[ OIA RED WEST ]
Waianae ends
offensive slump,
tops Pearl City
Even before the rains came in the fourth quarter, the Waianae Seariders put a damper on homecoming night for the Pearl City Chargers.
Darius Fuller rushed for 101 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Seariders to a 28-16 win in last night's Oahu Interscholastic Association Red West Conference matchup at Pearl City.
Waianae (1-1, 2-2) had scored 22 points combined in its first three games, but broke out for 28 in the first half last night and relied on its defense to secure the win.
"Any win is a good win," Waianae coach Daniel Matsumoto said. "We're happy we put points on the board, but you can tell we still have a lot we need to do."
Pearl City fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter and struggled to sustain drives on offense. They scored twice late in the game with the outcome decided.
Quarterback Joshua Tokunaga ran for a score in the fourth quarter and completed a touchdown pass to Devin Yoshinaka on the game's final play.
With the Chargers receivers missing practices due to other commitments this week, Pearl City coach Watson Tanuvasa said it was difficult for Tokunaga to get on the same page with them.
"Our timing between our receivers and quarterback was always off," Tanuvasa said. "We just need to work really hard on getting that timing down. In the second half (Tokunaga) really came into his game, but it was a little too late."
The Chargers lost starting running back Nicholas Wilson-Perez to a shoulder injury in the first half. They lost another back, Royal Kaua, two weeks earlier against Nanakuli, also to a shoulder injury.
Fuller sparked Waianae, starting with the game's opening kickoff. His 90-yard return was called back, but still set up a Searider touchdown on their opening possession.
The Seariders drove 48 yards in nine plays and took the lead when Quentin Badayos burst through the right side of the line for an 18-yard touchdown run.
The Searider defense added to the lead when linebacker James Laa returned an interception 51 yards for a score.
Fuller padded the Waianae lead with two 1-yard scoring runs in the second quarter and tilted the field-position battle in the Seariders' favor as a punt returner.
"Amazing, he's a tough player," Matsumoto said. "We used him all over the place, and we were very happy with his performance."
Pearl City dropped to 0-2 in the conference and 1-3 overall, but Tanuvasa believes the Chargers still have time to get back into the Red West race.
"We just need to be on top of our game and minimize our mistakes -- that'll give us a chance to get in (the OIA playoffs)," Tanuvasa said.
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Kapolei holds on
to defeat Aiea
Power running is Kapolei's game and it finally worked out for the Hurricanes this year.
Running right up the gut against an imposing Aiea defensive front, Kapolei held on for a 13-7 victory at Na Alii's home field.
Aiea's Rocky Savaiigaea recovered a fumble at the Hurricanes' 35, giving Na Alii one last chance to tie or go ahead with less than a minute to go. But the Kapolei defense dug in and forced Aiea to give up the ball on downs.
The victory broke a four-game losing streak for the Hurricanes (1-0 Oahu Interscholastic Association Red West Conference, 1-2), dating back to last year, when they started off 9-0.
"This is a big win for our program," Kapolei coach Darren Hernandez said. "Yeah, I was constantly worried throughout the game. It was getting kind of hairy at the end when we gave them the ball. It was a game with a lot of playoff kind of electricity in the air. We hadn't won a game in a while, so we were really looking to see where we stood."
Kapolei's victory avenged a 22-15 loss to Aiea (0-2, 1-3) in the OIA White Conference championship game a year ago.
Option quarterback Jon Medeiros, who shares time with Brad Padayao, sprinted for the game-winning, 74-yard touchdown with 8:33 left. It broke a 7-all tie, but the Hurricanes missed their chance to go up by seven points when Aiea's Justin Hunt blocked Aaron Santiago's extra-point attempt.
"The offense needed a big play and we got one," Medeiros said. "Once I saw an opening, I thought, 'We're going to score.' It was awesome."
The play was just another routine option call in which Medeiros ran parallel to the line of scrimmage after a fake to the fullback. He chose not to pitch to the outside back, found a huge hole and was off to the races. Aiea's C.J. Tausaga nearly chased him down, but failed on a diving tackle attempt.
"We made a lot of mental mistakes and I'm somewhat disappointed," said Na Alii's Aveni Leung-Wai, who had a sack and was a defensive menace all night. "We played a pretty good game. It just didn't go our way."
The winning TD came right on the heels of Aiea's first score for the 7-7 tie just 18 seconds earlier. The accurate short passing of Kali Kuia and the hard running of Donny Mapusaga put Na Alii in position for Mapusaga's 17-yard catch and run of a Kuia pass for the score.
Workhorse Radford Raquedan scored the visitors' first touchdown with 1:28 left in the first quarter. He burst in from 1 yard out to cap a time-consuming 13-play drive for a 7-0 lead.
Raquedan finished with 62 yards on 14 carries.
Kapolei failed to take advantage of an Aiea miscue late in the first half. Actually, the mistake started out as a big play for Na Alii -- a partially blocked punt. But an Aiea player touched the ball amid a large group of players and the Hurricanes recovered at Na Alii's 38.
But on fourth down from the Aiea 10, Na Alii's Kimo Byrd dropped the Hurricanes' Gilbert Brown for a 2-yard loss.
Brown rushed four times for 60 yards and was in on numerous tackles on defense.
Two Aiea second-half chances were dashed by turnovers, as Kapolei's Shannon Arnold intercepted a pass at the Hurricanes' 1 and Kamuela Foki recovered a fumble.
"We're still playing like it's the preseason, making too many mistakes," Aiea coach Wendell Say said. "It's very disappointing; some of the kids aren't focused. But after talking to them after the game, it sounds like they're ready to come back and regroup for our homecoming game next week against Pearl City. Our goal now is to be able to make the playoffs."
Kapolei won the turnover battle 3-1. The Hurricanes visit Mililani next week.
