Brothers Donovan and Dillon Reis haven’t played a lot of football together growing up.
It’s what made their game against McKinley on Friday night a little more special.
Dillon Reis, a Kaiser sophomore, scored the first two touchdowns of his varsity career, taking a handoff from his older brother 6 yards for his second score in the second quarter of a 60-7 win over visiting McKinley in the OIA Division II opener for both teams.
The defending OIA champion Cougars (1-1, 1-0) opened league play with a convincing victory in which both Reis brothers found the end zone.
Donovan Reis, a junior who has played at least three positions in his varsity career, caught two touchdown passes from senior Easton Yoshino in a 40-point first quarter for the Cougars.
Dillon Reis, whose first TD came on an impressive 56-yard run, added a second score to cap Donovan Reis’ only drive of the game as quarterback.
“I’m just proud of him. It’s nice to see my little brother succeed,” Donovan said. “The only thing I was looking forward to was seeing him score his first varsity touchdown. I’m happy.”
Dillon Reis, who caught one pass and carried the ball five times in his varsity debut against ‘Iolani, led the Cougars with 91 rushing yards on five carries.
His first touchdown was a much tougher run, but the second one did come with his brother handing him the ball.
“The second one felt great just because my brother handed it off to me, but the first one was my longest touchdown ever,” Dillon said. “Both felt great.”
Dillon didn’t play junior varsity football and said he didn’t watch his brother play much during a sophomore season in which he threw, caught and ran for touchdowns.
Now that Dillon’s on the team, Donovan says he’s hard on his younger brother, pushing him to get better.
“We’re competitive, but we’re also super close,” Donovan said. “On the football field I push him a lot harder than anyone else. I just want him to succeed. I want him to do what he does and push him to his best. He does get mad.”
“Sometimes I get frustrated,” Dillon admitted. “But I understand.”
Kaiser coach Tim Seaman is excited to have both of them on the team.
“(Donovan) is really playing well right now and I like the fact he’s working really hard in practice this year,” Seaman said. “He’s matured as a leader. Although he’s a junior, everything about him is like he’s a senior.
“And I’ll tell you, we’re excited what Dillon can do. Still finding his way at the varsity level but works really hard in the weight room. He’s another one who plays with a lot of confidence, and when the lights go on, he seems to turn it on.”
The Cougars rolled up the first 52 points of the game against the Tigers (0-2, 0-1) and ended up with three touchdowns on fumble recoveries in the end zone off high snaps from under center.
Sophomore Jesse Oku, listed at 5-foot-5 and 125 pounds, recovered one of those fumbles for a score and picked off one of two passes by the Kaiser defense.
The Cougars used three quarterbacks in the first half. Yoshino finished 9-for-14 for 166 yards and three touchdowns before leaving the game midway through the second quarter.
Donovan Reis engineered one drive at quarterback and junior Brody Maeda took over for the rest of the way.
“I think we played a little bit better this week than we did against ‘Iolani, but we still got a long way to go,” Seaman said.
McKinley scored its lone touchdown late in the first half. Togafau engineered an eight-play, 67-yard drive with a 23-yard strike to Preston Note on third down the key play. Note added a 12-yard reception to move the ball inside the Kaiser 5, where Togafau scrambled to his right on the next play and hit Makana Williams out of the backfield for 4-yard TD to make it 52-7 at intermission.
—
KAISER 60, MCKINLEY 7
At Kaiser Stadium
McKinley (0-2, 0-1) 0 7 0 0 — 7
Kaiser (1-1, 1-0) 40 12 2 6 — 60
Kais—Donovan Reis 13 pass from Easton
Yoshino (Ian Shearer kick)
Kais—Jesse Oku fumble recovery in end zone (kick failed)
Kais—Reis 31 pass from Yoshino (Shearer kick)
Kais—Nalu Nu’uhiwa-Santos fumble recovery in end zone (Shearer kick)
Kais—Dillon Reis 58 run (run failed)
Kais—Makana Naleieha 29 pass from Yoshino (Shearer kick)
Kais—Yoshino 1 run (kick failed)
Kais—Di. Reis 6 run (kick blocked)
McK—Makana Williams 4 pass from Afi Togafau (Noa Hattori-Crozier kick)
Kais—Safety, punt snapped out of end zone
Kais—Domineck Symanski fumble recovery in end zone (pass failed)
RUSHING—McKinley: Williams 1-3, Kaniala An Mau 1-3, Togafau 9-2, team 7-(minus 122). Kaiser: Di. Reis 5-91, Do. Reis 2-49, Kai Blackston 6-40, Hansel Barrios 9-30, Brody Maeda 2-9, Yoshino 1-1, Te’a Nu’uhiwa-Santos 1-0, team 3-(minus 15)
PASSING—McKinley: Togafau 10-28-2- 97, An Mau 0-1-0-0. Kaiser: Yoshino 9-14–0-166, Maeda 4-11-0-14.
RECEIVING—McKinley: Preston Note 5-59, Williams 3-18, Paxton Nouchi 1-10, Richard Kaneshiro 1-10. Kaiser: Do. Reis 4-80, Naleieha 2-54, Jesse Shinagawa 1-17, Blackston 1-11, Zach Miyoshi 1-5, Cole Bernard 1-5, Di. Reis 1-4, Barrios 1-3, Rayne Sumida 1-1.