The Kapaa defense was all the rave throughout the year in Division II, and the eighth-ranked Warriors lived up to their reputation Saturday by dumping Lahainaluna 24-0 in front of a home Vidinha Stadium crowd in the semifinals of the First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA Football State Championships.
The reward for undefeated Kauai Interscholastic Federation champion Kapaa (9-0) is a trip to Oahu’s Aloha Stadium, and its defensive unit still hasn’t allowed a touchdown all season.
"That’s just how they play," Warriors coach Phillip Rapozo said about his defense. "We can’t get nothing done on offense in practice. They are so good. The way they played today, they practice like that."
The stats speak for themselves. The defensive charge was led by Akauola Tautofi, a senior defensive end. He had three sacks, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and five total tackles for loss. Lahainaluna ballcarriers were brought down behind the line of scrimmage 11 times.
But that just begins to tell the story of the defensive dominance. Even more important, the Lunas (7-6) were held to minus-1 yard rushing and had just 17 yards passing.
"(Kapaa was) real physical," Lahainaluna co-head coach Garret Tihada said. "We’ve played against them the last three years and you can see the improvement. Those seniors were sophomores then and it’s evident that they’ve been working hard in the offseason and they’ve got some really good coaching. We failed offensively. And that’s what good teams do, they take you away from the things you want to do."
It appeared like it was going to be a complete defensive slugfest judging by the first quarter that ended scoreless. The Lunas survived an early scare with a goal-line stand with the Warriors at the half-yard line.
A punt block by Ikona Fernandez and recovery by Daniel Asotasi changed the complexion of the game and led to the first touchdown. This time, with the ball inside the 5, Kapaa didn’t fail. Backup quarterback Telii Fonua faked a fly sweep to Leighton Moniz and took it up the middle for a 3-yard touchdown.
Fonua was in for starter Kurt Napoleon, who said he has either a strained or pulled tendon in his wrist and will be going in for X-rays. He’s not sure if he will be able to play in the final next week against Radford.
Offensively, Kalena Harder took over from there, scoring the final three touchdowns on left-sweep runs of 9, 9 and 3 to put the game away.
"This is a real big thing for our team," Harder said. "It’s exciting that we’ll get to be going to play at Aloha Stadium. This is one big family."
Added Tautofi, "We’ll be trying to go all the way."
Rapozo was direct: "We scheduled Lahainaluna (a 14-10 win) and Nanakuli (a 20-2 victory) in the preseason because we want to play the best teams out there and it is all paying off. We won the KIF, we got a bye in the first round, we got to host the semifinal game and now we’re on our way to Aloha Stadium. We’re not done yet. This is what we set out to do, win a state championship."
For Lahainaluna, the season is over.
"We got a neighbor island trip, but I don’t know if it was a nice neighbor island trip," the Lunas’ Tihada said.
Lahainaluna starting quarterback Dylan Delatori limped delicately off the field after the game with ice covering both of his ankles and an escort in offensive lineman Junior Moala.
"They play assignment football," Delatori said. "They play contain. And the linebackers did what they were supposed to do."
Added Lunas defensive back Donovan Defang, who was in on 11 tackles: "It’s a junk feeling. Kapaa is a good team. I think they’re going to take it all."
