McGary runs over Kailua

James McGary rushed for 329 yards and Leilehua won its fourth straight Saturday night, pounding Kailua 38-14 at Hugh Yoshida Stadium in a crucial Oahu Interscholastic Association Red football game.

The Mules (5-2, 4-2) put themselves in a position to clinch a first-round bye in the playoffs. To seal that, they need to beat Farrington next week in the regular-season finale.

“Coach (Mark Kurisu) pumped up my head, saying, ‘James, you cannot get tackled, you cannot get tackled,’ ” said McGary, who fell 3 yards shy of Adrian Murrell’s school record of 332 yards set in 1987. “I said, ‘Yes, Coach, I understand.’ The next play, score. Broke three tackles and scored.”

Perhaps getting a boost from Leilehua’s 2007 Division I state championship team introduced to the crowd before the game, the Mules came out with a passion and bolted to a 14-0 first-quarter lead.

Quarterback Kona Andres, who finished with two TD passes, found Jeremy Evans for a 30-yard score before McGary took off on a 56-yard touchdown run.

“Some of those 2007 players, they had their rings on and we said, ‘We want one,’ ” said Mules linebacker Richard Shimasaki, who had two sacks among his four tackles for loss and whose brother, Kawika Fuga, played on that team from 10 years ago. “The coaches got on us every day in practice. If it wasn’t for the other brothers on the side of me, I would have never gotten those tackles, because they’re doing their assignments too.”

The lead zoomed to 31-7 by the end of the first half, thanks to Andres’ 29-yard scoring pass to Coltyn Cruse-Gombio, McGary’s 40-yard TD run and Akoni Tom Makue’s 25-yard field goal.

“When somebody who is supposed to be in a gap, and he’s not in it, every time it was a long run,” Surfriders coach Joseph Wong said about McGary’s ability to elude the Surfriders. “That right there, that can’t happen.”

Added offensive lineman Sione Veikoso, “They (the Mules) started off faster than us. There’s not much you can do about it. We’ve got Mililani next and then we’ll worry about the playoffs.”

Kailua (4-3, 3-3) adjusted and held Leilehua in check for most of the second half but lost quarterback Aaron Mejia to an injury late in the third quarter. Mejia walked off the field with help and was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Wong, whose team already clinched a playoff spot, did not disclose the type of injury. He did, however, say they may have to gear the offense around backup Cole Weber for next week’s regular-season finale against Mililani.

Mejia scored Kailua’s first touchdown on a 13-yard keeper in the second quarter and added 4-yard TD pass to Samson Rasay in the third to make it a 31-14 game before the Mules closed it out on Cruse-Gombio’s 8-yard TD run that was set up by McGary’s 43-yard run.

“I’ll do it over and over and over again,” McGary said about his night of breaking tackles. “In the playoffs, the same thing.”

More photos of the game between Leilehua and Kailua.