LIHU‘E — The final high school football game on Kaua‘i in 2010 will feature the Kalaheo Mustangs heading from O‘ahu to Vidinha Stadium, Saturday at 4:30 p.m. Their opponent, the eight-time defending Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation champion Kaua‘i Red Raiders, will
LIHU‘E — The final high school football game on Kaua‘i in 2010 will feature the Kalaheo Mustangs heading from O‘ahu to Vidinha Stadium, Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
Their opponent, the eight-time defending Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation champion Kaua‘i Red Raiders, will play host on their home turf for the Division II quarterfinal matchup.
Coming off of a runner-up finish in the 2009 Div. II HHSAA tournament, Kaua‘i (7-1, 5-1 KIF) has had a much different season than its prior campaign, but has wound up in a similar situation — an opportunity to make some noise at the state level.
The long grind of the season has not put a damper on the team’s spirits.
“These kids are crazy,” said head coach Derek Borrero, Wednesday at practice. “They got me laughing today in the weight room. They know it’s the tail end, they know how important it is for us, but it’s been a long one. We started this in March and we’re here now, excited with the fact that we’re in the postseason.”
After seeing what Kalaheo has to offer, Borrero said the coaches and players know they level of play it will take to advance, and feel they are capable of reaching that level.
“We see an opportunity against Kalaheo,” he said. “They are a good team, but we feel like we can compete with them and we’ve just been really trying to sharpen the sword here, make what we do better.”
What Kaua‘i has been doing so well has been running the ball, a new approach from last season’s almost completely Run & Shoot offense. The Raiders won two games this season in the KIF in which they did not complete a single pass.
Borrero said that offensively, the Raiders are likely going to make adjustments based on the flow of the game. Their intent is to go out and start with the wishbone, a tactic that worked well down the stretch as the team employed a number of different running backs after the injury to starter Kele Hanohano.
Players stepping up after that key injury have been Jake Leake, Darren Acoba and Austin Motooka, along with contributions from Keoki Pantorilla, Austin Oshiro and Travis Koga.
With the growing focus on the ground game, Kaua‘i had stopped addressing the passing game in practice for a portion of the season. That has changed as Borrero said that the team now gets plenty of reps after what — at the time — amounted to the KIF championship game against Kapa‘a, a game in which Kaua‘i came away with a 14-13 win.
“I was talking to Coach (Craig) Koga the other night and we’ve prepared to get out of the run game if we have to and throw the ball,” he said. “We got real lucky and real fortunate in that championship game against Kapa‘a when we had to get out of the wishbone. We ran a few plays and we hit Acoba on a simple base pattern and he ran it all the way. But to tell you the truth, we didn’t spend too much time on the shoot, we had all of our time on the wishbone.
“We knew Kapa‘a was going to prepare for it, so when we decided ‘we’ve got to take a look at the shoot,’ everybody was a little nervous,” Borrero said. “So it was a lesson for us. Now every day we make time for it, just go back to it. It’s always there, but what’s happened is we have been lucky enough to have success just running the ball, so we haven’t had to go out there and throw the ball too many times.”
The Raiders’ opponent this week is built much out of the same mold, with the Mustangs (6-4) employing a mostly ground attack, though they throw multiple formations at the opposition, based on the film Borrero and his staff have watched this week.
“I’m expecting a real disciplined team,” he said about Kalaheo. “(Head coach) Chris Mellor is an ex-coach out of De La Salle, so he’s running the same type of offense. It’s a triple option, two-back offense. At times they’re in double tight end, single tight end, they split out the receivers. It’s a real quick inside game type of offense and they do that quite well. They played eight solid games during the season. They see a lot of good competition and they’ve been successful, that’s why they’re here. So we’ve got to be at our A-game.”
Kalaheo was not in top form on Saturday in the O‘ahu Interscholastic Association’s White Conference championship game, as it fell to Kaimuki by a 48-12 score. The Mustangs had lost to Kaimuki earlier in the season, but by just a point in a 14-13 ground game.
The inability to hold on to the ball became the key to the OIA finale, as three lost fumbles and two interceptions were Kalaheo’s undoing.
“I spoke to Coach (Mellor) Sunday at Aloha Stadium at our meeting and he admitted that they kind of shot themselves in the foot against Kaimuki that night,” Borrero said. “Too many turnovers. And we, Kaua‘i High School, we know exactly what that is about.”
The Raiders have been able to overcome multiple games this year when losing the turnover battle.
Kaua‘i is approaching the Kalaheo game like any other and not getting ahead of itself with ‘Iolani — last year’s champion and the only team to beat the 2009 Kaua‘i Red Raiders — awaiting this week’s winner in the semifinals.
The Kaua‘i-Kalaheo game will kick off at 4:30 p.m., Saturday at Vidinha Stadium and be broadcast live on JAMZ 98.1.
NOTES: Borrero said that other than a recurring injury to Cameron Bargamento, who was named a KIF All-Star on Tuesday at offensive line, the team is completely healthy. Bargamento has a shoulder injury that will require surgery after the season, but was told by the doctor he can play as long as he and his parents want him out there. He will be suited up to start Saturday’s game… Taking reps in practice at quarterback in addition to starter Shea Shimabukuro has been JV starter Trey Aguano. Borrero noted that Aguano is very adept at reading coverages and has him preparing “just in case we need him.”… Though he has the players focused solely on Kalaheo, the head coach said that the short time period between games has the Kaua‘i coaches already gathering film on ‘Iolani for a potential semifinal matchup.
