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.