Kaiser's Thomas Leong heads in to the open field on a carry against Pearl City. Peter Caldwell | SL

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Pearl City quarterback Jordan Taamu makes a throw against Kaiser. Peter Caldwell | SL

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Makaio Hopeau-Lampitoc and the Kaiser defense heads out to the field against Pearl City. Peter Caldwell | SL

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Kaiser's Jonah Saio scored a late touchdown against Pearl City to cap off the win fro the Cougars. Peter Caldwell | SL

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Fri, Oct 4, 2013 @ Pearl City [ 7:30 pm ]

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Kaiser

31

Pearl City

6

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Kaiser (13-1-0)	7	3	14	7	31
Pearl City (7-5-0)	0	6	0	0	6

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Jordan Taamu 113 yd

Kahoalii Karratti 201 yd 2 TD

Blake Cooper 1 yd 1 TD

Thomas Buntenbah-Leong 37 yd 1 TD

Matt Dulatre 40 yd

Thomas Buntenbah-Leong 54 yd

Kaiser clinched the top seed in the OIA White as the Cougars defeated the Pearl City Chargers, 31-6 Friday night at Edwin "Bino" Neves Stadium. The Cougars have now won seven straight games after losing to Campbell in their first game of the season.

Kaiser was led by quarterback Kahoali'i Karratti who passed for 201 yards completing 15-of-23 pass attempts with 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. Wide receiver Justin Ikei had 3 receptions for 54 yards and Thomas Leong caught 3 passes for 54 yards and rushed for 37 yards on 8 carries with 1 touchdown as the Cougars, No. 2 in the ScoringLive/OC16 Division II Power Rankings improve to 7-1 overall, 7-0 in the OIA White.

Pearl City, No. 8 in the ScoringLive/OC16 Division II Power Rankings had a chance to position themselves to potentially be the top seed in the OIA White with a victory tonight, falls to 5-3 overall, 5- 2 in the OIA White.

Pearl City quarterback Jordan Taamu finished the night completing 10-of-20 pass attempts for 113 yards and 1 interception. Timothy Rivera caught 5 passes for 34 yards and Matt Dularte caught 2 passes for 40 yards.

It took Kaiser only 49 seconds to get on the scoreboard. The opening kickoff of the game was returned 67 yards by Thomas Leong to the Pearl City 8 yard line. Kaiser scored two plays later on a 3-yard run up the middle by Parker Higgins. Matt Sai added the extra point giving the Cougars a 7-0 lead. After the quick start, Kaiser's high powered offense struggled for the rest of the first half held to only 112 yards of total offense by the Pearl City defense.

"We struggled offensively coming out in the first half." said Kaiser head coach Rich Miano, "What we did they were ready for and they really shut us down, and we haven't been shut down like that in a long time. I think they have a good football team...they have some good players and they are really well coached. I give all the credit to that coaching staff and those kids because they played their hearts out."

The Pearl City offense struggled out of the gates as they punted twice and turned the ball over on downs on their first three drives, but capitalized on an interception made by Kristian Vaana- Kikuyama in the second quarter that gave the Chargers a short field to work with. Pearl City proceeded to march the ball down the field on the ensuing drive going 42 yards in 12 plays capped off by a 1-yard run by Blake Cooper cutting the Cougar lead to one after quarterback Jordan Taamu failed to convert the 2-point conversion. On Kaiser's next drive Matt Sai added a 19-yard field goal right before halftime to make the score 10-6 Kaiser going into halftime.

In the second half it was the Kaiser defense that stepped up and sparked the Cougar's second half rally forcing a punt on Pearl City's first possession which led to a 7 play, 73-yard drive for Kaiser capped off by a 19 yard pass from Karratti to Destin Moss with 4:57 left to play in the third quarter. Melvin Kahananui intercepted a Taamu pass on the first play of Pearl City's next drive which set up a 7- touchdown yard run by Thomas Leong. After Matt Sai added the extra point Kaiser had a 24-6 lead going into the fourth quarter.

Kaiser's offense opened the fourth quarter with a drive that took over seven minutes off the clock, but would eventually end with a turnover on downs. Pearl City's offense could not get anything going in the fourth quarter going three and out on their first possession and their second possession ended with Makaio Hopeau-Lampitoc intercepting a pass thrown by Travis Joe who replaced Taamu at quarterback. Hopeau-Lampitoc's interception set up Kaiser's final score of the night, a 29-yard pass from Karratti to Jonah Saio. Kaiser scored twenty one unanswered points in the second half which gave the Cougars a 31-6 victory over the Chargers.

"When you look at our defense we've been playing well all year long." said Miano, "I really believe that we have eleven guys that fly around, hit people, make big plays, and everything else. The defense has been playing great, those guys are going to line up and battle each and every down so I was really pleased with the defensive play."

Kaiser finishes up the regular season next Friday at home against Kalaheo. Pearl City finishes up the regular season next Friday with an important game at Radford.