Bradley, Tuitele-Iafeta lift McKinley over Kailua

Gerime Bradley’s lightning-strike kickoff return ignited McKinley and Mathias Tuitele-Iafeta’s execution in the “Thundercat” offense helped the Tigers close out a win over Kailua on Thursday.

Bradley returned the opening kickoff 99 yards for the first of his three touchdowns, and Tuitele-Iafeta passed and ran for touchdowns in the Tigers’ 35-14 victory in the opening game of an OIA Red East doubleheader at Aloha Stadium.

Bradley had two touchdown runs to go along with his kickoff return, and Tuitele-Iafeta rushed for 131 yards on 10 carries while splitting time between running back and quarterback.

The 5-foot-11, 235-pound senior completed all three of his pass attempts for 41 yards, including a seven-yard touchdown to Kiaipono Kini in the first quarter. He later rumbled 56 yards for another score.

With McKinley protecting a two-touchdown lead in the fourth quarter, Tuitele-Iafeta led the Tigers on a nine-play scoring drive capped by Bradley’s 14-yard run.

“He can do everything,” McKinley coach Joe Cho said of Tuitele-Iafeta, who’s also a defensive leader at linebacker and had punts of 57 and 63 yards.

By ending a three-game losing streak, McKinley closed the regular season as the OIA Red East’s third seed heading into the conference playoffs at 3-3 in league play.

“It means a whole lot,” Cho said. “Every year we’ve improved. … That was always our goal to improve and get better and we’ve shown it.”

After falling behind 28-7 in the first half, Kailua scored on its opening possession of the third quarter on Noah Auld’s second touchdown pass of the game and threatened to further tighten the gap by driving to the McKinley 4 on its next drive.

But the Surfriders’ drive stalled and they came up empty on an attempted fake field goal. They were turned away on another trip to the red zone in the fourth quarter and finished in fifth place at 2-4.

Kailua will travel to the OIA Red West’s fourth seed in the first round of the playoffs.

“I think the kids will take away the fact that we didn’t quit, we kept coming,” Kailua coach Gary Rosolowich said. “We don’t know who we’ll play next week, but we know we’ll have to get on a bus. But that’s the way it goes.”

The Surfriders were fighting uphill from the very start when Bradley fielded the opening kickoff, faked a handoff and burst through a gap on his way to giving the Tigers the lead 19 seconds into the game.

“It felt good to score right off the bat. I don’t think I would have had it if not for the front,” Bradley said.

“I want to thank them for all the blocks. They had to open up the hole and give me the vision to score that touchdown.”

Tuitele-Iafeta turned in his first scoring play two plays into the second quarter. He lined up at quarterback, rolled left and lofted a pass to Kini for a touchdown.

He later took a handoff on third-and-1 from the Tigers 44. Led by crushing blocks up the middle, he broke through the line, then cut to the left and rumbled to the end zone.

Tuitele-Iafeta returned to quarterback on McKinley’s next possession and completed a 21-yard pass before running for 28 to set up Bradley’s 3-yard touchdown run that gave the Tigers a 28-7 halftime lead.