Trojans unleash fury to hound Hurd

Mililani has been so good on offense for so long that it can be easy to overlook the contributions made on the defensive side of the ball.

Not if you watched Friday night’s 41-7 dismantling of Campbell in the Division I state football semifinals at Aloha Stadium.

Sure, the offense did its thing, but defense played a major factor, and maybe it will turn out to be a good test run for when the Trojans, the state’s second-ranked team, square off against No. 1 Punahou in the state final next Saturday.

Mililani’s pass rush gave little time to Campbell quarterback Isaac Hurd, holding him to 127 yards passing, including just 74 in the first half.

Specifically, it was the work of a pile of Mililani defenders who spearheaded the crunching onslaught and tried to carve the big "zero" on the scoreboard. If not for Hurd’s 31-yard TD run with 3:33 left in the game against Mililani’s second string, it would have been a hard-earned shutout.

The key number, however, was 11 — as in sacks of Hurd.

Mililani defensive coordinator Roland Mason said part of the game plan was to corral Hurd, who hurt defenses all year with 2,438 passing yards and 516 rushing going into Friday night.

"We wanted to keep him in the pocket, and if possible, to flush him up the middle and put as much pressure on him as possible," Mason said. "A couple of times, he slipped up the middle, but that’s where we wanted him to go."

And that’s where a brick wall was waiting most of the time. Defensive end Kelii Padello was a force early for the Trojans with three first-half sacks. Rex Manu also blasted through for three sacks, and Blake Kondo and Kaimana Padello had two each, while Sheldon Aki Jr. got into the act with one. Manu also had a tackle for loss and he forced a fumble that was recovered by Kaimana Wilson, leading to Mililani’s final TD.

"(Kelii) Padello sets it up," Mason said. "Offensive coordinators around the league have told me they have to game plan around him. And then we release the rest of our studs. They get coached up during the week and then we let them loose at game time."

The effort of Padello, who has 19 sacks this year, was not lost on Campbell coach Amosa Amosa.

"For the guy’s size (5-feet-11, 200 pounds), he is incredible," Amosa said. "He doesn’t lead the OIA in sacks for nothing."

The blue-collar play of Trojans senior linebacker Dayton Furuta was also huge. He had one of Mililani’s six other tackles for loss, and he bulled his way into the end zone twice as a running back on offense.

Furuta and his teammates have their sights on Punahou now.

"It’s going to be a dogfight and we just have to hope for the best," he said.

Manu took Mason’s and the rest of the defensive coaches’ plans to heart.

"The philosophy was attack, attack, attack," Manu said. "The coaches made it clear to get to the quarterback as much as possible because he can run.

"This has been a long time coming," added Manu about Mililani’s first appearance in a state final.

"We’re going to go out and get what we’ve got coming to us."