Moanalua rolls past Kailua

Moanalua scored touchdowns on six of its first seven drives and blew out Kailua 46-13 in a battle of winless Oahu Interscholastic Association Red Conference teams at Kailua on Friday night.

"We were due, I guess," Moanalua head coach Arnold Martinez said. "We have been scoring points in our previous games, but we knew all we had to do was fix up some small mistakes and it would come together."

Moanalua put up 269 yards rushing on 33 carries, including 138 by Ishmil Scott on only eight carries. But while Moanalua is known for running the ball, the biggest surprise was quarterback Micah Kaneshiro’s efficiency. The junior went 11-for-14 for 214 yards, most of them on screen passes.

"I think we were extra hungry," Kaneshiro said. "We wanted to get our first win."

Moanalua improves to 1-2 after losses to Waianae and Mililani. But those were not conference games.

"We want to win all of the games," Martinez said. "But we especially want to win the conference games. The other games were fun, but they didn’t really count."

The Surfriders, who dropped to 0-3, hadn’t lost to Moanalua since 1997 and looked like they still had Na Menehune’s number on their first drive of the game.

Kailua needed just five plays to travel 60 yards, scoring first when Jarrin Young found his way through the middle from 8 yards out. Kailua’s defense followed that up by forcing a three-and-out, but would not do so again the rest of the game.

Moanalua solved Kailua’s defense on its seventh play from scrimmage, catching the Surfriders blitzing on second and 10. Kaneshiro waited for Sheldon Pagba to come open on a middle screen and Pagba did the rest of the work, running 82 yards to tie it.

Young scored from 34 yards on the next drive to give Kailua the lead again, but Scott was just as good, scoring from 30 yards to cap Na Menehune’s next drive. Young carried the ball five straight times on Kailua’s next drive, but it only led to a punt.

Na Menehune took the lead when Kaleo Yanai scored from 24 yards out for a 20-13 lead.

Moanalua safety Tahi Caldwell picked off Kailua quarterback Kahaku Iaea — Moanalua intercepted Iaea four times in the game — and Na Menehune needed just five plays to capitalize. Kaneshiro hit Donald Lambert down the sideline from 42 yards out to send Moanalua into the locker room with a 27-13 lead.

Na Menehune kept going from there, scoring twice more out of the break to make it a rout. Kailua fought back, but its fortunes were most evident on its first drive of the fourth quarter when Iaea hit Noah Auld with a pretty pass down the sidelines that went 78 yards before Auld fumbled on the 1 and Moanalua’s Richard Parham recovered and brought it back to midfield.