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With its dynamic offense, Leilehua climbed out of an early hole and rolled to a 37-19 OIA Division I football victory over Castle on Saturday night at Hugh Yoshida Stadium.
Mules quarterback Max Nichols threw for 291 yards and four touchdowns, leading the way back from a 13-2 deficit.
“Our team finally came together like how we always knew we could,” Nichols said. “The O-line worked together as a team and communicated. The receivers were on the sideline talking about what works against certain defenders. It was a great game on both sides of the ball.”
The Knights looked like they were going to storm in and walk home winners after Pono Kahala-Giron threw two TD passes — one to his brother, Kanekulani Kahala-Giron, and another to Paul Omengebar.
But Leilehua (2-1, 2-0) got some early spark with a safety by Jaku Hanohano-Baptista before Nichols went to work. The senior QB fired TD passes of 40 yards to Kalei Akagi, 59 to Dorian Furtado and 5 to Jeremy Evans for a 23-13 halftime lead.
“Castle was finally at 100 percent, (Knights coach) John (Ha0) was telling me,” Mules coach Mark Kurisu said. “They came out with a whole new team and they were monsters. They were huge and that caught us off guard. We knew we could compete with them. It was just a matter of settling in. We left a lot of points on the board. That safety kind of turned the tide. We were doing the little things.”
Defensively, the Knights (0-3, 0-2) buckled down and kept Leilehua off the board in the third quarter and remained in striking range, but offensively, Castle started bogging down and did not recover until the final minute.
“We slowed down, got caught up in the moment and just didn’t follow through to the end,” Pono Kahala-Giron said. “The intensity was there, but it died out once they starting driving on us. We gotta play as one. That’s it.”
The home team finished its scoring in the fourth quarter on Nichols’ 1-yard sneak and his 43-yard TD pass to Furtado.
Castle scored to get closer for the 37-19 final with no time left on the clock on Senituli Punivai’s 4-yard run around right end.
Punivai was the Knights’ third quarterback in the game, after Kahala-Giron and Samuel Judd.
“I gotta find a way to get these kids in important positions to stop doing their own thing,” Castle’s Hao said. “Yes, it’s fixable. They were a tough team. We gotta stay focused and do what we were trained to do. It’s the coaches’ position to make sure these kids stay in line.”
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GAME SUMMARY
Leilehua 37, Castle 19
At Leilehua
>> Castle (0-3, 0-2) 13 0 0 6 — 19
>> Leilehua (2-1, 2-0) 9 14 0 14 — 37
Castle — Kanekulani Kahala-Giron 23 pass from Pono Kahala-Giron (Cheyden Costa kick)
Leilehua — Safety: P. Kahala-Giron is sacked in end zone by Jaku Hanohano Baptista.
Castle — Paul Omengebar 80 pass from P. Kahala-Giron (kick failed)
Leilehua — Kalei Akagi 40 pass from Max Nichols (Akoni Tom-Makue kick)
Leilehua — Dorian Furtado 59 pass from Nichols (Tom-Makue kick)
Leilehua — Jeremy Evans 5 pass from Nichols (Tom-Makue kick)
Leilehua — Nichols 1 run (Tom-Makue kick)
Leilehua — Furtado 43 pass from Nichols (Tom-Makue kick)
Castle — Senituli Punivai 4 run (no conversion attempted)
RUSHING — Castle: Punivai 13-51, Bruce Pakele 2-15, Branden Frey 2-7, Keanu Tilton 4-3, P. Kahala-Giron 6-(minus-5), Samuel Judd 1-(minus-6), TEAM 1-(minus-10). Leilehua: Cody Akagi 14-44, Damarion Smith 6-17, Nichols 4-6, Vitale Afoa 2-(minus-3).
PASSING — Castle: P. Kahala-Giron 7-17-0-139, Judd 2-11-1-27, Punivai 0-1-0-0. Leilehua: Nichols 18-32-0-291.
RECEIVING — Castle: Kanekulani Kahala-Giron 5-61, Omengebar 3-107, Frey 1-(minus-2). Leilehua: Furtado 4-115, Kalei Akagi 4-54, Jeremy Evans 3-53,Jayzon Ramos 3-51, Rayden Rulloda-Kim 3-23, C. Akagi 1-(minus-5).
* JV — Leilehua 35, Castle 13
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