Afalava helps Kahuku dominate Waianae

Photo Gallery: Kahuku v. Waianae

Any thoughts of an upset at Carleton Weimer Field in Kahuku were quickly dispelled on Friday night.

Waianae, riding high out of the OIA West, was back for a third straight year in the league quarterfinals, and it was a no-go for the Seariders once again. The host Red Raiders delivered a sound and thorough 45-20 bashing to advance to play tonight’s Leilehua-Mililani winner in next week’s semifinals.

It was a completely different story than the previous two years, when Kahuku squeezed by Waianae both times by a mere four points.

This time, the Red Raiders had an ace in the hole. Junior running back Soli Afalava returned from a shoulder injury just in time and ran wild in the first half with 147 of his 157 rushing yards and a touchdown. He followed his huge line with power runs up the middle and got outside on option pitches.

Afalava was not suited up when the Red Raiders (6-3) lost to Farrington two weeks ago and relinquished the top seed in the East to the Govs.

"Soli did a great job, but he’s still got to get his legs under him," Kahuku coach Reggie Torres said, looking ahead as the Red Raiders try to move on and win a third straight state title. "He was tired after we gave him the ball 18 times. He worked his butt off, but he’s not in shape yet."

The season came to a sudden halt for Waianae (7-3), which is still trying to figure out how to get over the Kahuku hump.

"They completely outplayed us in all parts of the game," Seariders coach Daniel Matsumoto said. "They’re a great team. We tried everything we could to stop them, but still couldn’t do it."

The Kahuku defense did most of its damage up front, harassing Waianae option quarterback Kekoa Kaluhiokalani all night. He was dropped behind the line of scrimmage 11 times due to the intense pressure provided by Lamone Williams, Taliauli Vaifoou, Pene Kaonohi and others.

"Their defensive pressure? Phew," Matsumoto said. "They just kept up their push and we just didn’t protect well enough."

Despite all that pressure, Waianae still had success moving the ball, bringing it into Kahuku territory 10 times, largely on the arm of Kaluhiokalani, who finished with 240 passing yards.

After a slow start, Kahuku quarterback Tuli Wily-Matagi got more effective as time went on, finishing with two touchdown passes.

The Red Raiders’ defense scored the first nine points of the game. Roman Salanoa recovered a Kaluhiokalani fumble in the end zone on Waianae’s second possession. The next time the Seariders got the ball, they didn’t move it and a bad punt snap resulted in punter Stanton Spencer heaving the ball out of the back of the end zone for a safety rather than getting pounced on by two Kahuku pursuers.

It wasn’t that much of a relief to Torres to be up 9-0 so early.

Kahuku made it 17-0 when Afalava took a pitch from Wily-Matagi and scored from 13 yards out with 51 seconds to go in the first quarter.

The Red Raiders grabbed a 31-7 halftime lead before Waianae marched 67 yards on its first possession of the second half for a 5-yard Ronald Matautia touchdown to make it 31-13.

But Kahuku answered with a drive and the lead got as big as 45-13 before the Seariders scored late.

Matsumoto said, "This is a great bunch of kids and it’s disappointing that their season is ending. They gave us so much in the offseason all the way through tonight. They really played hard."