Kaiser erases painful past, puts hurt on Radford

Close to a year after seeing its season come to a stunning end, Kaiser made sure it wouldn’t experience similar disappointment Friday night.

The Cougars scored 28 unanswered points in the second quarter on their way to a 51-3 win over Radford in the first round of the OIA White playoffs at Kaiser Stadium.

With the win, Kaiser advanced to the conference championship game and will face Pearl City on Nov. 1 at Aloha Stadium. The victory also secured the Cougars a berth in the Division II state tournament.

Last year, Kaiser’s season ended with a stunning first-round loss to Nanakuli and Radford went on to win the OIA White title. This time, Fitou Fisiiahi’s three touchdown runs in the first half and Thomas Leong’s two scores in the third quarter helped the Cougars survive the one-and-done round of the conference playoffs.

"I told the guys it’s been 356 days that I’ve been hurting and that was one of the toughest losses I’ve ever been associated with," Kaiser coach Rich Miano said of last year’s finale.

"We started slow … and Radford played well and is well coached, and we got it rolling the second quarter."

With the Cougars protecting a 7-3 lead, Kaiser’s defense sparked the decisive second-quarter run with a fumble recovery at the Radford 9 that set up Fisiiahi’s second touchdown run.

Four plays later Cougars freshman linebacker Isaac Slade-Matautia stepped in front of a screen pass and returned the interception 15 yards for a score to stretch the lead to 21-3.

The Cougars defense finished the game with 14 tackles for loss and came up with two interceptions while holding the Rams to 147 yards of total offense.

"There’s a lot of pride on that side of the ball and they don’t want to let anybody in the end zone and they’re so well coached I try to keep my hands off as much as possible," said Miano, crediting defensive assistants Sola Soliai, Matt Faga, Chris Shutter and Rustin Saole.

After forcing a three and out, Kaiser receiver Melvin Kahunanui took a handoff on a reverse, pulled up and threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Matt Haili.

Special teams kept the Cougars’ momentum rolling in the third quarter as they blocked a punt for a safety and Leong, who earlier scored on a 29-yard run, returned the ensuing free kick 61 yards for the game’s final score.

Kaiser had a week off to recharge prior to facing the Rams due to Kalaheo’s forfeit of the scheduled regular-season finale, also pushing the Cougars’ senior night back a week.

"We had a long speech yesterday before practice ended and we had a team goal and personal goals and I told our team I would do anything for us to win this game tonight and fortunately we came out with the victory," Fisiiahi said before being introduced.

Radford had a shorter turnaround following a loss to Pearl City last week.

"In the beginning it was a close game and it didn’t work out in the end," Radford coach Fred Salanoa said. "My hat’s off to them. We played as tough as we could and we came up on the short end."