King Kekaulike wins on wild play

WAILUKU, Maui » In what has to rank as one of the most unlikely game-winning sequences in the history of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association football tournament, King Kekaulike turned a botched final play into a 38-37 victory over Iolani in a seesaw Division II semifinal at War Memorial Stadium.

With 10.5 seconds remaining in last night's game, the ball on Iolani's 19-yard line and no timeouts remaining, Kekaulike ran a complicated play featuring a double-handoff and a flea-flicker-type toss back to quarterback Shelton Bangasan.

The ball hit Bangasan on the helmet and bounced onto the ground. Bangasan picked up the loose ball, avoided a tackler, rolled out to his left and found Randen Abafo all alone in the middle of the end zone as time expired.

The stunning and unlikely victory earned Kekaulike a berth in Friday's Division II final at Aloha Stadium against Kauai. It will mark the first time a neighbor island team has reached a state football final.

"The pass took a century to come down," Kekaulike's first-year head coach, J.W. Kenton, noted after the thriller.

"This was a game in which two very good teams slugged it out," he added. "Iolani is an incredible team. They were the defending champion for a reason. Somebody had to knock them off."

Iolani opened the scoring with a 25-yard field goal with 8:59 in the first quarter, and Kekaulike responded with a 19-yard scoring run with 3:42 remaining in the period.

Iolani regained the lead on the first of quarterback Ryan Dung's five touchdown passes, this one a 23-yarder to Reid Furukawa. Kekaulike's Javan Fulton then scored on an 8-yard run, before Dung hooked up on a 10-yarder with Aaron Fong with 13 seconds left to give the Raiders a 17-12 halftime lead.

The two teams combined for five touchdowns in the third quarter, with Kekaulike scoring three of them on a 14-yard run by Kyle Duarte, a sneak from the 1 by Bangasan and a 41-yard dash by Michael Douglas. Iolani countered with TD tosses by Dung to Ronnie Hirokawa and a juggling 50-yard reception by Furukawa.

Kekaulike took a 32-31 lead into the final period, but Iolani went ahead again, 37-32, on Dung's 9-yard completion to Justin Yamamoto with 5:06 left in the game.

But Kekaulike pulled out the unlikely victory by gambling on the final play of the game. Bangasan handed the ball off to Shannon Kamakaokalani, who handed the ball to Duarte, who pitched it back to Bangasan for a play they'll be talking about in Upcountry Maui for years to come.

Kauai 17, Waipahu 6

Justyn Jumawan-Perreira returned a pair of interceptions for touchdowns as the Red Raiders knocked the Marauders out of the state tournament and advanced to the Divison II championship game.

Waipahu jumped out to the early lead on a 59-yard run by Matt Soueira before Jumawan-Perreira took over. The safety picked off Waipahu quarterback Gil Fernandez on the 20-yard line and ran it in for a 7-6 lead in the second quarter then grabbed another of Fernandez's offerings and returned it 55 yards for a score to seal it. Perreira finished the game with three tackles in addition to his two interceptions.

Fernandez only threw the ball five times in the game, completing one.

The Marauders outrushed the Red Raiders 111-9 but were outgained 133-16 in the air thanks to Kauai quarterback Andrew Renaud, who completed 19 of his 31 passes to six different receivers but threw a pair of interceptions.

Darren Satta -- who was in on nine tackles -- helped Kauai's defense hold the Marauders to one third-down conversion in 10 chances and forced six fumbles and three interceptions.

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