Unlike its previous OIA Red championship, Mililani could savor its latest league title with an on-field celebration.

Mililani quarterback McKenzie Milton’s all-purpose performance helped power the Trojans to a dominant 37-6 win over Farrington in the OIA Red final on Friday at Aloha Stadium, sending the Trojans to their second title in the past four years.

The sophomore scored the Trojans’ first touchdown on a 52-yard run, caught a 23-yard scoring pass late in the second quarter and threw for a touchdown in the third.

“Coach (Rod) York puts me in a great position to succeed,” Milton said. “Our O-line is the best in the state and we’ve got a great running back in Vavae (Malepeai). It’s a team effort.

“It was awesome to get the win and we’ll celebrate this for the weekend, but our ultimate goal is to win states.”

Mililani’s offensive line opened the way for Malepeai, another sophomore, to run for 90 yards and a touchdown, while the defense held the Farrington offense out of the end zone.

Mililani was awarded its previous OIA Red championship in 2010 without boarding the bus to Aloha Stadium, a result of Kahuku being ruled ineligible by the OIA hours before the scheduled title game. The Trojans returned to the final last year and suffered a blowout loss to Kahuku.

“We dedicated this to every Mililani Trojan from 1973 to the present to the future,” Mililani coach Rod York said.

“We didn’t want what happened last year to happen this year.  The kids believed in the game plan, they believed in the coaches and we got it done.”

The win also gave Mililani (10-1) the OIA’s seeded berth and a first-round bye in the upcoming Division I state tournament. Farrington (8-3), which had an eight-game winning streak snapped, has also qualified for the state tournament and will face Baldwin on Friday at War Memorial Stadium on Maui. Kahuku and Campbell meet today to determine the league’s third and final berth.

“We just gotta move on. Sometimes these losses are a wake-up call. We have to practice hard on our fundamentals,” Farrington coach Randall Okimoto said.

“It’s a tough night. We have to get back into detail at practice. We have a lot to learn from this.”

The Trojans rolled up 334 yards in total offense against a Farrington defense that had given up just 24 points over its previous four games. They held the Governors to 177 yards.

“Our defense is our big brothers and they were a big reason our offense clicked and our special teams clicked,” York said.

Mililani controlled the line of scrimmage for much of the first half and forced the Governors to punt on their first five possessions.

After the Trojans opened the scoring with a 29-yard field goal by Marc Matas, Milton extended the lead by weaving through the Farrington defense on his 52-yard touchdown run. The extra point was blocked and Mililani led 9-0 after the first quarter.

After Malepeai gave Mililani a 15-0 lead with a 3-yard touchdown run, Bronsen Ader’s 42-yard punt return set the Trojans up at the Farrington 28 with 1:03 left in the half. 

Two plays later, Milton lined up as a wideout and ran down Robert Faleafine’s 23-yard pass into the end zone. Faleafine then hit Ian Namu on the 2-point conversion pass to give the Trojans a 23-0 lead going into halftime.

Malepeai returned the second-half kickoff 56 yards and Milton hit Kalakaua Timoteo on a 24-yard touchdown pass four plays later.

Dayton Furuta added a 3-yard touchdown run to bring the running clock into effect until Farrington broke the shutout when Aaron Kesi scooped up a fumble and returned it 72 yards for a touchdown.

“We didn’t play good enough last year (in the OIA Red final),” Furuta said. “It’s a great feeling to actually come back and finally win it.”