LIHU‘E — Kapa‘a High School football player Kamalei Gonsalves scored three of Kapa‘a’s touchdowns in the Warriors 42-6 win over Kaua‘i High School in a Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation football game contested at Vidinha Stadium.
Gonsalves, a 5-foot, 11-inch junior, lost little time announcing his presence on the field by capping Kapa‘a’s first possession with an 8-yard romp to pay dirt, as the game clock broke the 10-minute mark in the opening quarter.
He put a period to the announcement by successfully splitting the upright with the extra point kick that gave Kapa‘a a 7-0 lead.
Evan Daligdig, the starting quarterback for the only Division I team in the KIF, answered in Kapa‘a’s ensuing possession by lighting the fuse on a 32-yard score that was called back on a holding penalty against the Warriors.
Kaua‘i High School’s Shiloh Agan pounced on an errant pigskin on their own 6-yard stripe to twart Kapa‘a’s second effort at finding pay dirt as the clock ran out on Kapa‘a’s 7-0 lead.
Gonsalves announced Kapa‘a in the second quarter by tapping the end zone on a 2-yard charge, and did the extra point honors for a 14-0 lead with 7:54 showing on the halftime break.
The stingy Red Raiders defense continued to hold Kapa‘a to below its usual first-half production numbers when Kaua‘i’s Lyndon Kealoha plucked a Daligdig pass with just four ticks remaining before the homecoming haltime show and a 14-0 Kapa‘a lead.
The Warriors used the intermission to regroup and rethink its play that saw two touchdowns emerge in the third frame. Kamalei Dasalia-Mundon found the end zone at the end of a 32-yard charge. Gonsalves’ boot upped the Kapa‘a ante to 21-0 with 3:44 remaining in the stanza.
A little more than two minutes followed when Kapa‘a netted its second TD in the third quarter, as Warrior Charles Lee found pay dirt at the end of a 10-yard run. Micah Rapozo got his moment when his boot did the extra point honors for the 28-0 bulge with 1:15 remaining in the quarter.
Daligdig opened the final period of play by getting his second short-haul score that was enhanced by Rapozo’s extra point boot revising the scoreboard to reflect a 35-0 lead.
The Warriors snuffed the Raiders on the ensuing kickoff series, when Burkart plucked a Tyren Aona airball only to have the act being reversed when Kaua‘i’s Agan recovered his second fumble in the contest on the Warriors’ 20-yard stripe.
That play set up Kaua‘i’s only scoring drive when Aona connected with Julius Purcell-Telefoni for a 12-yard score. The two-point effort came up empty for the 35-6 read with 5:31 remaining in the outing.
On the ensuing possession, Kapa‘a sealed the deal when Gonsalves found his third touchdown, a 17-yard run, and followed the score with another successful extra point kick for the 42-6 final.
Kapa‘a was not done, yet, as defender Eli Keoho intercepted an Aona pass that was called back in the final two minutes of play.
Kapa‘a next celebrates its homecoming week with the football contest against Waimea High School on Friday evening at Bryan J. Baptiste Sports Complex. The junior varsity contest is scheduled to kick off at 5 p.m. with the varsity encounter taking place 30 minutes after the completion of the JV game.
