Campbell’s D shows its stuff in win

Campbell’s offense had all of the fun in the regular season, but now that the playoffs are here it’s the defense’s turn.

Sophomore linebacker Abiel Taito came off the bench and picked off two passes, returning one for a score, and Campbell blitzed McKinley in the fourth quarter for a 40-13 win at home in the quarterfinals of the OIA playoffs.

The Sabers move on to Aloha Stadium, where they will meet Farrington in the semifinals. Whether they hit the field with all of their best players remains to be seen.

Taito came up with the big plays in the second half after sitting out the first because of a disciplinary issue. Solomon Matautia sealed Campbell’s last game, a win over Kapolei two weeks ago, after sitting out a half for the same reason.

"God be the glory, I was lucky," Taito said. "I just came in and had to do the job. Not to brag or anything, but I think when we work together we have one of the best defenses in the state."

Campbell was content to sit back and let Isaac Hurd wing it on the first drive, but Austin May surprised the Tigers on a draw play to cap Campbell’s second drive. May took the handoff and weaved through McKinley’s defense for a 44-yard touchdown run. Tyler Subia added the extra point.

May was not done, catching a short 4-yard swing pass from Hurd with five minutes left in the half to make it 14-0 after Subia’s kick.

The Sabers struggled to keep McKinley defenders Mathias Tuitele-Iafeta and Kiaipono Kini off Hurd, but the dual-threat quarterback finally started running to set up the touchdown, including a nifty 29-yard effort on fourth and 10 to get the ball inside McKinley’s 5.

The Tigers responded as soon as they got the ball back, with Tuitele-Iafeta spreading the ball around and completing three passes, two of them for more than 20 yards, to put the ball on Campbell’s 18. Tuitele-Iafeta then lofted a pass to the corner of the end zone that both Tyrel Tuiasasopo and his defender misjudged, leaving both of them on all fours crawling to the corner of the end zone where they hoped the ball would fall. Tuiasasopo won that race and cradled the ball for McKinley’s first score. Liva Logoi added the kick. McKinley threatened to tie the score with less than a minute left, but Tuitele-Iafeta made his first mistake of the night, getting picked by Campbell’s Jerney Tago-Sue.

Campbell was content to go into the locker room with the lead after that, desperately wanting to talk about McKinley’s 110 passing yards and how easy they seemed to come.

But the defense solved the tricky Tuitele-Iafeta after that, allowing a TD on a sneak midway through the third quarter.

"Our defense is always the soul of our team," Campbell coach Amosa Amosa said. "They have played with heart for us the whole year and I love to see them do well."

Hurd abandoned the pass early and it worked as he pulled away with TD runs of 1 and 6 yards and Galuega Castro added another 5-yarder. The Sabers, who usually spread out defenses and throw all over the place, had 249 yards on the ground and only 160 in the air.

"Give credit to Joe Cho and his McKinley Tigers," Amosa said. "I’m so proud of my kids for overcoming a team like that."