Super soph

Reaching the state championship game in football is supposed to be the pinnacle of a player’s prep career, but for two of the state’s top running backs it could be merely the first chapter.

Mililani’s Vavae Malepeai and Punahou’s Wayne Taulapapa will carry the loads for their teams on Saturday at Aloha Stadium, just as they have been doing all season. They are both sophomores.

In any other year, Taulapapa would be heralded as the future of the game after grinding out 912 yards in 10 games, threatening to become just the second sophomore to eclipse 1,000 yards. He’s fallen short up to this point and can reach it with a good game in the championship. Malepeai is already there.

Malepeai became just the second sophomore on Oahu to rush for more than 1,000 yards in the state championship era, and the other went on to become the island’s second-leading rusher all-time. The Mililani phenom passed 2012 Star-Advertiser offensive player of the year Aofaga Wily of Kahuku in his ninth game. He has since upped his number to 1,342, something only 22 others since 1999 have done and all but seven of them were seniors when they did it. Before Wily came along, you might have to go back to Mosi Tatupu’s 1,016 yards as a sophomore in 1971 to find as much production from a 10th-grader.

"He is more similar to Wily," Kahuku coach Reggie Torres said. "He is a one-cut great runner, with great vision. He has a little bit lower center of gravity than Faga, a lot more forward lean."

Malepeai is on pace to become only the fourth running back to reach 4,000 yards in a career and finish just behind Joe Igber of ‘Iolani (4,428), Wily (4,205) and Mark Atuaia of Kahuku (4,146). That is a long way off, though, in a violent game that could cost Malepeai carries and an offense that limits him to 10-15 carries against teams that stack the box.

"We definitely don’t run our offense thinking that way," Mililani coach Rod York said. "Atuaia and Wily at Kahuku got the ball most of the time and Igber just plain made guys miss, but we take whatever the defense gives us. It’s tough to answer what will happen in two years because of our offense."

And that offense is really all that matters to Malepeai. Despite being Mililani’s bell cow from the first snap of the season, the kid is really just doing what he is told and letting the numbers, including his 3.8 GPA, take care of themselves. Malepeai has already drawn interest from schools like Stanford and Oregon, where the name is well known after three of his uncles starred there in the 1990s.

"He’s very physical, plays way above his age level," Farrington coach Randall Okimoto said. "Sophomores usually don’t produce at that level, but he comes from a talented family and that helps. He’s just very dependable. He can do it all."

Okimoto doesn’t know the half of it. York says that early in the season he would look out at his offense and see his budding star lined up in front of senior fullback Dayton Furuta. Normally, you can count on such a thing happening because a raw sophomore doesn’t know the play. Malepeai, who transferred from Saint Louis School, knew exactly what he was doing, though.

"I ask him what he is thinking and he says ‘Eh, coach, I want to block for him. He always blocks for me,’ " York said. "The great thing about this guy is he doesn’t play for stats; he plays for the kids next to him. A lot of kids have to learn that, but Vavae came to us with that already instilled in him."