Most coaches would be happy after winning a game by 36 points. Kapa‘a’s Keli‘i Morgado was not after Kapa‘a’s 36-0 shutout win over Kamehameha-Maui Friday night at Vidinha Stadium.
“That’s two games in a row where we’ve got in the red zone and couldn’t finish. That’s a big concern for me,” Morgado said. “We’re not ready to play KIF right now.”
Despite being sloppy in the red zone, the Warriors still managed to dominate the game. The quarterback tandem of John Das and Daniel Reis carved up the Kam-Maui defense with a combination of attacks. Das highlighted his playmaking ability with a 39-yard touchdown run with 3:34 left in the first half. Das took the ball out of the shotgun, juked several defenders and shook off many more before trucking into the endzone to put Kapa‘a up 12-0.
Meanwhile, Reis showed off the more conventional skills of a quarterback. Reis settled into a groove in the second half and completed four of his five second half attempts for 84 yards. Reis finished the game 6-10 with 101 yards passing while Das threw for 31 yards on 2-11 passing.
“Daniel is more of a pure passer who can run, but he’s fast,” Morgado said. “John is clearly a runner who can throw the ball. They give a different mix to our offense. But as far as who we’re going with right now, we’ll see.”
While Kapa‘a had no problem putting points on the board, most of the scores came from outside of the red zone. Kapa’a had scores from 39, 28, and 36 yards out. The lone redzone touchdown came on a Syndreck D‘Sio 7-yard run off of an option from Das.
D‘Sio racked up 75 yards and two touchdowns on the game.
Kam-Maui struggled throughout the game, having trouble with snaps, throws and holding onto the ball. The Kapa‘a defense forced several fumbles and regularly pushed Kam-Maui to three-and-out situations.
Despite the problems Morgado saw with the offense, he was happy with the defensive performance.
“We played well on the defensive side of the ball. But that Kamehameha team is very young and we can’t hang our hats yet on that performance,” he said.
The defense forced a safety in the first quarter and the highlight play of the game was a diving interception by defensive back Keane Agoot.
The Warriors have one more preseason game next week and a bye before kicking off regular season play. Morgado plans on attempting to iron out the wrinkles in his offense until then.
“Hopefully we get a lot better, and thank goodness we have another game,” Morgado said. “We have to get better. We made a ton of errors tonight. We have a lot of work to do.”
On the Westside, it was reported that Waimea downed Honoka‘a 31-0 at Hanapepe Stadium.
