LAHAINALUNA FOOTBALL V. KAMEHAMEHA SCHOOLS MAUI W49-7 - September 27, 2014

The Lunas kicked off the second half of the season with a 49-7 win over the Warriors of Kamehameha Schools Maui. It was Homecoming Night for the Warriors and the Lunas did what they could to make sure the home team didn’t come away with the upset victory.

In their first match up, the Warriors amassed a lot of yards and scored 3 touchdowns – although if you analyze it, most of the points were scored against the second and third-string defense as Connor Mowat and Danny Sulunga-Kahaialii were not suited up for the game and Peni Taufa, Justin Hong, Jared Rocha and Ansen Cabanilla were in street clothes due to injuries after halftime.

 This time around, the defense did an excellent job of containing Warriors’ quarterback Newton and preventing big plays.  The one score managed by the Warriors came just before the end of the first half, when Newton found Keannini down the sideline for a 22 yard touchdown pass. He had pushed off of Scotty Medeiros-Tangatailoa which could have been called offensive pass interference . . . I thought the receiver had stepped out of bounds and came back onto the field of play before the catch. Nevertheless, the play was called good and the Warriors scored. Other than that, it was all Lahainaluna.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Warriors started off strong , moving the ball well against the Lunas defense. Coming off the bye, the Lunas were a bit rusty. The Lunas forced a fumble in the red zone to stop the scoring threat. The Lunas scored with 5:21 left in the 1^st quarter on a 43 yard pass from Sione Filikitonga to Ansen Cabanilla. Ironically, the exact same play was called back the play before due to a penalty on the Lunas.

 

 

This game was notable for two touchdown passes thrown to tight end Ryan Delatori from 1 yard out and 7 yards out. In all, Filikitonga was 8-18 passing for 109 yards, with 3 touchdowns and no interceptions.  Jared Rocha-Islas had his best individual rushing game of the year with 165 yards on 19 carries and 2 touchdowns. Lunas amassed 26 first downs and 408 total yards. More importantly, Lunas had 0 fumbles and only 2 penalties, while forcing 4 fumbles and recovering 3 against Kamehameha. Special teams also did well, as Nau Filiau’s lone punt of the game went 55 yards deep into Warrior territory, and the punt returner fumbled, giving the Lunas possession.

Although Warrior QB Newton was 19 for 31 passing, he only netted 91 passing yards and was intercepted once.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more photos, click here.

 

LAHAINALUNA BOWLING v. KAMEHAMEHA SCHOOLS MAUI - September 27, 2014

Today, I decided to try to get a nice group shot of the bowling team together, outside of the bowling alley in the light. Thankfully, Ennah and Breanna were kind enough to let me know when they were getting close to the bowling center so that I could meet them before they started warming up. Unfortunately, their coach was not with them and last year’s coach Eric stood in.

 

HISTORIC WIN! MIL 8-MAN FOOTBALL: LANAI v. KIHEI CHARTER - September 27, 2014

The athletic director for Lanai High School, Rod Sumagit, is an old friend of mine from college days at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. If I recall correctly, he was part of the Hale Wainani resident staff, where I lived all 4 ½ years of my college life. When he became A.D., we ran into each other often, especially at events in which Lanai was participating with Lahainaluna, such as Cross-Country, Paddling and Wrestling. He asked if I could get shots of his athletes and, being from a small school myself, I didn’t mind doing so.

 So this year, with Lanai participating for the first time in 8-Man football and reviving a football program that had been dormant since the mid-1950’s, Rod was excited to get his program some recognition. He had asked if I could take photos at the football games played on Maui – however, because of my already hectic schedule covering Lahainaluna sports, it would be difficult for me to make any promises.

 Today was one such day when my schedule would allow me to catch their game. They were scheduled to play Kihei Charter at 1pm at War Memorial. I didn’t let Rod know ahead of time because, again, I did not want to commit and then disappoint him if I couldn’t show up. Anyways, at 12:40pm, I headed over to the Stadium with my Nikon D300 and Sigma 50-500 in hand, whipped out my Athletic Pass and tried to get in. Unfortunately, the people manning the gate said I could not use my pass since Lahainaluna was not participating in the event. I had to pay $6. Darn it. I didn’t have $6. I don’t usually carry cash with me, period.

So I decided to run some errands and shoot bowling. In the meantime, I Facebooked Rod and let him know what happened – that I tried to make it but couldn’t get in. He responded by asking me to meet him at the gate and he would get me in. Unfortunately, I was gone.

 At bowling, I decided to just take a group photo and not do any actual competition photos. There was still time, so I Facebooked Rod and let him know I was heading back. When I got there, he actually paid the $6 for me to get in! I thought he just had to give them my name and they would let me in, but I guess they insisted on getting the $6. In hindsight, if I came after halftime, I probably could’ve gotten in for free – but I wanted to get up to Kamehameha early for the football game that night.

 Anyways, I got to shoot the end of the 2^nd quarter and into the third quarter. Tried to get as much shots as a I could of the players, the action, the coaches and the fans. It was the middle of the day and sometimes, shooting with too much light can be a bad thing too. Many of the shots were overexposed and I spent quite some time trying to get a decent exposure but it was all over the place. My friend James Sparke is the AD at Kihei Charter, so I tried to get shots of his kids as well.

 Unfortunately, a Kihei Charter player got injured on the field and it was taking quite some time for the trainers to assess (both schools are relatively new to Football). At that point, I left to go home and rest up for the football game.

 Here are some of the shots from the game:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ADDENDUM: On Monday, I was contacted by a reporter at KITV news who had seen the pictures and wanted to incorporate them into a story they were doing on  Lanai’s historic football win. The story was broadcast that night! It was neat to see my name on each of the photos they flashed on the screen.

 

 

 

FOOTBALL SCHEDULE CHANGE! HOMECOMING GAME VS. BEARS MOVED TO WAR MEMORIAL - October 15, 2014

UPDATE!!! (October 15, 2014)  DUE TO THE APPROACH OF TROPICAL STORM  (POTENTIAL HURRICANE) ANA WHICH IS SCHEDULED TO HIT MAUI SOMETIME ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON, THE HOMECOMING GAME AGAINST BALDWIN HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED TO FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014 AT WAR MEMORIAL STADIUM!!!

JV starts at 4:30 p.m. and the Varsity contest is slated for 7:00 p.m. Hopefully the weather is not that bad.





















 





ATTENTION! Lahainaluna's Homecoming Game against Baldwin High School on Saturday,
October 18, 2014 Friday, October 17, 2014 will be played at War Memorial Stadium instead of at Lahainaluna's home stadium. Due to circumstances beyond their control, the Stadium will not be ready to host the game on October 17th 18th.

Yes, this is old news to some but I wanted to make sure word got out since my posted football schedule on this site remained unchanged. I certainly did not want to be blamed if people showed up at the Lahainaluna campus only to realize the game is on the other side!

Hopefully, the impending storm that will be known as Hurricane Ana continues to grow and move towards the Hawaiian Island chain with an estimated arrival date on Maui of - yes, you guessed it - Saturday, October 18th.

I'm not a religious man, but I am definitely praying that this hurricane weakens and changes direction soon. Of course, the priority is to minimize loss of life and property damage, but in my case, I DO NOT want to shoot the homecoming game in a torrential downpour. My equipment ain't exactly weather-sealed!

LAHAINALUNA GIRLS VOLLEYBALL v. KING KEKAULIKE L0-3 - September 25, 2014

Lahainaluna’s girls varsity volleyball team continue to improve and be competitive, facing MIL-leading and undefeated Na Alii of King Kekaulike at Lahainaluna’s home gym. Although they lost in 3 sets: 15-25, 24-26, 23-25, they were in it in every match and had legitimate chances to wins sets 2 and 3 but could not close it out. Even in Set 1, the Lunas ran out to a 5-1 lead before King Kekaulike battled back.

 The improvement over the course of the week is remarkable. Against Maui High on Saturday, the team came out incredibly flat. They could not serve-receive to save their lives. Errors led to aces and easy points for Maui High. Poor passing led to an inability for setter to set up any kind of offense. They could not get on track at all in any of the sets to mount any kind of sustained rally.

 On Tuesday, the team played well for 2 of 3 sets. The first set, Lunas took an early lead, lost it, regained the lead, but could not finish it off. The second set was a return to the nightmare of poor serve-receive and passing. The third set, the Lunas got back on track and kept it close throughout.

 Tonight against King Kekaulike, the Lady Lunas played well in all 3 sets.

It was only their second home game of the year despite already being the in the second round of MIL play, but the crowd that came out to support was very raucous and enthusiastic, especially the members of the Lady Lunas’ basketball team. It was hilarious watching them cheer on their classmates!

Although their winless record does not reflect it, these girls continue to compete and play hard against their opponents and are fun to watch and to cheer for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more photos, click here.