LIHU‘E — The Red Raiders would come out firing on all cylinders offensively throwing everything at Waimea that it could. Defensively, Waimea played well for most of the night, but couldn’t match the Red Raiders offensively as Kaua‘i pulled away
LIHU‘E — The Red Raiders would come out firing on all cylinders offensively throwing everything at Waimea that it could. Defensively, Waimea played well for most of the night, but couldn’t match the Red Raiders offensively as Kaua‘i pulled away with the 24-7 win Friday night at Vidinha Stadium in the regular season opener.
Going into the regular season, both Kaua‘i and Waimea had a lot to prove. The Red Raiders coming off a disappointing second place finish in 2011, and the Menehune competing this year without a junior varsity team.
The game started off with a boom for Kaua‘i when on the first play of the game, running back Waika Alapai went for a 75-yard run putting the Red Raiders on the Menehune 5-yard line. Alapai would finish the work punching it in the endzone for the 5-yard touchdown run putting the Red Raiders up 7-0. Unfortunately, for Kaua‘i, that would be Alapai’s last run of the night as he would leave the game due to injury. The injury bug would become a recurring theme of the night for the Red Raiders.
In addition to Alapai, Kaua‘i also saw running back Reggie McFadden reaggravate his already injured ankle, however McFadden was able to continue for most of the game. Its biggest loss was when Kanoa Iwasaki went down with a broken collarbone. Iwasaki will be out 4-6 weeks, jeopardizing the rest of his season.
“Were going to have to work hard,” said Head Coach Cory Aguano. “We are going to have to heal up and hopefully we can get them back, because we are going to need them for Kapa‘a.”
Alapai finished the game with two carries for 80-yards and a touchdown.
Before Iwasaki went down he came up with four receptions for 25-yards.
In a gutsy performance, McFadden was able to carry most of the workload on the ground for the Red Raiders with 73-yards rushing on 14 carries.
“(McFadden) started injured,” Aguano said. “But he played really well, hats off to him. He played injured and stepped it up, and that’s what football is all about.”
In a strong opening night performance quarterback Trey Aguano earned player of the night honors. He was able to lead the Red Raiders with 253-yards passing on 15 of 39 passing attempts and two touchdowns.
“Obviously we are a passing team,” Aguano said. “We are going to throw the ball, but we need to catch every ball. He had several that we dropped. Trey made some incorrect reads and we need to get better at that as the season goes along.”
Drops was a problem for the Red Raiders during the game as the team missed plenty of opportunities to add on to its total.
Not many balls seem to be dropped by wide receiver Kalawaia Judd as he finished with five receptions for 99-yards and a touchdown.
The Waimea Menehune struggled most of the night on offense and couldn’t consistently keep the chains moving.
However, Waimea had a couple of bright spots in the ground game as running back Kenneth Tubon rushed for 47-yards on 10 carries with a touchdown, and teammate Kyren Rapacon went for 74-yards on 12 carries.
Waimea’s defense was its biggest bright spot and kept the Menehune in it for most of the game.
Hazzard Mcdougall contributed with an interception and was often around the ball on defense.
The win puts Kaua‘i at 1-0 on the season and sets up a battle between the Red Raiders and the defending champions Kapa‘a Warriors. The game is Sept. 7 at 7:30 p.m. at Vidinha Stadium.
•Rick Killeen, sports writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 237) or sports@thegardenisland.com. Follow Rick on Twitter @RickKilleen.
