a personal foul on the play gave Mililani possession at the Red Raiders' 49.

It appeared the Trojans were going cut their deficit in half as they drove to the Kahuku 26. But on first down, Morikawa's pass went off his receiver's shoulder pads and into the waiting hands of safety Johnson, who returned the ball 90 yards for a score. Polikapu Liua ran in the 2-point conversion to make it 22-0.

Mililani finally ended the bleeding on its next series, but still ended up punting to the Kahuku 22. Wily's 66-yard jaunt to the Mililani 4 set up Liua's TD run on the next play to make it 29-0 with 1:40 left in the first quarter.

The Trojans again went turnover-free on their ensuing series, this time putting together an 11-play, 80-yard drive that ended with an 18-yard TD pass from Morikawa to Ramos to make it 29-7. It stayed that way until halftime.

Kahuku received the second-half kickoff, but eventually punted. But Mililani lost a fumble on its first play from scrimmage at its 40. Five plays later, Wily scored on an eight-yard run to make it 36-7.

Thanks to a hustling Soli Afalava, the Trojans managed only a three-yard return on the ensuing kickoff to their own 10. On second-and-7 at the Mililani 43, The 6-foot-3 Williams, hearing instructions from coaches on the sidelines, backed off on rushing the QB and reached up with his long arms and intercepted Morikawa's screen pass and returned it 16 yards to the Trojans' 14. Williams then caught his second TD pass of the game, this one from Livai, on first down to make it 43-7.

"All I could remember was our coaches yelling, 'Watch out for the screen,'" Williams said of the interception. "It (the pass) just came to me."

Life continued to get miserable for the Trojans, who fumbled again when Taliauli Vaifoou sacked and forced a Morikawa fumble that Ramseyer picked up and ran in from nine yards to make it 50-7 with 4:29 left in the third quarter.

The Trojans would score on a one-yard run by RB Dayton Furuta with seven seconds left. An incomplete pass on the 2-point conversion ended the Trojans' night.

The remaining two Division I state berths will be decided tonight. Leilehua will play Farrington for third place in the Red, while Hilo and Kealakehe will resume their suspended game from last Saturday's tsunami warning. The winners of those games will play in a first-round game Friday on the Big Island. The winner will play Kahuku in the follow week's semifinal.



Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at [email protected].




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