The Kapaa Warriors have run their shutout streak to five consecutive games after Saturday’s 17-0 win over Kauai High. Now 7-0 for the season and 5-0 in KIF play, the Warriors seem to be on cruise control moving toward the
The Kapaa Warriors have run their shutout streak to five consecutive games after Saturday’s 17-0 win over Kauai High. Now 7-0 for the season and 5-0 in KIF play, the Warriors seem to be on cruise control moving toward the postseason, where they’ve already secured the island’s bid in the HHSAA Division II tournament.
Sitting as the top-ranked team in D-II since their opening pair of wins over Nanakuli and Lahainaluna, Kapaa has continued to show why it quickly earned that top spot. In KIF play, the Warriors have now outscored their opponents by a total score of 190-0. That’s not a typo. Kapaa has been so dominant that it locked up the KIF championship back on Oct. 3, more than a month before it would have to play its first playoff game.
But it seems that a 17-0 win wasn’t on par with what Kapaa has done all year, because it dropped the Warriors down from No. 1 to No. 2 in the weekly ScoringLive rankings. The new top dogs are the Radford Rams, who own a 9-0 season mark and have gone 8-0 during their OIA schedule.
Now, I’m not here to say whether or not Radford is better than Kapaa. I haven’t seen the Rams play in person. They certainly play in what is considered the much tougher of the two conferences and have scored 307 points while surrendering only 34 to those OIA foes. They’re clearly a very strong team and are coming off their third shutout victory of the year. They must be good.
But if Kapaa can get knocked out of the top spot after posting yet another shutout, then why were they even up there in the first place?
I feel like I have a fairly comprehensive understanding of football, so I can say the following without much hesitation: it’s very difficult to lose a game in which you don’t give up any points. Sure, Kapaa has slowed its offensive attack quite a bit, averaging 23 points over its past three games after exploding for 121 in its first two KIF contests. They’ve dialed it back and Kauai and Waimea have made adjustments to make things more difficult.
But they’re still playing shutdown defense, which is what they’ve become known for over the past few seasons. It seems like a difficult standard to maintain when a team can walk off the field after posting another zero and, somehow, experience a small dip in the polls.
I have to admit that when I was at the first Waimea-Kapaa game of the year, I was a little uncomfortable with what I was watching in the second half. The Warriors were clearly the dominant team and were still pouring on the points in a game that had been decided very early. But while Kapaa was continuing to fire that seam route on its way to a 68-0 win, I was of the opinion that they could work on other things offensively that may not run the score up so severely and so quickly.
The kids only get to play two games every three weeks, so I want them to get all they can out of each opportunity. I don’t think a team should stop playing just because they have a big lead, but I also think there’s a way to scale back the aggression.
But maybe I’m wrong, because if Kapaa were still winning games by 50 points, the Warriors would probably have maintained their No. 1 ranking. Whether or not that’s the right signal to be sending, I’m not sure.
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David Simon can be reached at dsimon@thegardenisland.com.
