An all-neighbor island state football final in Division II is nothing new.
One of the teams playing in it certainly is.
Kamehameha-Maui, making just its second appearance at states and first since 2005, dominated undefeated OIA champion Kaiser 48-24 on Wednesday night to advance to next Thursday’s championship game against Kapaa in the First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA Football State Championships.
Sophomore quarterback Makana Kamaka-Brayce threw for 369 yards and four touchdowns and 6-foot-4 senior lineman Kale Spencer’s 52-yard interception return in the third quarter highlighted a one-sided affair at Farrington’s Skippa Diaz Stadium.
“Our offense never surprises me,” KS-Maui coach Ulima Afoa said after his team finished with 502 total yards. “They hit on all points tonight. We had to have points in order to play against Kaiser.”
KS-Maui (5-2) went 1-1 in its only appearance at states in 2005, beating Kauai in the first round before losing to Radford in the semifinals.
This year’s modified Division II state tournament of just four teams will feature two neighbor island teams for the fifth time in a row since Radford won it all in 2015.
“It feels pretty good to know our hard work has finally paid off and we actually have a chance to surprise Hawaii,” said sophomore receiver Kahoa Abreu, who was one of two Warriors to go over 100 yards receiving. “We watch some film and we are all confident and we were prepared for this.”
The Warriors dominated the entire first half, rolling up a 260 to 81 advantage in total yards to take a 21-3 lead into intermission.
Kamaka-Bryce fed a pair of 6-foot-2 receivers in Abreu and Po’okela Aiu, who each caught touchdown passes to help give Kaiser its largest deficit of the season.
Abreu had five catches for 106 yards in the first half while Aiu had three receptions for 44 yards.
When Kamaka-Brayce wasn’t throwing the ball, he was handing off to running back McKay Pali, who capped an eight-play, 67-yard drive with a 1-yard TD run to make it 21-0 with 3:51 remaining in the second quarter.
“We had to be physical because (Kaiser) is physical, and our line did a great job with that,” Kamaka-Brayce said.
Kaiser, which was held to 15 yards through its first four drives, finally found some success just before the break when it went heavy with a two tight-end formation.
Starting defensive lineman Hopoate Aholelei had four carries on the drive and receiver Justin Kanekoa caught KS-Maui off guard for a 25-yard run on a reverse.
The Cougars had it first-and-10 on the KS-Maui 11 but the Warriors’ Keegan Gantala and Kanekoa Maieula-Kekiwi came up with big tackles for minimal gains, and Kamalei Cui tackled Kaiser quarterback Easton Yoshino for no gain to force the Cougars into a 27-yard field goal from Shane Smith to make it 21-3 at the break.
Kaiser converted a fourth-and-5 at the KSM 30 on its second drive of the third quarter when Yoshino found Kanekoa amongst four defenders for a 12-yard pass to the 18.
Three plays later, Yoshino rolled to his right and was intercepted on a high throw in the end zone by freshman Ka’onohi Casco.
KS-Maui needed just five plays to go 80 yards the other way with Kamaka-Brayce finding Ho’ohenomauloa Stone-Han out of the backfield for a 13-yard touchdown.
Spencer’s pick-6 less than a minute later made it 34-3.
Kamaka-Brayce added a 64-yard touchdown pass to Stone-Hon on the final play of the third quarter.
Yoshino threw an 81-yard touchdown pass to Kanekoa and Kamakana Mahiko caught touchdown passes of 72 and 5 yards in the fourth quarter after the game was out of reach.
Mahiko had nine catches for 167 yards and Yoshino finished 14-for-35 for 313 yards.
Makana-Brayce added a 1-yard TD run for the Warriors’ final score.
Aiu had five more catches in the second half to finish with 127 receiving yards on eight grabs. Pali finished with 121 rushing yards on 23 carries.
“We came here and we played hard and just wanted to come back next week,” Aiu said. “We know what we do and we know how to work and we worked for this.”
The loss was the first in the state tournament for Kaiser, which went 3-0 en route to the 2013 Division II state title in its only other appearance.
The Cougars entered the tournament 9-0 after running the slate in the OIA and beating Redford in the title game on Friday, 52-17.
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At Skippa Diaz Stadium
KS-Maui (5-2) 7 14 20 7 — 48
Kaiser (9-1) 0 3 0 21 — 24
KSM—Po‘okela Aiu 7 yd pass from
Makana Kamaka-Brayce (Trenton Kiesel kick)
KSM—Kahoa Abreu 8 pass from Kamaka-Brayce (Kiesel kick)
KSM—McKay Pali 1 run (Kiesel kick)
KAIS— FG Shane Smith 27
KSM—Ho‘ohenomauloa Stone-Han 13
pass from Kamaka-Brayce (kick failed)
KSM—Kale Spencer 52 interception return (Kiesel kick)
KSM—Stone-Han 64 pass from Kamaka-Brayce (Kiesel kick)
KAIS—Justin Kaneoka 81 pass from Easton Yoshino (Smith kick)
KAIS—Kamakana Mahiko 72 pass from Yoshino (Smith kick)
KSM—Kamaka-Brayce 1 run (Kiesel kick)
KAIS—Mahiko 5 pass from Yoshino (Ian Shearer kick)
RUSHING—Kamehameha-Maui: Pali 23-121, Duke Brown 4-15, Stone-Han 1-1, team 1-(minus 2), Kamaka-Brayce 3-(minus 2). Kaiser: Hopoate Aholelei 10-51, Ryder Rodrigues 5-28, Justin Kanekoa 1-25, Yoshino 3-18, Kai Blackston 4-(minus 7).
PASSING—Kamehameha-Maui: Kamaka-Brayce 20-29-0—369. Kaiser: Yoshino 14-35-2—313.
RECEIVING—Kamehameha-Maui: Aiu 8-127, Kahoa Abreu 6-109, Stone-Han
4-98, Kainoa Carpenter 1-32, Pali 1-3. Kaiser: Mahiko 9-167, Kanekoa 2-93, Blackston 2-29, Taye Debina 1-24.
