Following its first back-to-back losses in the regular season since 1996, Kahuku held a players-only meeting at the start of the week.

“They know that they needed to right the ship,” Kahuku coach Sterling Carvalho said.

An 80-yard touchdown pass from Farrington quarterback Chris Afe to super-sophomore Raymond Millare on the third play from scrimmage at Skippa Diaz Stadium on Friday night suggested that might not be the case for the three-time defending OIA champions.

It turned out to be the only blip on the radar for Big Red, which pitched a shutout the rest of the way and scored 34 unanswered points to clinch a playoff berth in the OIA Open Division with a 34-8 win.

Quarterback Robbie Sauvao tossed two first-quarter touchdown passes and Zealand Matagi rushed for 72 yards and another score to help Kahuku (5-3, 2-2 OIA Open) win for the seventh time in its past eight games against the Governors (2-8, 1-4).

Sauvao averaged nearly 23 yards on his 10 completions, finishing with 229 passing yards.

Happy returns for Gilman

It’s not often a defensive player scores a touchdown.

Or two touchdowns. In a span of 18 seconds. For Alaka‘i Gilman, it was a second quarter to remember. The Punahou safety was in the right place at the right time, returning a fumble 25 yards to pay dirt, then turning an interception into a pick-6 from 30 yards out as No. 2 Punahou overwhelmed Waianae 52-0 on Friday night.

Gilman credited teammate Trent Shiraki for making the hit that forced the fumble on his first TD. But in family lore, Gilman did something even his talented older brother — former Kahuku All-State standout Alohi Gilman, now playing for Notre Dame — never did.

“I’ve got to credit my brother, but at the same time, I don’t know if he can say he’s done this,” he said.

It was Punahou’s second win ever at Raymond Torii Field. The teams last met in 2008, a 37-21 win for Punahou at Alexander Field. In the previous meeting between the teams at Torii Field, Punahou prevailed 21-12 in ’06. Waianae won the four previous matchups with the Buffanblu.

Kaimuki clinches top seed

For a brief moment after Saturday’s 12-3 win over Pearl City at Skippa Diaz Stadium, Kaimuki senior defensive lineman Sama Paama called the victory “satisfying.”

And then he clarified himself.

“But never satisfied,” the 6-foot-5, 330-pound University of Washington commit said. “We’re not done yet. We still have a job to do and that’s the championship.”

The Bulldogs are in familiar territory as they will compete in the OIA Division II playoffs for the fourth consecutive season. What’s different this go-around is the Bulldogs will enter as the No. 1 seed after finishing off a 7-0 regular season with a win over the Chargers.

Kaimuki has suited up anywhere between 24 and 30 players for each of its games this season.

“The wins is the bonus and that’s the reward for the accomplishments of their hard work, but this hasn’t been anything new,” Kaimuki coach David Tautofi said. “We’ve been doing this since you first met me. It just gave me as a coach a better perspective of what we need to coach. Seeing what I put these kids through every day in their conditioning is not fun, but it’s gotten the best out of our boys.”

Marauders win mud bowl

The field was so muddy at Kailua’s Alex Kane Stadium that Waipahu running back Alfred Failauga had to confirm afterward that it was indeed he who scored the game-winning touchdown in a 12-6 double-overtime victory, spoiling senior night for the Surfriders.

Friday night’s battle was a wet and muddy mess, leaving the majority of players from both squads unrecognizable from the press box because of their jerseys getting covered in brown.

“We’re feeling pretty great about that one,” Failauga said. “It was a pretty close game but eventually we went to overtime and who wouldn’t want that win? We came out with it and congrats to our team.”

Both teams struggled mightily to find any rhythm offensively throughout the game due to the conditions. There was also a 30-minute delay before kickoff and a 15-minute delay at halftime.

When things were tied at 6 at the end of regulation, both teams lined up for handshakes before game officials and coaches met at midfield and determined overtime was required.

“It was frustrating I think for both coaching staffs and both teams,” Waipahu head coach Bryson Carvalho said. “Just walking across and shaking hands, it was an eye-opener for both coaches to see what our kids played in the entire game. It wasn’t easy. It was sloppy for sure. To be able to persevere through all of that and come out with a dub (win), that was real big for us.”

All-time greats square off

‘Iolani’s Wendell Look and Aiea’s Wendell Say have combined for 320 wins and coached more than 580 games.

Yet, they coached against each other for only the second time on Friday night with the Raiders wrapping up a 7-1 season in ILH Division I play with a 30-3 win.

Say wrapped up his 27th season and is now 124-130-2 after finishing a 2-6-1 (2-5 OIA D-I) campaign.

“Wendell (Look) is a good coach. We’ve coached together in some all-star games. We’re good friends, not just namesakes. He’s a good person,” Say said. “When we played them at Radford in (2009 D-II state tournament semifinals), they made a good comeback. It was a good game that could have gone either way. The baseball pitcher, (Jarrett) Arakawa, was their quarterback. He came up big. He got hurt and came back against us and they pulled out the win.”

Look finished his 28th regular season and stands at 196-132-3 for his career.

“We’ve known each other many, many years, even though we haven’t played against each other much,” Look said of Say. “He’s a funny guy, quiet. He seems like a professor-type of guy, he but he comes up with some stories. You don’t have guys like Wendell any more. Nowadays, five years is a long time to coach. He’s been at it for 27.”

This week

The playoffs begin in ILH Open and OIA Division I and Division II.

Kamehameha and Punahou will play Friday at Aloha Stadium in an elimination game with the winner advancing to play Saint Louis on Oct. 27 for the ILH championship.

Moanalua takes on Castle and Leilehua plays Waipahu for a spot in the OIA D-I championship game.

State tournament berths are on the line in OIA Division II as Kaimuki plays Kaiser and Pearl City plays Roosevelt with the winners advancing to the OIA D-II title game.