Kapolei comes back on inspired Castle

Kapolei overcame early adversity to roll past visiting Castle 41-7 in an OIA Red game Saturday night.

Surprisingly, the Knights scored first before the Hurricanes (3-0, 2-0) took control with a smooth short passing game and what is becoming one of the most highly regarded defenses in the state.

The passing of Kaniala Kalaola led the way. He finished 24-for-29 for 318 yards and four touchdowns.

“In the beginning of the year, everyone was saying we never had an offense, and we were short of having the right guys, but Coach (Darren) Hernandez always tells us to rise above adversity and that’s what we did,” said Kapolei receiver Isaiah Ahana, who caught four passes for 90 yards and two touchdowns and added another rushing touchdown. “We believe in one another.

“Kaniala is a good quarterback and he gets better every day.”

Added Hernandez: “That was his best game of the year, no doubt. As a coach, I’ve seen that a team typically will make a big leap from the first game to their third game. This is our third game. The first game was uneven. The second game, we still had a lot of kinks to work out. The third game, we looked much better. We were running the ball a lot better, too.”

Kapolei got a boost from running back Antoneo Filipo-Brown, who is 5 feet 11 and 285 pounds. Late in the game, he thundered for a 32-yard gain to set up the team’s final touchdown — Ahana’s 6-yard run.

But it was the Knights (1-2, 1-1) who scored first. Damien Fauolo recovered a Hurricanes fumble at the Kapolei 1 and quarterback Makana Smith scored from 1 yard out to make it 7-0.

Later in the first quarter, Kapolei grabbed a 13-7 lead on Tamatoa Mokiao-Atimalala’s 51-yard catch-and-run touchdown on a pass from Kalaola. Dylan Naehu’s strip followed by Treven Maae’s fumble recovery and 8-yard touchdown return put Kapolei up for good.

Ahana followed with touchdown receptions of 8 and 35 yards for a 27-7 halftime lead.

Kawai Naki, who also played quarterback along with Smith for Castle, finished the game with 75 hard-earned rushing yards. The Knights’ next-best chance to score, Cheyden Costa’s 36-yard field-goal attempt in the second quarter went wide right and fell short.

The Knights were without regular starting quarterback Jaylen Uyemura-Lee, who suffered a high-ankle sprain last week and is expected to be out a few more weeks at least.

“We were the underdogs and played 100 percent,” Naki said. “We did what we had to do (despite the loss). We had great blocking, great defensive skills, and we just played our hearts out nonstop. Kapolei is a great team and all, but every team can be beaten. They deserved it.”

Castle coach John Hao concurred with the assessment that the Hurricanes are a good team.

“They’re good. They’re good. They’re good,” he said. “We had guys playing both ways and they got tired and we didn’t execute the way we should have.”