Kapaa nearly pulled an upset by performing an imitation of the ‘Iolani Raiders, but in the end, the original came through.

‘Iolani overcame a 13-point deficit to rally for a 17-13 win Saturday to advance to the final of the First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA Division II State Football Championships.

"I feel like we escaped with one," ‘Iolani coach Wendell Look said. "You’ve got to give Kapaa a whole lot of credit. Kapaa’s one of the toughest teams in the sense of their will to win. They’ll do anything they can to get it done. That’s what they’ve done to this point and they did it today, a test of their character and what they’re made of."

Tanner Nishioka’s second rushing touchdown, a 6-yard end-around sprint to paydirt, gave ‘Iolani its first lead of the game at 17-13 with 3:06 to go in the third quarter. From there, the Warriors struggled as they did through the second half as ‘Iolani’s defense adjusted to the smashmouth attack. Kapaa’s final possessions: punt, punt, punt before getting the ball back at its 1-yard line with 1:39 remaining after a punt by Nishioka.

Kapaa moved quarterback John Das to wide receiver and brought Daniel Reis into the game in his place, but the Warriors couldn’t muster a single yard and turned the ball over on downs. ‘Iolani took two knees to run out the final 35 seconds.

Jordan Lee led a run-heavy Raiders offense with 134 yards on 16 carries.

Kapaa led 13-3 at halftime, but had just 41 of its 148 rushing yards after the break. In all, the Warriors had 61 total yards in the second half.

"We saw the same front that they gave us in the first half, but we weren’t executing as well," Kapaa coach Kelii Morgado said. "They were selling out to the run. We went play-action pass a few times. In hindsight, we should’ve done that a little bit more, but we trusted our run. We thought we could gain 4 yards a run and keep running the clock, which was our game plan."

Kapaa, which won the Kauai Interscholastic Federation title this season for the first time since 1989, finished 8-4.

A crowd of 800, including about 200 vocal Kapaa fans, watched on an overcast, breezy afternoon at Eddie Hamada Field. ‘Iolani (7-4) will meet Waipahu in the title game on Friday at Aloha Stadium in a matchup of former Raiders teammates, Look and Waipahu coach Eric Keola.

The Raiders overcame a solid effort by Das, who had a team-high 77 rushing yards and 101 yards through the air (8-for-12). However, ‘Iolani’s defense adjusted in the second half.

" ‘Iolani has a good defense. They’re a disciplined team," said Das, who hopes to walk on at UH next season.

He completed five passes in a row to close the first half.

"I always thought he was a slippery runner, gets outside and has a decent arm. He was picking us apart for a while," Look said.

To get back to the state final, the four-time defending champion Raiders dug deep.

"Kapaa executed well on offense and took advantage of our lack of execution. Offensively, we just didn’t get it done," Look said of the first half. "It wasn’t anything we didn’t expect."

Kapaa fumbled away its first series at the ‘Iolani 18-yard line, but got on the scoreboard with a 15-play, 81-yard drive in the second quarter. Das, an elusive runner on the spread option, completed five passes during the drive before sneaking over from the 1 to give Kapaa a 6-0 lead with 8:20 left in the first half.

Keane Agoot’s interception less than a minute later gave the Warriors first down at the ‘Iolani 44-yard line. Das pinpointed Kaikea Sonoda for a 23-yard pass, and on third and 10, rolled out of a power-I formation on play-action and found tight end Aaron Baltazar wide open for an 18-yard touchdown strike.

Kapaa led 13-0 with 5:05 to go in the half. ‘Iolani got on the board with a 25-yard field goal by Lee with 1:13 remaining in the half.

"Our guys were getting anxious and getting up the field, taking themselves out of position," Look said. "We did a better job tackling. When you play a team like this with a lot of option action, you have to be disciplined as a team. The ‘backers have to fill and the secondary has to contain."

Meanwhile, Kapaa got conservative on both sides of the ball.

Lee’s 30-yard kickoff return set up a quick nine-play, 51-yard touchdown drive that took less than 2 minutes off the clock. Reece Foy connected on four passes and Nishioka, the "fly" man in motion, scored on a 2-yard end-around to bring the Raiders within 13-10 with 10:11 left in the third quarter.

Kapaa avoided passing the ball for nearly the entire third quarter, resulting in one first down. After ‘Iolani drove 88 yards for the go-ahead touchdown late in the third quarter, it was all about clock management and running the ball. The Raiders finished with 32 rushing attempts for 196 yards, and Foy attempted 26 passes.

The Raiders took nearly 5 minutes off the clock down the stretch, converting three first downs along the way, without a single pass attempt.

Kapaa missed leading rusher Sendreck D’Sio, who suffered an ankle injury last week. He had two carries for 6 yards.

"In my opinion, I think Sendreck would’ve been a big help to us," Das said. "That’s how it goes."