No. 6 Kapolei took a quick lead, never lost it and put No. 9 Campbell away for good, 23-7, in a nonleague season-opening football game at the Sabers’ home field Friday night.
Both offenses flourished in the first quarter before the defenses took over, wreaking havoc and causing multiple turnovers in the middle two periods. The Hurricanes, who went up 14-7 early, took that same lead into the final 15 minutes and held on with some dominating play.
“This is just a wake-up call for us,” Kapolei linebacker Rocky Savea said. “We could have done better on both sides of the ball. We just gotta push on to next week and focus on Waianae and forget about this week.”
FOLLOW ALONG
>> Friday’s game summaries
A game of interest not on the radio or TV? Then follow our live blogs on HawaiiPrepWorld.com. Here are the bloggers for today’s games:
>> Damien at Castle, 3 p.m. — Billy Hull
>> Lahainaluna at Pearl City, 6 p.m. — Nick Abramo
>> Pac-Five vs. McKinley, at Skippa Diaz Stadium, 6 p.m. — Christian Shimabuku
>> Saint Louis at Waianae, 6:30 p.m. — Paul Honda
>> St. Francis at Leilehua, 6:30 p.m. — Brian McInnis
With the win in the second installment of the Sledgehammah Showdown, the Hurricanes retained the prize of a Paul Bunyan-like hammer.
After the loss, the Sabers and first-year head coach Darren Johnson quickly took off for the locker room and were not immediately available for comment.
“They’re tough, but we made it tougher by all the penalties and four turnovers,” said Hurricanes coach Darren Hernandez, who led his team to the state Open Division semifinals a year ago. “There’s a lot of stuff that we’re not happy with, and we’ve got to go back and right the ship.”
Kapolei quarterback Kaniala Kalaola threw three touchdown passes, including one each to brothers Tamatoa and Titus Mokiao-Atimalala in the first quarter for that 14-7 lead.
Immense defensive work on both sides kept both teams off the board in the second and third quarters. Aaron Faumui finished the game with three sacks, including a safety with a tackle in the end zone of Campbell quarterback Krenston Kaipo in the fourth quarter. Treven Ma’ae added two sacks and Kukea Emmsley had one, while Saige Mactagone-Kuhaulua came through with two interceptions.
On the Campbell side, Pokii Adkins-Kupukaa picked off two passes and Isaiah Cabel-Tivao had one. Nakoa Kalama added a fumble recovery.
Kapolei failed on a chance to go up by 10 points in the third quarter when Braedon Bantolina missed a 22-yard field goal.
Early in the fourth, the Hurricanes took control when Titus Mokiao-Atimalala caught his second touchdown pass of the game, this time a 35-yarder from Kalaola.
On the next series, Faumui’s 8-yard sack of Kaipo led to his eventual 7-yard sack for a safety with 10:18 to go in the game. Campbell never seriously threatened after that.
“Our quarterback (Kalaola), that’s his first start,” Hernandez said. “It was some good stuff, some bad stuff. It’s a great honor to have (the sledgehammer).”
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