HANAPEPE — Kauai High School’s Kaimana Inouye notched two touchdowns and Kai Potts booted two field goals on Saturday afternoon to lead the Red Raiders to a 20-14 win over Waimea High School in a Kauai Interscholastic Federation football game played at Hanapepe Stadium.
Faced with a fourth-and-three situation on the Waimea 18-yard line, Kauai opened the score books in the first quarter when Potts split the uprights on his first of two field goals.
The Red Raiders upped the ante in the second quarter when Kaimana Inouye found the end zone at the end of a run through heavy Waimea traffic with 7 minutes, 11 seconds showing in the half. Potts’ foot iced the score for the 10-0 bulge at the break.
Kauai could have had a bigger margin except for a touchdown being called back in the final two minutes of the first half.
With 2:32 showing in the break, Kauai’s Paoa Itamura plucked a Kyka Linoz aerial for a Raider first down on their own 37-yard line. Red Raider Mana Kaui capped the drive by breaking out for a 51-yard scamper to the end zone only to have officiating laundry call back the play on an infraction for a first-and-22 yards.
The clock beat the Raiders when Inouye could only get the ball to midfield when the buzzer sounded on a 10-0 Kauai lead.
The Menehune answered the deficit by scoring two touchdowns in the third quarter when Jayden Sablan, doing most of the running back duty for the Menehune, found open ground on a 30-yard score to cap Waimea’s second half opening possession.
Shayden Ranis Alameda-Dela Cruz, finishing the day with two point after touchdown (PAT) kicks and a missed field goal, did the honors at the 9:49 mark in the third frame.
Less than two minutes was peeled off when Deegan Bermudez plucked a Kauai air ball and ran it back to the Kauai 18-yard line to set up Waimea’s second score of the quarter. Linoz got the score at the end of a 4-yard charge to the end zone, and Ranis-Alameda-Dela Cruz doing the PAT kick to give Waimea its first lead of the contest, 14-10.
Kauai answered the deficit in the fourth quarter when Inouye hit pay dirt on a 5-yard charge with less than 10 seconds peeled off the quarter. Potts added his second PAT boot with 11:51 showing in the game for the 17-14 go-ahead.
With just 53 ticks left in the contest, Potts put the cherry on top with his field goal from the Menehune 14-yard line.
Earlier in the afternoon, the Kauai High School junior varsity was a 34-0 winner over the Menehune.
With two games remaining on the Red Raiders calendar, the 20-14 win over Waimea pretty much signals the Red Raiders to pack their bags as the Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division II representative to the state tournament from the KIF.
Waimea will face Kapaa High School, the KIF Division I representative to the HHSAA, on Saturday at Bryan J. Baptiste Sports Complex. The junior varsity football game kicks off starting at noon with the varsity contest starting 30 minutes following the JV game.
