It would be utterly surprising if any of the Kahuku and Waianae players in Saturday night’s OIA Open semifinal football game don’t notice at least one black and blue mark on them when they wake up Sunday morning.
Looking at the game with one lens, you see a rock ’em, sock ’em, crunch ’em struggle for every inch of turf.
Leonard Ah You and Brock Fonoimoana led the way in Kahuku’s 33-7 win over Waianae on Saturday at Farrington’s Skippa Diaz Stadium.
Looking with a another lens, perhaps a more accurate one befitting the final result, you see Kahuku making Waianae pay on big, long scoring plays and winning handily, 33-7, at Farrington’s Skippa Diaz Stadium.
With the win, Kahuku (7-0) — the No. 1 team in the Bedrock Sports Hawaii Top 10 — moves on to face No. 3 Mililani (5-1) next Saturday for the league’s Open championship. The Red Raiders also sewed up a spot in the Open state tournament that starts in two weeks.
The Seariders can get into the states, but to do so, must beat No. 5 Campbell next weekend.
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ALSO AT BedrockSportsHawaii.com:
>> WATCH: 7 Videos Of No. 1 Kahuku’s 33-7 OIA Open Semifinal Win Over Waianae
>> Hawaii Prep And Kamehameha-Hawaii Advance In BIIF D-II Playoffs; Bedrock’s Saturday Scoreboard
>> Waianae Showed Big-Time Resilience Despite 26-Point Loss To Kahuku
>> No. 3 Mililani Clicks In 42-7 Thumping Of No. 5 Campbell In OIA Open Semifinals
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Some Red Raiders players talked afterwards about how Waianae (3-4) came to play and how the win was far from easy.
“Yeah, they were pretty tough,” said Kahuku linebacker Leonard Ah You, who had a whale of game with three sacks and a pass breakup to stop a potential early Waianae touchdown. “They had a lot of good things going for them. But we were sloppy in the beginning and had a lot of penalties. We just need to clean everything up and come back next week and get ready to take on Mililani. When we played them (a 55-20 win over the Trojans), it was field goal, field goal, field goal in the first half and then we shut them down.”
Brock Fonoimoana was a huge part of Saturday’s Kahuku win, scoring on two of those aforementioned long plays and intercepting a pass. He took the opening kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown and later scored on a 43-yard pass from Jason Mariteragi.
“Brock, he’s my cousin,” Ah You said. “He’s very fast, very shifty.”
Mariteragi was part of Kahuku’s three other long TDs — an 85-yard catch and run by Kainoa Carvalho, a 77-yard pass to Kingsley Ah You, and a 30-yard keeper. He finished with 344 of the team’s 427 yards passing.
Kahuku players and coaches huddled at halftime Saturday night. The microphone boom belongs to a film production crew from Los Angeles here in Hawaii to do a documentary on Kakuku football.
Fonoimoana was asked about Waianae’s effort and if the Red Raiders are ready for the challenge that Mililani is sure to give them.
“Waianae always gives us good competition,” he said. “I remember in JV, they almost beat us. And Mililani is good. We just have to say disciplined and do our assignments.”
About the TD on the opening kickoff, Fonoimoana added, “I saw the ball, got it and as they came flying in, I got two blocks and headed upfield to the house.”
Alvin Quisquirin-Sabagala ran for 85 tough rushing yards for the Seariders. Jamal Plunkett scored Waianae’s only touchdown on a 7-yard pass from Akoni Halemano.
Three Seariders picked off Kahuku passes — Primo Valu, Shayd Borabora and Zavier Vincent.
