Sidelines
IT was fourth down. The whole game came down to this. Kahuku was set up to punt, but the Red Raiders couldn't punt, not after what had happened all night. You knew this if you'd been watching this game, there was no way they were going to punt that ball and chance another disaster. You had to know it. Ferron Fonoimoana knew it. The champs made the plays
"I knew the ball was coming to me," he said. He held his shoulder and winced.
But he had that one last play in him. The snap came to him, as an upback in punt formation, and then it, well, it all just opened up in front of him. Everything opened up for Kahuku, just like it was destiny.
A roar from the Kahuku side, then shouts from the St. Louis bleachers. It was close. It was the game. The chains strrrrretched ... the roar grew.
And the champs were champs once again.
They hung on last night, hung on with white knuckles and tearing fingernails. Hung on with burning forearms and searing tendons, hung on desperately, hoping and praying and playing. Hung on and gripped that game with everything they had.
Short.
St. Louis receiver Kainoa Fernandez short on fourth down with 4:26 left. The ball back to Kahuku. Then, it was good! Kahuku's James Kammerer with a Mr. Clutch catch to keep those chains moving, keep that ball in Red Raider hands. And then, fourth down and Fonoimoana on the fake punt and the winning dive. They had hung on. Barely.
Kahuku's mistakes set this up. The Red Raiders' own fumbles put St. Louis on its goal line, set up St. Louis with a good chance to win.
Kahuku was too good for this. The Red Raiders did it. They rope-a-doped us. They can't run? They spent the last three weeks fumbling and struggling and sandbagging, setting all of us up. The Raiders came out in a power-I and started reeling off yardage. They would run on St. Louis. They would run right at them.
Ah, but things are never easy. Mulivai Pula, the streak in cleats, started limping after just three glorious runs. He was banged up then, a shell of his former self, but still banging. He had gone from Carl Lewis to Butterbean, taking roundhouse knocks, but slugging right back. And it wasn't as pretty, wasn't as breathtaking. But it was brutally effective.
And then, in the third quarter, he was gone.
It looked like one of his old runs, the kind where he found a seam and disappeared, where all you could do was brace yourself for the sonic boom. Eighty-two yards and a vapor trail, and the real Kahuku was showing itself.
It had followed a 76-yard scamper by his running mate, quarterback Inoke Funaki, who'd pivoted, circled around, decided to keep the ball, cut sharply, and found himself in the open field. Touchdown, and the red storm went wild, newspaper fluttering to earth like snow, the Florida State war chant in full frenzy.
Everything was now up a notch, emotion at full tilt, Kahuku momentum feeding on itself. All the Raiders had to do was play defense and hold on to the ball.
And Kahuku can play defense. How to describe it? The Raiders arrive.
Forget the spread, the gimmicks, the long ball and the track meets. Kahuku was returning to its roots.
Run. And stick.
But the penalties were still there, and so were the miscues. Penalties. The punting game. (Whoa!) Dropping the ball. This game shouldn't have been that close, but it was. Because Kahuku continues to shoot itself in the foot. All those mistakes and that kind of outcome?
At the end, Cal Lee held his head high, almost bending backward, patting his players on the helmet. "I'll probably get a good night's rest," he said, "wake up, read the paper and find out what really happened."
The Crusaders had fought valiantly, but the other team had simply been too good. It's scary how good those guys could be..
We'll never find out. But they were good enough, too much for anyone else in the state.
There were screams at the end, air horns, fingers in the air, tears. Ice everywhere. The turf soaking in Gatorade. Kahuku had made enough plays, just enough. And on the final one, the most important one, the clouds parted, and Fonoimoana dove into the hole, and into Kahuku history. Another one. Champs again.
Kalani Simpson's column runs Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays.
He can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com