The monkey was forcibly detached.
Waialua shrugged off its past struggles in OIA Division II playoff games and punched the school’s first ticket to the state tournament with a 19-14 victory over Kaimuki on Friday night at Kaiser Stadium.
“It feels real good,” said longtime Waialua coach Lincoln Barit. “It’s been four or five times (we had chances before). I told the boys at practice, there’s a monkey on our back. We gotta get it off.”
They did so with three timely interceptions of Kaimuki quarterback Jordan Solomon, including one by senior defensive back Julian Fely-Menor at the goal line with 2:46 to play.
“I know the D-line put some pressure on that throw, we just had good coverage and I just played the ball,” Fely-Menor said. “Nothing special, it’s just all my defense.”
Waialua (6-2) couldn’t quite run out the clock, so it punted. Kaimuki needed a 60-yard drive with 1:42 left, but Solomon was forced into an intentional grounding on the next play and couldn’t move the sticks. Waialua took over on downs and took a knee to end it as its traveling faithful — which went from one end of the island to the other — celebrated wildly.
The Bulldogs face Waipahu (8-1) on Friday for the OIA D-II championship. The Marauders won the regular-season matchup, 26-7, on Sept. 23.
“Our goal at the beginning of the season was to make the (OIA) playoffs, which we did,” Barit said. “Our second goal was to make states, which we did. Our third goal is to take the D-II (OIA) title, and our fourth goal is to win states.”
Kaimuki prevailed 22-20 in overtime over Waialua in the teams’ season opener, setting the stage for another tight contest.
Waialua started strong in the second battle of the Bulldogs — it carried a 13-0 lead after a quarter — but Kaimuki capitalized on some mistakes to play its way back into the game.
Running back Ieke Seei-Cleveland beasted his way for 13 yards for Kaimuki’s first lead with 45 seconds left in the third quarter.
But Howard Nahooikaika plunged in with his second 2-yard touchdown of the night, giving Waialua the lead back at 19-14 with 8:16 to play.
Waialua senior Lancen Kuni caught key passes from both teams’ quarterbacks in the first quarter.
Waialua quarterback Tevesi Toia started 7-for-7 passing, including a 51-yard scoring strike to Kuni, who then picked off Solomon on the ensuing Kaimuki drive. Toia finished 13-for-22 for 138 yards and no interceptions.
“Coach asked for leadership, so I took initiative and stepped up to the plate, hope I can get off to a quick start,” Kuni said. “(This) feels great honestly, but we can’t settle for this. We’ve got a game next week, gotta push all week and be ready for war again.”
A costly roughing the kicker penalty on Waialua kept a Kaimuki drive alive just before halftime. Four plays later, Solomon hit Bailey Uehara in open space for a 54-yard catch-and-run score. The town-side Bulldogs had momentum going in to the break down 13-7.
Kaimuki had consecutive possessions in the third end on downs, including a would-be touchdown pass that couldn’t be corralled.
“Just execution and mistakes. The team that made the fewer amount of mistakes was going to have the better chance,” Kaimuki coach David Tautofi said. “They just played a lot more sound football. They’re a disciplined team. They just made less mistakes than we did.”
