By Wes Nakama
In almost storybook fashion, ‘Iolani stunned visiting Radford, 39-36, on the final play of the game Saturday afternoon as CJ Villanueva threw a 31-yard touchdown pass to Kekama Kane to win the 62nd edition of the Father Bray Memorial Football Classic at Eddie Hamada Field.
The non-league season opener for both teams paid tribute to Father Kenneth A. Bray, an Episcopal priest from England who founded the Raiders’ athletic program in 1932 and built the iconic “One Team” culture that the school prides itself on to this day, some 93 years later.
The Classic also serves to honor an alumni, faculty or staff member who served the ‘Iolani athletic community in a way that perpetuates Bray’s core values of respect, humility, teamwork, discipline and maximum effort. This year’s honoree is Joe Igber, a record-setting running back for the Raiders (Class of 1999) and the University of California who now lives in Oakland, Calif., where he owns and operates a structural engineering firm.
“It was cool,” Igber said of the game, in addition to the week in general, which included a team dinner Thursday in the school’s Lower Gym. “It was kind of like I was telling some of these young men: ‘Leave it all on the field. The one thing you can control is what you give.’ We got to see that today, so it was really cool seeing young people experiencing it.”
The game itself was a thrilling roller coaster ride that went back-and-forth with big plays from start to finish. Radford took a 36-33 lead on Afi Togafau’s 1-yard quarterback sneak and two-point conversion run with 55 seconds remaining. But a penalty forced the Rams to kick off from their own 20, and ‘Iolani needed only two plays from scrimmage to advance to the 31. With 17 seconds remaining, Villanueva tried to find Kane on an end zone corner route, but Kane was double-covered and so Villanueva over-threw the pass on purpose to avoid an interception.
The clock wound down to five seconds, leaving the Raiders one final play. Villanueva dropped back, then stepped up in the pocket and waved for Kane to run toward the goal post before lofting a perfect rainbow toss that Kane was able to cradle in after slipping past a defender into an open spot in the end zone.
“I saw the pocket open up, and … (with) my best guy on their safety, I’ll take that,” said Villanueva, a three-year starting senior. “I just gave him time to get up the field, and threw it to the back of the end zone.”
‘Iolani coach Wendell Look said Villanueva and Kane, another senior in his third varsity season, have developed a natural QB-receiver instinct.
“Those two guys have a chemistry, a connection between them out there,” Look said.
The Raiders needed that extra edge as Radford had established a punishing and effective ground game led by Togafau, a 5-foot-11, 190-pound senior whose bruising downhill running style resulted in a stunning 170 yards on 26 carries, including two touchdowns. The Rams marched 65 yards on 11 plays on the game’s opening drive, capped by Collin Murphy’s 1-yard TD run. The two-point conversion attempt failed, but Radford took almost seven minutes off the clock.
‘Iolani answered on its first play from scrimmage, when Ronin Fanelli took a handoff, found a seam on the left and broke outside before dashing to the end zone for a 74-yard scoring run. Ty Mitsunaga’s extra point made it 7-6.
The teams then continued to trade big plays and touchdowns until the dramatic final minute.
Villanueva completed 22 of 30 passes for 308 yards and four touchdowns, with no interceptions, and Togafau finished 7 of 11 for 202 yards two TD’s, with no picks. Fanelli gained 145 yards on just nine rushes, two for touchdowns.
Villanueva said he and his teammates drew inspiration from Igber, who stayed at Thursday’s dinner for about an hour after it formally ended and spoke with the players individually.
The Raiders learned about Igber’s 4,428 career rushing yards at ‘Iolani (including 56 touchdowns), which broke Mosi Tatupu’s previous state record set in 1973 and placed Igber atop the state’s all-time leaders for 17 years. They learned about his 3,124 rushing yards at Cal, which placed him No. 2 on the Golden Bears’ career list. And they learned about Igber’s Big Game (Cal vs. Stanford) rushing record of 226 yards, in his final football action.
Then the players got to meet and talk to Igber, who was 5-feet-8 and 190 pounds at Cal.
“If you think of him, being in his shoes … he wasn’t the biggest guy,” said Villanueva, who is 5-10, 190. “But he was the epitome of what Father Bray and Coach Eddie Hamada and Coach Look stand for. So just having his presence, being around us this week … it helped motivated us to say, ‘Hey, we got this.’ We might be facing people bigger than us, but it’s all about our heart.”
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