McKinley's Gerime Bradley finds his way through Kailua defenders. Sylvia Lee | SL

Purchase image 1 of 1

Thu, Oct 3, 2013 @ Aloha Stadium [ 4:30 pm ]

---

McKinley

35

Kailua

14

Final	1	2	3	4	T
McKinley (5-5-0)	6	22	0	7	35
Kailua (2-7-0)	0	7	7	0	14

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Noah Auld 208 yd 2 TD

Mathias Tuitele-Iafeta 41 yd 1 TD

Noah Auld 25 yd

Mathias Tuitele-Iafeta 138 yd 1 TD

Koolauloa Gaspar 63 yd 1 TD

Malik Kuhia 44 yd

HALAWA — Gerime Bradley did a little bit of everything Thursday night.

The senior utility man scored on a kickoff return, added a pair of touchdown runs and intercepted a pass on defense to lead McKinley to a 35-14 win over Kailua in an Oahu Interscholastic Association Red East Conference game at Hawaiian Airlines Field at Aloha Stadium

The Tigers snapped a three-game losing streak to win their first game since Aug. 31 and improved to 4-4 on the season. The Surfriders suffered their fourth loss in their last five games to fall to 2-6. It was the regular-season finale for both teams.

McKinley finished tied with Moanalua for third place in the Red East at 3-3, but won their regular-season meeting to hold the tiebreaker. The Tigers will host the No. 6 seed from the Red West next week in a first-round game. Kailua completed the Red East with a 2-4 mark and claimed the division's fifth seed. It will travel to the Red West No. 4 seed next week.

"It's very exciting, knowing that we're the third seed in the East and knowing that we host our playoff game and it feels good to do that and to be in the playoffs again," Bradley said.

Bradley got things started right off the bat with a 98-yard kickoff return on the game's first play. He faked an end around to Kona Bagood-Makanui and outraced the Kailua coverage team down the left sideline. The extra point was no good and McKinley seized a quick 6-0 lead just 19 seconds into the game.

"It's the up front guys," Bradley said. "If it wasn't for their blocking, I wouldn't have scored."

Later in the first quarter, Bradley intercepted a Noah Auld-pass and returned it 14 yards to the Surfriders' 23-yard line. Four plays later, Mathias Tuitele-Iafeta found Kiaipono Kini on a 7-yard touchdown pass. Bradley ran in the two-point conversion to make the score, 14-0, 51 seconds into the second quarter.

"It's just a matter of playing them deep," Bradley said. "We heard that they like to take some deep shots, so I just played my coverage and everybody did their job. That pick was because of the coverage and it probably wouldn't have happened without the linebackers."

A McKinley turnover on a Bagood-Makanui fumble was forced by Kailua's Peter Albinio and recovered by his teammate, Christian Mejia at the Tigers' 35-yard line. Three plays later, Auld connected with Mejia on a 16-yard scoring strike. Naia Graham tacked on the extra point to cut the McKinley lead in half with eight minutes and 10 seconds left in the second quarter.

The Tigers marched 80 yards in six plays — capped by Tuitele-Iafeta's 57-yard touchdown run — on their ensuing possession to put them back up by two scores.

Tuitele-Iafeta, a 5-foot-11, 235-pound senior who also plays linebacker, split time at quarterback with starter Chevas Pacheco.

"We get a boost anytime Mathias has the ball in his hands and that's a big key for us," McKinley coach Joe Cho said. "He does excel with everything on offense and defense, as you can see."

McKinley extended its lead with 1:39 left in the first half on a 3-yard run by Bradley on a toss right. Levi Logoi's PAT gave the Tigers' a 28-7 halftime lead.

Kailua scored on its opening drive of the second half, going 65 yards in nine plays, capped by Auld's 16-yard touchdown pass to Koolau Gaspar. The extra point was good by Graham to pull the Surfriders within 28-14 with 9:50 left in the third quarter.

The Tigers went three-and-out on their ensuing drive and the Surfriders started at their own 48-yard line. They drove to the McKinley 16-yard line and lined up for a 32-yard Graham field goal try, but instead faked it on a run by Tristan Futa, who was stopped short of the first-down marker and Kailua turned it over on downs.

Early in the fourth quarter, Pacheco fumbled for McKinley and Wade Lono covered up the loose ball for Kailua at the Tigers' 40-yard line. However, the Surfriders again turned it over on downs on a fourth-down sack of Auld by Logoi and the Tigers took over at their own 27-yard line. Nine players later, Bradley scored on his 14-yard run off a toss right. Logoi added the PAT to cap the scoring with 3:13 to play.

"It's my first time — it's all of our first time — playing in the stadium on the high school team and I wouldn't trade the McKinley Tigers for anything," Bradley said. "I love my team, I love my boys, we came out, played as one family, did what we had to do — we made some mistakes here and there, but we made up for it — and I'm proud of them for staying in there."

McKinley rushed for 209 yards as a team, led by 138 yards from Tuitele-Iafeta, who also completed all three of his pass attempts for 41 yards. The Tigers got five sacks for a combined loss of minus-31 yards and committed just five penalties for the game.

"Our goal was to improve from last year and we certainly have done that, going in as the third seed on the East," said Cho, who is in his fourth season at his alma mater.

The Surfriders actually out gained the Tigers in total offense, 263 yards to 258, and won the turnover battle, but was just 6 of 17 on third downs and squandered several opportunities in the red zone — including an incomplete pass on a fourth-and-1 from the McKinley 11-yard line in the final minute of the first half.

"Every game we're learning something," Kailua coach Gary Rosolowich said. "We're so young and we're battling injuries and academic situations that is forcing us to juggle people around, so it's a learning curve. We learned some things tonight — I think we're going to get better from that — and that's all you can do, is learn from your mistakes."

Auld completed 23 of 44 passes for 208 yards, but the Surfriders generated just 55 rushing yards.