Jeremy Evans caught two touchdown passes and James McGary rushed for 131 yards as No. 10 Leilehua upset No. 8 Farrington 33-6 on Friday night at Hugh Yoshida Stadium.
Akoni Tom-Makue was a weapon, as well, bombing five kickoffs for touchbacks and scoring on field goals of 49, 41, 31 and 23 yards.
The Mules moved into second place in the OIA Red with the win, improving to 5-2 (6-2 overall), and earned a first-round bye. They could use the down time after losing McGary (ankle), who was one of a handful of players who went down with injuries.
“We’re strong. We attacked their D-line,” McGary said. “The O-line did good, and we caught the ball.”
Leilehua might be the surprise of the OIA.
“It’s senior night and we’re walking away on crutches, but we’ve come a long way,” Mules coach Mark Kurisu said. “They’re reaching standards and levels they never believed they could hit. Our kids put the work in and they’re enjoying the fruits of their labor.”
Farrington dropped to 4-3 in league play (4-4 overall).
The home team got on the scoreboard early with a 24-yard strike from Kona Andres to Evans in the left corner. Then came Tom-Makue’s first field goal, which cleared the crossbar with about 3 yards to spare.
The visitors struggled to get any momentum offensively, hampered by penalties. Andres found Evans near the left pylon for a 4-yard TD pass to open the lead to 17-0 with 7:33 left in the first half.
Farrington mustered zero net yards rushing by intermission. McGary had 65 of his yards in the first half. He scored on a 46-yard blast up the middle to give Leilehua a 24-0 lead with 9:31 to go in the third quarter.
He left the game after a 16-yard carry down the left sideline. He had to be helped off the field by teammates, unable to put any weight on his leg.
After Tom-Makue nailed two more field goals, Farrington backup QB Stephen Eter scrambled for 39 yards on two plays, and later found Bobby Alualu-Alo for an 18-yard TD pass to get the Govs on the scoreboard.
Titan Alii Pesamino sparked the Govs defensively with three of his team’s four sacks.
“It doesn’t matter what the score is, we’ve got to keep going,” the senior linebacker said. “It’s for my team. We played hard and we didn’t quit.”
