Kaleb Rice returned an interception for a touchdown as Waialua opened a three-touchdown lead and held on for a 21-14 victory over Kalaheo on Thursday night at Toshi Nakasone Field.
The Bulldogs are 1-1 in OIA Division II play after losing their opener to Kalani last week.
“I don’t know. It just happened,” Rice said of his big play, the first of his two interceptions. “I think our defense is the best. We work together. We’d rather win on defense than offense.”
Waialua had a good turnout for an unusual Thursday night battle. The Bulldogs had nine of their 14 penalties in the second half.
“We got our mettle tested there in the second half. It was little mistakes. Some of them were costly, but I’m proud of the boys because they just kept battling. They bend, but they didn’t break,” Bulldogs coach Gary Wirtz said. “Hat’s off to Kalaheo for battling back. They’re going to do big things this season.”
Kalaheo, which scrimmaged Pac-Five last week, lost its opener under new head coach Jaymason Lee.
“We’ve just got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot. We really made a lot of mistakes on our end and basically gave them a few points on the end. We always fight to the end. I like the push, but we’ve got to take care of our assignments,” Lee said. “Our coaches did a great job adjusting. We had some guys banged up, some guys not even cleared yet.”
Kalaheo committed three costly turnovers in the first half and trailed 14-0. Lee’s team showed grit, battling to the end.
After a bad punt snap gave Kalaheo the ball at Waialua 25-yard line — recovered by Sean Ucciardi — Bubz Pyne’s 1-yard blast got the visiting Mustangs on the scoreboard with 10:26 left in the fourth quarter.
Kalaheo got a 24-yard punt return from versatile Benjamin White late in the game, and quarterback Jude Weber found White open for a 26-yard TD with 42.2 seconds remaining. That cut the lead to 21-14.
Waialua’s Kalani Oga recovered the ensuing on-side pooch kick and the Bulldogs took three knees in the final seconds for the win.
It was a well-earned win for a team with six players sidelined for disciplinary reasons in Waialua’s first two games.
Rice’s one-handed snatch on a tipped pass turned into a scintillating 21-yard pick-6 on the first play of the second quarter.
On Kalaheo’s next series, he came up with another interception to give Waialua the ball at the Mustangs’ 43-yard line. Four plays later, quarterback Emery Abilla connected with Jayvie Abilla on a post route for a 40-yard TD and a 14-0 lead.
The home team opened the lead to 21-0 on Makoakai Fierro’s 5-yard TD run with 6:24 left in the game. Fierro handled placekicking duties and finished with 31 hard-earned yards on the ground, on 17 carries.
Waialua meets Kaimuki at Skippa Diaz Stadium next Thursday.
Kalaheo will play McKinley at Ticky Vasconcellos Stadium next week Saturday. The Bulldogs plan to take Friday off and return to the field on Saturday for practice and film study.
“We have a big game next week,” Wirtz said.
