Lord leads Radford into final

For the second consecutive year, the Division II champions from the OIA and ILH will meet for the state title.

Backup quarterback Justin Lord, playing for injured starter Ryan Burciaga, threw for two touchdowns and ran for another as the Rams advanced to the championship game of the HHSAA Division II Football State Championship with a 37-27 victory over Kamehameha-Maui last night at John E. Velasco Stadium.

Radford (10-1) will face Iolani for the state title Friday at 5 p.m. at Aloha Stadium.

"It's not easy to stay focused at this time of the year with Thanksgiving and stuff," Rams coach Fred Salanoa said. "(The players) didn't want to take time off after last year, so they started working out in January, so all of this goes to the players."

Lord, who spent most of the year at wide receiver, finished 9-for-16 for 145 yards in his first start of the season at quarterback.

"Coach had the confidence in me to come out throwing early and his confidence in me gave me confidence in myself," Lord said.

Special teams played a crucial role for both squads in the first quarter, as a shanked punt of 15 yards by the Warriors set up Radford's first score when Lord hooked up with Kyle Blair for a 22-yard touchdown midway through the first quarter.

Kamehameha-Maui answered as Shane Kamakaokalani's 40-yard kickoff return led to a 52-yard touchdown pass from Keahi Raikes to Rocky Keawekane to even the score at 7.

But Blair would return the favor, as he brought back the ensuing kickoff 70 yards inside the Warriors' 15-yard line before Lord's 6-yard touchdown run made it 14-7 with less than a minute left in the first quarter. Jamie Whitworth added a 32-yard field goal in the second quarter as the Rams went into halftime up 17-7.

"We thought they would game-plan to take away our run by putting eight guys in the box, so we knew we had to have some success passing early to get them out of the box," Salanoa said.

The Rams pushed the lead to 24-7 midway through the third quarter as Mike Sooto hauled in a 36-yard touchdown pass from Lord. After the defense forced a turnover on downs, Trevor Maldon scored on a 1-yard run 3 minutes later to make it 31-7.

But the Warriors would mount one last charge as Kamakaokalani scored on a 1-yard touchdown run with 3 minutes left in the third quarter to make it 31-13 after the 2-point try failed. Then, after two missed field goals by Whitworth, Raikes hooked up with Keawekane again for an 83-yard touchdown pass to cut the Rams lead to 10 .

Radford would get an 11-yard touchdown run by Luke Failauga with a minute left to ice the game despite an 80-yard touchdown reception by Keawekane just 15 seconds later.

"My whole deal is to reward all of the student-athletes by getting them in the game," Salanoa said. "We gave up some big plays and we'll have to shore up our pass defense before next week."