Ranan Mamiya rushed for 128 yards and two touchdowns, and added an 89-yard kick return to paydirt as No. 6 Farrington edged No. 9 Kapolei 28-26 on Saturday night at Ticky Vasconcellos Stadium.
Mamiya’s speed and elusiveness proved to be one of the key advantages for the Governors, who improved to 2-0 in OIA play. The Govs rushed for 217 yards on 35 carries, boosted by Challen Faamatu’s second-half performance. He finished with 68 yards and a touchdown on 15 attempts.
"Now it’s just concentrate on Moanalua next week," said Mamiya, who transferred from Division II St. Francis in the offseason. "It’s good. I like this team because we treat each other like family, like brothers."
Kapolei, behind the strong arm of Alton Julius and a relentless ground attack, looked like a title contender much of the night. Trensten Spragling rushed for a team-high 74 yards on 18 carries.
Kapolei had three possessions in the final quarter, but couldn’t get to the red zone. Two possessions were three-and-outs, and the last one stalled at the Farrington 34-yard line when Julius’ fourth-down pass to Tristan Centeio was a bit wide and fell incomplete off his outstretched fingers.
"It’s tough, but Farrington is a good team and you’ve got to give them great credit," Hurricanes coach Darren Hernandez said. "They were fantastic tonight. They outplayed us on special teams. Their running game was fantastic. We just didn’t get things going early and often enough. We had some pretty good running game stats, but we didn’t punch it in. We didn’t get in the red zone enough and against a quality team like Farrington, that’s always going to hurt."
The Hurricanes’ kicking game, however, wasn’t quite so reliable.
"Missed kicks, missed field goals, that’s always our Achilles’ heel when we play Farrington," Hernandez said.
The ‘Canes fell to 0-2 in league play and now face a big challenge ahead to qualify for the playoffs. Julius, a converted wide receiver, was 10-for-17 for 142 yards and three touchdown passes without a pick. They rushed for 115 hard-earned yards on 39 carries against a bullish Farrington front seven.
The Hurricanes scored on their opening drive, going 80 yards in eight plays with the help of a spearing penalty against the Governors. Julius found Ty-Noah Williams wide open in the secondary for a 10-yard touchdown pass. This came just two plays after Farrington declined a chopping penalty on the ‘Canes, opting for fourth-and-1 instead. Kapolei converted and then struck paydirt.
Farrington needed just three plays to score. Mamiya cut back against the grain for a 64-yard gain before scoring on a 7-yard run to give the Governors a 7-6 lead.
Mamiya wasn’t perfect. He had one of his two muffed punts moments later, but Kapolei failed to capitalize after a holding penalty and a sack by Farrington’s Breiden Fehoko.
The Govs drove 72 yards in seven plays, aided by a Kapolei personal foul. Mamiya scored on a 21-yard run off right tackle and Farrington led 14-6 early in the second quarter.
Centeio followed that with a 94-yard touchdown return on the ensuing kickoff. The ‘Canes faltered on the 2-point conversion try, however, with Fehoko sacking Julius.
Mamiya then rose to the occasion again, bouncing off defenders for an 89-yard kick return to the end zone. Kekoa Sasaoka’s PAT kick made it 21-12 Govs, with about six minutes to go in the half.
"I trusted my blockers. I trusted in my teammates. They led me to where I needed to be," said Mamiya.
At Roosevelt
KAPOLEI (0-2, 0-2) |
6 |
12 |
8 |
0 |
— |
26 |
FARRINGTON (2-0, 2-0) |
7 |
14 |
7 |
0 |
— |
28 |
Kapo—Ty-Noah Williams 29 pass from Alton Julius (kick failed)
Farr—Ranan Mamiya 7 run (Kekoa Sasaoka kick)
Farr—Mamiya 21 run (Sasaoka kick)
Kapo—Tristan Centeio 94 kick return (run failed)
Farr—Mamiya 89 kick return (Sasaoka kick)
Kapo—Naliko Kea 27 pass from Julius (kick failed)
Farr—Challen Fuamatu 1 run (Sasaoka kick)
Kapo—Kea 15 pass from Julius (Kea pass from Julius)
RUSHING—Kapolei: Trensten Spragling 18-74, Ronald Matautia 7-26, Ekolu Young 4-16, Joseph Kaina 5-6, Kone Maluina 2-3, L.J. Esperas 1-(-2), Julius 2-(-8). Farrington: Mamiya 11-128, Challen Faamatu 15-68, Bugsy Tui 5-23, Montana Liana 4-(-2).
PASSING—Kapolei: Julius 10-17-0-142. Farrington: Liana 6-10-0-39.
RECEIVING—Kapolei: Kea 4-64, Williams 3-47, Spragling 1-17, Centeio 1-10, Young 1-4. Farrington: Mamiya 2-25, C.J. Liana 1-6, D.J. Chaffin 1-5, Kingston Moses-Sanchez 1-2, Tui 1-1.
Junior Varsity—Farrington 20, Kapolei 6
FRIDAY NIGHT’S FOOTBALL GAMES
Due to technical issues, many newspapers delivered on Oahu on Saturday morning did not include Friday night’s high school football coverage. Here is a rundown of those games.
ST. JOHN BOSCO (CALIF.) 63, SAINT LOUIS 14
The national defending champion Braves were electric on both sides of the ball as they opened their season with a big win over the Crusaders (0-2) at Aloha Stadium.
Running back Sean McGrew rushed for 182 yards on just 15 carries, scoring three touchdowns.
Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa came off the bench and led Saint Louis with 53 rushing yards on four scrambles, and also threw for 137 yards (10-for-14) and two TDs.
Saint Louis has had a brutally tough early preseason slate with a 63-47 loss to No. 2 Mililani last weekend.
NO. 4 KAHUKU 51, WAIPAHU 10
The fourth-ranked Red Raiders delivered an overwhelming performance in the first 14 minutes of Friday’s OIA Red game against the Marauders, scoring all of their points in that span.
Red Raiders safety Keala Santiago set up Kahuku’s first score with a 39-yard punt return, returned an interception for a touchdown and took another back to the Waipahu 1-yard line to help Kahuku take a 28-0 lead less than six minutes into the game.
NO. 7 CAMPBELL 34, MOANALUA 6
With two back-breaking drives early in the second half, the Sabers (2-0) broke open a close game and defeated Na Menehune (1-1) in an OIA Blue Division football game in Ewa Beach.
Up 14-6 after the break, Campbell drove 80 yards for one score and then came right back after an interception by Zibrex Cabel for another TD and had a commanding 27-6 edge at the end of three quarters.
Terell Johnson put the game away for Campbell with a 49-yard TD sweep around left end for the 34-6 bulge. The 6-foot, 200-pound Johnson finished with 127 yards on 18 carries.
NO. 8 LEILEHUA 32, MCKINLEY 7
Kalanimoku Pauole threw four touchdown passes and the Mules beat the Tigers to stay unbeaten.
Leilehua has outscored opponents 82-14 in its first two league games and visits Waianae next week. McKinley opened its season after forfeiting its game against Mililani in Week 1. The Tigers host OIA Red co-leader Kahuku next week.
The Mules had a 26-0 lead after the first quarter and extended it to 32-0 in the third.
WAIANAE 26, NO. 10 KAISER 7
The Seariders scored 19 unanswered points in the second half to pull away and end the Cougars’ 14-game win streak.
John Barbieto scored the go-ahead touchdown on a fourth-down run late in the third quarter, and Waianae outscored Kaiser 12-0 in the fourth to pull away for its first win of the season.
RADFORD 28, ROOSEVELT 20
The Rams used a fourth-quarter rally to beat the host Rough Riders in an OIA Division II game.
Chance Cacatian scored the go-ahead touchdown from 3 yards out to put Radford up 21-20 with nine minutes left in the game.