In a season opener buzzing with postseason electricity, No. 8 Waianae emerged from a wild fourth quarter with a 26-20 victory over No. 4 Kamehameha on Friday at Kunuiakea Stadium.
The Seariders and Warriors traded the lead four times in a five-minute span in the final period and Waianae took the lead on Jaren Ulu’s 54-yard touchdown pass to Isaiah Freeney with 1:14 left.
But the outcome wasn’t decided until Kamehameha’s second shot at the end zone on an untimed down hit the turf with zeroes across the clock.
“Hat’s off to both teams. They had a lot of fight in them,” second-year Waianae coach Walter Young said. “There’s no quit in that team, there’s no quit in my team.
“These two teams built character in the offseason, they’re here for each other. They played all the way to the end, both sides.”
Actually, even a little past the end.
After a scoreless first half, Kanai Mauga gave Waianae the lead with a 25-yard interception return and the Seariders took a 12-0 advantage into the frenzied fourth quarter.
Kamehameha opened the period with its first scoring drive of the season, capped by third-string running back Breden Akima’s 2-yard touchdown run.
The Warriors then forced a punt, which Tiger Peterson drifted back to field before breaking through the Waianae coverage for a 75-yard touchdown and the Warriors took a 13-12 lead that lasted just 20 seconds.
Waianae senior Kade Ambrocio took the ensuing kickoff at the 1, waited for the blocks ahead of him to form, then raced 99 yards to the opposite goal line for a stunning answer.
“I saw my blocks — I just had to read them and hit the outside and my boys just got me from there,” Ambrocio said.
Kamehameha countered with a nine-play scoring drive sparked by Thomas Yam’s 32-yard completion to Christopher Ah Mook Sang. They reclaimed the lead when Akima punched in a 1-yard score and Micah Mizo added the kick to give the Warriors’ 20-19 edge.
But Ulu had one more response ready. After Javen Towne’s 39-yard kickoff return, Ulu escaped pressure on first down and found Freeney behind the Kamehameha coverage for the go-ahead touchdown.
“I saw a lot of pressure coming from the right, so I stepped up in the pocket and I saw Freeney on the fade and I just threw it up,” said Ulu, who completed 13 of 21 pass attempts for 124 yards.
Yam then led a last-ditch drive, moving the Warriors to their 47-yard line with 16 seconds left. He completed a pass over the middle to Sundance Solatorio, who turned upfield and got deep into Waianae territory before being pushed out of bounds at the Seariders’ 12 as time expired.
But Waianae was flagged for defensive holding on the play, moving the ball to the 6 and giving Kamehameha another down. Yam then completed a short pass to Trever Kahunahana, who bulled into the corner of the end zone.
But another holding call negated the score and pushed the Warriors back to the 16 for another untimed down. Yam’s final attempt came up short and Waianae could finally celebrate its first win over Kamehameha since 1998 and its first season-opening win since 2007.
“The No. 1 thing we tasked them with going into this was to play hard and play together and they played literally until the last snap,” Abu Ma’afala said after his debut as Kamehameha head coach. “They are growing up right in front of their eyes.”
