KAPA‘A — Kekaha Titan’s Kaiea Kinoshita plucked a Hanapepe Colts ball Saturday during the Kaua‘i Pop Warner Football League games at the stadium in the Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste Sports Complex.
Contesting in the 12-and-under division, the 58-yard run back early in the contest put the Titans up 8-0 following the successful point-after-touchdown boot by Nash Schaefer.
“‘What a great bunch of guys,” said KPWFL President Teddy Arroyo during the halftime. “When we started the season, Kekaha had barely enough players to field a team. But they recruited and practiced, and look at them now. They have an 8-0 lead over the Hanapepe Colts.”
Halftime also allowed Roy Nishida of the Lions Foundation to present the KPWFL with a contribution of $1,250 to help the league compensate its officials’ corps.
“This has been hard for the league,” said Kelvin Moniz, who is one of the Lions as well as a football official. “With the COVID-19, there can’t be any food booths, which is the revenue stream that helps pay for the officials. The officials also pulled in their belts and aren’t being compensated for the full amount. At least this helps.”
The 12-under Hanapepe Colts used that halftime to work on a comeback plan for the second half. That effort netted the Colts a touchdown in the fourth quarter when Ha‘aheo Kailikini found the end zone through a strong goal line stand by the Titans. Napali Jardin, a prominent ball-mover on the scoring drive, capped the score on a PAT boot for the 8-8 deadlocked final score.
Other action saw the Lihu‘e Raiders Cub unit overwhelm the Kapa‘a Eagles 24-2, and the Hanapepe Colts’ Bobcats shut down Koloa 34-0.
During the 10-and-under, eight-man tackle football games, Hanapepe Colts’ quarterback Jacoby Dotario ran for two touchdowns, and got help from Lana Prigge, Ragen Rivera and Chad Cabral with touchdowns as the Colts shut down the Kekaha Titans, 32-0. Kaleo Renaud added the sole PAT pass reception in the win.
The Lihu‘e Raiders suffered its first loss of the day when the 12-and-under Lihu‘e unit fell 25-12 to the Kapa‘a Eagles. The loss was redeemed by the Raiders’ 14-and-under tackle unit, which answered the 12-under loss with a 16-6 win over the Kapa‘a Eagles.
With the resumption of Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation football starting Saturday, KPWFL officials announced that Pop Warner football games will be shifted to Sunday in order to not conflict with the KIF.
This Sunday’s schedule of seven games will kick off at Hanapepe Stadium, with the first game starting at 7:30 a.m. and the final contest kicking off at 4:30 p.m.
•••
Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
