HILO >> Last season, Hilo came up one point short of the BIIF’s first win in the Division I state tournament.
That extra point this year was more than good enough to get the Vikings to their first state football championship game.
Hilo outscored Maui 19-0 in the second half to turn a tie game into a 26-7 victory in the Division I semifinals of the First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA Football State Championships on Saturday evening at Wong Stadium.
Kahale Huddleston and Kaleo Ramos rushed for touchdowns and Micah Bello, playing football for the first time this season, picked off two passes for Hilo (9-1), which snapped the BIIF’s 0-18 streak in the Division I state tournament. The Vikings lost 26-25 to Leilehua in last year’s first round.
The Vikings will travel to Oahu to play Damien in the championship game at Aloha Stadium on Nov. 18.
“It means a lot to this community and I’m just happy to be a part of it,” Hilo coach Kaeo Drummondo said. “We’ve come close a bunch of times and it’s nice for them … to finish.”
Quarterback Kaleo Apao rushed for 125 yards and completed seven of 17 passes for 57 yards, including a 14-yard score to Guyson Ogata in the second quarter.
As the rain began to fall harder and harder in the second half, Hilo’s defense thrived against the Sabers.
The Vikings held the Sabers to 20 total yards in the second half after giving up a 67-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.
“All of our hard work paid off,” said Bello, whose second pick led to Huddleston’s 5-yard TD run to make it 24-7. “We knew Maui was going to be a run-heavy team and if we stopped their run, they’d end up passing and we could take advantage of that.”
Huddleston, the leading rusher in the BIIF, was held to 62 yards on 13 carries, but Apao made up for it.
“It’s so satisfying because last year we came against Leilehua thinking we were going to win and stuff happened,” Apao said. “Since February we’ve worked hard and it’s all paid off. We came together in the second half.”
The touchdowns scored in the first half came 21 seconds apart.
The Vikings took advantage of good field position after holding Maui to a punt from inside its 5-yard line.
Apao found Ogata open inside the 5, and Ogata dove and hit the pylon for a 14-yard reception to put Hilo ahead 7-0.
With the way the game was doing, that seemed like it might be enough.
The Sabers answered on their next play from scrimmage. Naia Nakamoto, who had done most of his running as the wildcat quarterback, took a handoff from the other QB, Kainalu Tancayo, and ripped off a 67-yard touchdown run through the infield dirt at Wong Stadium down the Maui sideline.
“We gave up a big play that was a basic counter play,” Drummondo said. “We had to calm down.”
The Sabers attempted just two passes in the first half to 21 running plays. Nakamoto carried the ball on 17 of them.
Nakamoto finished with a game-high 127 rushing yards on 24 carries for the Sabers, who end the season 5-6 after starting 0-4.
