HANAPEPE — The Waimea High School football program allowed just one score, but pulled in 61 points to shut down Kaua‘i High School, Saturday night before several hundred fans at the Hanapepe Stadium during the second Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation football presentation.
Garbed in new spectator-approved blue, the Menehune under Coach Kyle Linoz capitalized on three pass plucks of Raider QB Racen Pagador, and a fumble recovery to pave its road to a 44-0 shutout victory.
Reeling from the 44-0 deficit, the Red Raiders took root in the final three minutes on the game clock to mount its most impressive drive of the night when Pagador took to the air and found Austin Renaud, Kaimana Kaui, and Kaimana Inouye on passes that covered 37 yards, but eluded the promised land when time ran out.
Kaui set up that drive on the Kaua‘i 34-yard line on a kickoff return that followed the final Waimea touchdown that was a result of Waimea’s Rhaziah Tacub-Taniguchi wrapping himself around a pass interception and running the plucked ball back some 40 yards for touchdown. Kylen Parongao was called on to do the point-after-touchdown boot for the 44-0 final read.
Two earlier pass plucks in the first quarter netted two touchdowns for Waimea when Aukai Emayo found paydirt on runs of four yards (following Josiah Banasihan’s pluck in the first three minutes of play), and two yards (following Haweo Akeo’s pluck at the 5:34 mark of the opening stanza).
Akeo’s defensive pass interception was not the only contribution to the Menehune as he booted a field goal from the Kaua‘i 9-yard line to open the fourth quarter of play, and his foot was true for three Waimea PATs.
Brennen Fernandez found a loose pigskin in the fourth quarter and ran it back 42 yards for touchdown in the final stanza, Akeo gracing that score with a PAT boot.
Earlier in the fourth period where Waimea scored 17 points, Kaili Arakaki, one of several Menehune signal callers in the game, salvaged a bad snap and recovered for an eight-yard score.
Kameron Apilado took a kickoff following a failed Kaua‘i field goal in the second quarter on a nearly 80-yard rom to the end zone only to have the play called back on an illegal motion infraction. The drive that resulted was capped by Apilado on an eight-yard charge to paydirt.
Earlier in the afternoon, the Junior Varsity Menehune broke a 0-0 stalemate in the second frame when Niko Yamauchi returned a Kaua‘i JV punt for touchdown that was graced by a PAT boot.
Following a field goal from Shayden Ranis-Alameda Dela Cruz, Kaua‘i responded to the 10-0 deficit when JV signal caller Tyren Aona found Kaden Itamura in the end zone on a 20-yard strike. The PAT failed, and Waimea JV wrapped up the win when the JV Menehune recovered a fumble in the end zone.
Waimea next travels to the Bryan J. Baptiste Sports Complex in Kapa‘a, Saturday for its first meeting against the Kapa‘a High School defending KIF, and Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association Division II champions. The JV game kicks off at 5 p.m. with the varsity contest to follow 30 minutes after the completion of JV contest.
