HANAPEPE — Kapaa quarterback Kahanu Davis ran for two touchdowns and passed for one Friday night to lead the Warriors to a 38-0 shutout over Waimea High School.
The Warriors exploded into the Hanapepe Stadium after being delayed by the Friday traffic, creating a late start to the matches and the resulting late-night end that came with the clock teasing the 11 p.m. hour at the final snap.
Waimea was also anxious to get the pigskin on the field, its junior varsity capitalizing off a pass interception in the second quarter toward its 10-0 win over the JV Warriors.
Adding to a 3-0 bulge from a Menehune field goal, Maka Shigematsu plucked the Kaedin Reis aerial on the Warriors’ 41-yard line. Fueled by a long pass, Shigematsu to Kash Akita to the Warriors’ 10-yard line, the JV Menehune found paydirt at the end of a Shigematsu to Akita 10-yard pass. Joey Sams added the point-after boot for the 10-0 final.
The varsity Warriors charged onto the field to find the end zone during their first two possessions of the game.
Waimea’s punter bobbled a fourth-down snap and the Warrior defense churned up the short drive capped by Davis tapping the end zone on a 3-yard charge at the 9:40 mark.
Kapaa kicker Chysen
Lagunes-Rapozo, finishing the night with a 48-yard field goal and a perfect five-for-five in
point-after-touchdown boots, bumped the scoreboard to an early 7-0 Kapaa bulge.
“We played a lot better tonight,” said Kapaa coach Philip Rapozo. “That was a terrible loss for us last week,” he said of last week’s 13-3 loss to Kauai High. We were pretty solid out there, but there is still a lot more work to do.”
Kapaa running back Baba Na‘o pushed for the second score, a 1-yard dive, with 4:16 showing in the first stanza to cap the Warriors’ second possession, a 72-yard drive, and Raffy Perono closed the frame on a near-interception of a Lacin Montemayor pass.
Yellow laundry greeted the Warriors in the second quarter when they suffered callbacks of two touchdowns on infractions — the first being a long, 54-yard Davis to Lanakila Pagtolingan pass, and the second being a Davis 28-yard rush. This caused the Warriors to settle for a 48-yard field goal with 8:52 showing in the half.
Jai Alapai set up the 24-0 halftime reading after intercepting a Montemayor aerial, and Davis broke away for a 76-yard score.
Kapaa closed the night on a score in the third quarter when Davis connected with Alapai for a 39-yard scoring pass, and Pagtolingan got his score on a seven-yard charge in the fourth frame.
“This is the best feeling a coach can get,” Rapozo said. “Everybody got to play. We tell the boys all the time — play hard so everybody else can play. After our loss to Kauai, we had to work hard because we know that Waimea is a good team, and it feels good that we could build a lead that allowed our other players a chance to get on the field.”
With the win, Kapaa gets a break Friday when Waimea hosts Kauai High School at Hanapepe Stadium. The junior varsity game kicks off at 5 p.m. with the varsity match getting under way approximately 30 minutes following the JV contest.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
