Zaira Sugui passed for 208 yards and three touchdowns as Moanalua overwhelmed Mililani 25-6 on Thursday night to capture the first OIA flag football championship.
Clear, cool conditions at John Kauinana Stadium were perfect for Sugui, a prolific sophomore quarterback. She fired all three touchdown passes to Jodie Keo (3, 33 and 2 yards). Moanalua (13-0 overall) completed league play a perfect 8-0.
“I feel good. Playing with our coach (Ladd Mokiao) and our girls. I’m really proud to be on a team like this,” said Sugui, who completed 19 of her 27 pass attempts and played every snap on defense at safety.
It was her second game playing every down. The first was in the semifinals on Wednesday.
“It takes a lot of hard work to get where we are right now. We had to get that bond in order to make the plays. I had to know where my receivers will be,” Sugui said. “When we watched the film, Mililani looks good. They have some moves and some star players. We kind of knew who we had to watch out for. I had to watch out for their safety and their cornerback. They have good hands.”
Keo finished with nine receptions for 106 yards and also played defensive back.
“My coach set the plays and told me how to run. I was watching the defenses and reading them,” Keo said.
Mililani’s defense was uniquely athletic and smart, becoming the first unit to pick off Sugui three times. The Trojans’ playoff path began with a 28-6 win over Waianae and a 25-14 victory over Campbell. Coach Rod York’s team, built largely without club players, relied heavily on the speed of quarterback Zenn Nelson all season.
Moanalua made it a point to contain Nelson, who never had enough time to set her feet and launch the deep ball. Lofa Simanu, one of Moanalua’s two-way standouts, had two interceptions on Nelson’s first two pass attempts, returning one for a 25-yard pick-6. She also had seven receptions for 70 yards on another busy night of work.
“I think we’ve just got to ask for God to give us grace and do everything in God’s name,” she said.
Simanu was a freshman point guard on the Moanalua varsity basketball team.
“Basketball is more tiring,” she said.
Kaia Borje-Peeples, a senior, led the pass rush for Moanalua with all three of their sacks.
“We just had to adjust and be patient (against Nelson),” Borje-Peeples said.
Moanalua won its playoff games decisively, topping Leilehua 25-6 and Nanakuli 20-0. On Thursday, after the program’s biggest win of the season, Coach Mokiao was drenched after getting a Gatorade shower on the sideline from his players in the final seconds of play.
Na Menehune were opportunistic from the first snap. Simanu intercepted a pass by Zenn that was high and off the fingers of a Mililani wide receiver. Sugui stepped on the field and completed four passes in a row, including a 2-yard strike to Keo for the game’s first touchdown.
After a PAT pass again from Sugui to Keo, it was 7-0.
On the next snap, another turnover. Simanu picked off a sideline pass by Nelson and raced 25 yards to the left pylon to open Moanalua’s lead to 13-0.
On third down, Nelson almost threw her third interception. Moanalua’s Jailyn Smith dropped a pass in the middle of the line of scrimmage on what could have been another pick-6.
Another potential scoring drive by Moanalua was thwarted by Mililani defensive back Nahealani Choy Foo, who intercepted a Sugui pass over the middle and returned it 7 yards to the Trojans’ 13-yard line.
On the next series, Sugui showed her prowess on the defensive side with an interception on a deep post pass by Nelson.
The Trojans defense came up big with its first sack, by Kaua Crabbe. Two plays later, on fourth down, Sugui found Keo on a crossing pattern all the way near the left sideline. Keo hauled the ball in and outran defenders to the left pylon for a 33-yard TD.
Moanalua led 19-0 with 5:50 remaining in the first half. Defensively, the visitors were stout. Borjes-Peeples’ sack of Brooke Kurasaki ended the next Mililani series.
Ayreeana Manutai’s interception with 25.4 seconds left in the first half was the second takeaway by Mililani’s defense. Offensively, however, the Trojans had 31 yards of total offense by intermission.
Moanalua’s consistency with Sugui reading one of the toughest defenses in the OIA was key. Sugui’s quick pass to Keo for a 1-yard TD pass over the middle extended Na Menehune’s lead to 25-0 late in the third quarter.
Mililani got on the scoreboard when Kurasaki fired a 5-yard pass to Choy Foo on a crossing route in the end zone with 10:25 remaining.
Trojans fans made their biggest noise of the evening moments later when Sugui’s pass over the middle was intercepted by Siena Ma‘afala. Standing extremely still where the ball had been snapped, Ma‘afala was hidden in plain view. She clutched Sugui’s bullet pass and returned the pigskin 33 yards to the Moanalua 17-yard line.
Again, Moanalua’s defense stood its ground.
The HHSAA Flag Football State Championships will be held Apr. 30-May 3 at Pearl City and Mililani. The field will have 16 teams, including seven from the OIA.
