By Wes Nakama
MILILANI — Chazz-Michael Kapahu rushed for 148 yards and one touchdown and Valoia Amitoelau added the 11-yard go-ahead TD run with 8:17 remaining Friday night to help visiting Kapolei hold off Mililani, 21-14, to advance to its first OIA Open Division football championship game in school history.
A light Halloween crowd at John Kauinana Stadium watched the Hurricanes jump out to a 14-0 lead and then break a 14-14 tie to improve to 7-4 heading into the Nov. 8 league title game against defending champion Kahuku (7-3). Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Farrington’s Skippa Diaz Stadium. The Trojans, meanwhile, dropped to 7-3 and will face Campbell (6-3) for third place and the third and final OIA berth to the state tournament.
Win or lose, it will be a historic event for Kapolei, which began varsity football play in 2002, two years after the school first opened.
“We were in the (Division II) finals in 2003,” said Hurricanes coach Darren Hernandez, who has been with the Kapolei football program since it started at the JV level in 2000. “Credit my coaches and players, they did a great job. It means a lot, we’ve been building this program year-by-year, brick by brick, trying to get to where we want to get to. It’s not easy, it takes a long time. I know Mililani, it took (37) years before they got their first OIA title (in 2010). For other teams, they still haven’t won one.”
The Trojans defeated the Hurricanes, 35-24, in a regular season meeting just 13 days prior. But on Friday night, Kapolei struck first with a 27-yard run by Zeph Sallis with 3:38 remaining in the first quarter, and Larry McCarley tacked on the extra point to make it 7-0. The run was set up by Kapahu’s 51-yard scamper down the right sideline, followed by a facemask penalty. The Hurricanes had been pinned at the 7-yard line after a Luke VanAntwerp punt.
Mililani went three-and-out on the ensuing series, and Kapolei then marched 65 yards in nine plays, capped by Kapahu’s 1-yard touchdown plunge on fourth-and-1. McCarley’s PAT extended the lead to 14-0 with 9:11 left in the first half.
“I tell you what, football is not that complicated — (if) you run the ball, and stop the run,” Hernandez said. “We were able to do that, except for that one play where (Jarius) Borges went off for like a 49-yarder. But otherwise our defense played great, to stop the run. And our O-line, we had maybe one senior, and the rest sophomores and even a freshman starting. Credit that big O-line, they did a nice job, and I’m proud of the way they played in the trenches.”
The Trojans, meanwhile, struggled on offense and were held scoreless until almost nine minutes into the third quarter.
“Definitely, in the trenches … we were stuffing the run on the inside, but they were bouncing out, we couldn’t make that play” Trojans coach Rod York said. “Hat’s off to Kapolei, they did a great job.”
Mililani finally scored when Borges broke through for his 49-yard dash to paydirt with 3:26 remaining in the third quarter, and Po’okeka Tom-Makue tacked on the extra point to cut the lead in half at 14-7.
The Trojans then tied it at 14-14 after an 11-play, 53-yard drive capped by Dallas Carter’s 12-yard scoring pass to VamAntwerp and Tom-Makue’s extra point.
Carter had come off the bench as quarterback late in the third quarter.
“We needed a change of pace, there were open guys and we didn’t throw it (earlier in the game),” York said. “So we needed to make the change.”
The Hurricanes, however, answered with Amitoelau’s 11-yard touchdown run with 8:17 left and Mililani’s next drives ended in a punt and interception, allowing Kapolei to run out the clock and approach history’s doorstep.
“It took 23 years of building up, and now to be in the Open Division (title game), that’s where you want to be,” Hernandez said. “To be the best, you gotta beat the best “