McKinley ends 4-year winless skid

Four years is a long time for a football team to go without a win, but that wait is finally over for McKinley.

The Tigers snuck in a touchdown before halftime to break up what had been a punt-fest and then cashed in with a 22-0 victory over Waialua on Friday night at the Bulldogs’ Toshiyuki Nakasone Stadium.

The four-year drought included three winless seasons.

“It’s good for these seniors,” said Tigers head coach Pat Silva, who took over the helm from Sam Cantiberos in the offseason. “It’s about them. This is for them. They’ve never experienced this before.”

You have to go back to Oct. 11, 2013 to find McKinley’s last victory, 36-15 over Waipahu in an OIA Red playoff game.

“It feels good,” 240-pound McKinley running back Frank Steffany said, limping and smiling. “Hopefully, this will restore the war of the Tigers. Glory to God. And credit goes to our O-line making gaps for us to run through and blocking for our quarterbacks. They (the Bulldogs) gave us a good game. We wanted it more.”

Steffany ran the ball 18 times for 41 tough yards, and that kind of ball control was crucial, especially in the second half. Steffany also caught a 19-yard touchdown pass from Nuu Koli to break a scoreless tie for a 7-0 lead as time ran out in the first half.

Tigers starting quarterback Alexandria Buchanan has been getting a lot of publicity as a rare female signal-caller, but it was the McKinley running game that pounded away to lock up the win. The 260-pound Sioeli Lopes-Liutolo and the 230-pound Laulii Iosefa also banged away for tough yards, and the other QB, Nuu Koli, who platoons with Buchanan, completed a 50-yard pass to Kaiwi Ahina to set up Hieu Huynh’s 24-yard field goal to make it 10-0 in the third quarter.

“Making sure we keep the chains moving and the clock running, that was the key for us,” Silva said. “That’s the reason why we were able to pull it off. This is just one win. Hopefully, this will start something down the road and we look forward to the challenges.”

McKinley (1-5, 1-4 Oahu Interscholastic Association Division II) came up with five interceptions of Bulldogs quarterback Kyler Dicion, including two each by Ezekiel Samuelu and Lopes-Liutolo.

“Mistakes, mispositioning, not communicating,” said Waialua’s Matthan Hatchie, who was a big part of last season’s run to the OIA D-II title. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it. Maybe this team is young, but that doesn’t matter anymore. There’s no excuse for what happened tonight. All the mistakes should have been cleaned up.”

Early in the fourth quarter, the Tigers finished off a 91-yard TD drive that broke the back of the Bulldogs (0-6, 0-5). Steffany ran four times for 23 yards on the march that culminated in a fumble that was recovered by offensive lineman Iulio Antonio, who scored from 6 yards out for a 16-0 lead.

Later, Samuelu’s interception set up Lopes-Liutolo’s 2-yard TD run with 1:50 to go.

“McKinley had a game plan and they came to play,” Waialua coach Lincoln Barit said. “They have the size. This is a good win for them.”

More photos of the game between McKinley and Waialua.