Kahuku RB Hiapo McCandless carries the ball against McKinley. Sean Nakamura | SL

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Kahuku RB Polikapo Liua carried 10 times for 40 yards and scored two touchdowns; one of them, a 50-yard touchdown pass reception in the second. Celine Truong | Special to SL

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McKinley's Tyrell Tuiasosopo lays out to make a pass reception against Kahuku. Sean Nakamura | SL

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Hiapo McCandless, right, celebrates with teammate Kuuliko Carvalho, left, after Carvalho made a pass reception which scored the first touchdown of the match against McKinley. Sean Nakamura | SL

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McKinley's Mathias Tuitele-Iafeta scrambles with the football on a play against Kahuku. Sean Nakamura | SL

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Kahuku QB Tuli Wily-Matagi reaches out for a touchdown with seconds left in the last quarter for touchdown to pad the Red Raiders a 44-28 win over McKinley. Sean Nakamura | SL

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Kahuku quarterback Tuli Wily-Matagi puts up a pass attempt against McKinley. Sean Nakamura | SL

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Fri, Sep 20, 2013 @ Roosevelt [ 7:30 pm ]

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Kahuku

44

McKinley

28

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Kahuku (6-5-0)	9	21	7	7	44
McKinley (5-5-0)	7	7	0	14	28

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Chevas Pacheco 171 yd 2 TD

Tuli Wily-Matagi 250 yd 3 TD

Gerime Bradley 65 yd

Hiapo McCandless 86 yd 1 TD

Tyrell Tuiasosopo 120 yd 1 TD

Kuuliko Carvalho 77 yd 1 TD

MAKIKI — The rest of the state should be on notice: Kahuku is starting to come around.

Tuli Wily-Matagi threw for 250 yards and three touchdowns as the Red Raiders tallied their third consecutive win with a 44-28 victory over McKinley at Ticky Vasconcellos Stadium Friday night.

Kahuku totaled 485 yards of total offense to improve to 4-2 overall and 4-0 in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Red East Conference. McKinley dropped its third straight to fall to 3-4 overall and 2-2 in league play.

"It puts us in the driver's seat, but we still got a ways to go," Red Raiders' coach Reggie Torres said. "If you noticed, we had a lot of turnovers, we didn't play a good second half and it's because McKinley played a great second half, so we just got to go back and work harder."

Wily-Matagi completed seven of his 14 pass attempts without an interception. He threw touchdowns passes of 10, 30 and 50 yards to three different players and had passed for 206 yards by halftime.

"It was a good part all over — I give a lot of credit to my O-line — they did a good job and they gave me a lot of time, so a lot of credit to the O-line and the defense, too," said Wily-Matagi, who also scored on a 5-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. "Nothing would have worked if it wasn't for the O-line, so I give them a lot of credit."

Kahuku's running game was also effective, pounding out 228 yards on 44 rushes. Hiapo McCandless led the way with 21 carries for 86 yards and a touchdown, while Liua grinded out 40 yards on 10 rushes. He scored twice in the second quarter on a 1-yard run and a 50-yard pass reception from Wily-Matagi.

Jake Samsel's 31-yard first-quarter field goal gave the Red Raiders a 9-7 lead and ignited a string of 24 straight Kahuku points. Following the Liua touchdown run, Wily-Matagi found Huleia Naeole for a 30-yard touchdown strike and extended the Red Raider lead to 30-7 on the long scoring pass to Liua.

"We knew Tuli could pass and we got great receivers out there so when they get us those one-on-one match ups, that was the best play-call to call and he was on the money so it was great," Torres said.

McKinley made the score 30-14 at halftime following an 83-yard touchdown pass from Chevas Pacheco to Tyrell Tuiasosopo, who finished with five grabs for 120 yards.

Kahuku stretched its lead to 37-14 on a 2-yard touchdown run by McCandless, but McKinley pulled to within 37-28 following a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns. Mathias Tuitele-Iafeta, whose 50-yard fumble return for a touchdown in the first quarter tied it briefly at 6, punched in a 2-yard touchdown run in the fourth and Pacheco found Gerime Bradley for a 7-yard touchdown pass. However, the Tigers opted to go for two after the score to cut the deficit to seven, but Wily-Matagi sealed it with his late touchdown run.

"If you want to play with the big boys, you have to execute all the time and we put ourselves with the big boys obviously, that has always been our goal, but you can't make mistakes," McKinley coach Joe Cho said. "If you make mistakes, the big boys take advantage of you, but the effort was good at times, and at other times, we looked like we shouldn't be with the big boys."

Defensive end Lamone Williams recorded a pair of sacks — both in the second half — and also caught a 44-yard reception from Wily-Matagi that set-up the final score.

"Our momentum after going in after the offensive scores gave us some nice hype and made us want to go out there even more and get us some more three-and-outs," Williams said. "It's just kind of a rerun from last week — our homecoming. Our defense did pretty good in that game, we just tried to carry it over into this game, but we need to finish more in the second half as a team."

One of the few downsides for the Red Raiders were their six fumbles — four of which were recovered by the Tigers.

"We just didn't put the game away when we were supposed to," Wily-Matagi. "Still it was a good win for us and our team."

Cho said his team failed to capitalize on those golden opportunities.

"We squandered the turnovers — I think that we took it away four or five times and maybe capitalized only once — and obviously that hurts," Cho said. "I really thought that the offense picked it up late in the third quarter and the fourth quarter, but they just need to do that the whole time and obviously our defense is in there way too much."

Pacheco finished 11-of-26 passing for 171 yards with one interception.

Kahuku remains tied atop the Red East at 4-0 with Farrington, which defeated Moanalua Friday, 41-38. The Red Raiders visit Kailua while the Tigers have a bye next weekend.