HONOLULU — The finals of the First Hawaiian Bank Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I football will be an all-Neighbor Island event on Saturday at the Mililani High School field.
Kapaa High School, who defeated the No. 2 seeded Damien Monarchs, 55-33, Friday at the Skippa Diaz stadium at Farrington High School, will be facing the top-seeded Konawaena High School that downed the No. 5 seed Leilehua Mules, 45-20 at the Julian R. Yates stadium in Kona on Friday night.
The Kapaa Warriors, the reigning Central Pacific Bank Kauai Interscholastic Federation champion, and the sole KIF representative to the HHSAA Division I, took off from the start, scoring double digits in each of the four quarters.
Led by Nainoa Simmons who tapped paydirt three times, and Warrior quarterback Evan Daligdig who scored two touchdowns and passed for one, the Warriors fired on all cylinders in their roll over the Monarchs.
Simmons picked up 261 yards on 33 carries, including the trio of scores, followed by Daligdig who added 57 yards on the ground in addition to passing for 67 yards and a TD.
Kapaa took an early lead, 8-7 behind a Simmons 2-point conversion following Daligdig’s first TD, an 8-yard romp to the end zone in the first quarter.
The Warriors continued to hold the digit lead until the second quarter when Damien’s Dayton Savea pulled in an 11-yard scoring aerial from the Monarchs’ signal caller Alani “AJ” Tuifua. A successful Samuel Kawakami PAT boot knotted the contest, 21-21, with 3 minutes, 21 seconds remaining in the first half.
Kapaa launched a 52-yard drive, and with less than a minute showing in the half, tapped paydirt when Kamalei Gonsalves pulled in a 42-yard scoring pass from Daligdig. Warrior kicker Micah Rapozo split the uprights for the 28-21 go-ahead that swung the tide in Kapaa’s favor for the remainder of the night.
Coming off the break, the Warriors scored on its first possession in the second half when Daligdig found his second score, a 10-yard run to the end zone,. This was the first of two scores collected by Kapaa in the third period while the Warrior defense limited Damien to just one score.
On the defensive scorecard, Kapaa’s Brayden Bermoy and Burkart led the defensive efforts with each Warrior marking seven stops apiece. Bermoy also pulled in an interception and had a fumble recovery.
Other strong performers in the victory included Special Teams Nash Burkart returning an 82-yard kickoff for touchdown in the second quarter, and Ryan Peters returning a pass interception for score to open the fourth quarter.
Kapaa repeated the scenario in the fourth quarter for the final 55-33 victory that will bring the Warriors back to Honolulu on Saturday to face Konawaena for the HHSAA Division I title. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at Mililani High School.
