OIA Football
Pearl City clips Kalani, 28-14, clinches state berth


  

Fri, Oct 18, 2013 @ Radford [ 7:30 pm ]


Final 1 2 3 4 T
Pearl City (7-5-0) 7 7 6 828
Kalani (6-4-0) 0 7 7 014
Noah Brum 178 yd 2 TD
Jordan Taamu 185 yd 1 TD
Blake Cooper 189 yd 2 TD
Brandon Roberts 99 yd 1 TD

ALIAMANU – Offense wins games, defense wins championships; the old adage remained true once again.

Pearl City avenged an early season loss at Radford’s John E. Velasco stadium Friday night to defeat the Falcons, 28-14.  The Chargers (7-3), No. 8 in the ScoringLive/OC16 Division II Power Rankings, held Kalani to a season low 223 yards of total offense.  Kalani, ranked sixth in the same power rankings, finished their season with a 6-4 record. 

While the win doesn’t guarantee a title, it does punch the Chargers’ ticket into the OIA White championship game against Kaiser two weeks from now.  The win also ensures a berth into the First Hawaiian Bank Division II football state tournament, The Chargers’ second in three years.

“The win is big for us, big for our community, big for our team,” said Pearl City coach Robin Kami.  “The kids really played hard this week; offense did a great job, defense did their part, and special teams did (well).  Overall, we played a great game tonight.”

The biggest stat of the night goes to how well each team performed on third down.  Pearl City converted 10-of-14 third down attempts for first downs while Kalani was 2-for-9 on third down, with no conversions in the first half.  The Falcons also went for it on fourth down four times, converting only once thanks to a Charger penalty.

“We didn’t sustain drives in the first half that I think we should have,” explained Kalani coach Greg Taguchi.  “A lot had to do with what Pearl City was doing defensively. They took away a lot of our deep balls and we didn’t execute as much as we needed to in the first half.”

The Chargers’ defense limited Kalani quarterback Noah Brum to 178 yards passing, a season low.  Brum was averaging 291 yards passing heading into the game and is among the passing leaders on the Division II leaderboard. 

“He’s too good,” Kami said on Brum.  “Kalani’s offense is real explosive and fast and we just try to slow them down and hopefully some turnovers come our way.  We just try to play cover three and hopefully they play underneath and catch the ball (so that we can) tackle them.”

Not to be outdone, the Pearl City offense did an outstanding themselves, outgaining the Falcons by 159 yards, finishing with 382 yards of total offense.  A big portion of that yardage is attributed to the strong running game led by two-way player Blake Cooper.  The 5-foot-6, 165-lb junior carried the ball 14 times for 189 yards and two touchdowns to help keep the ball away from a potent Kalani offense.

“Our rushing game came around tonight,” said Kami on their running game.  “We struggled (running the ball) the last two games but tonight we did real well to keep our defense off the field and give them some rest.”

Complementing the strong running game was an effective passing attack led by quarterback Jordan Taamu.  The junior quarterback completed 17 of 23 pass attempts for 185 yards and a touchdown in the win.  A lot of those completed passes were under duress as Taamu’s superb pocket presence allowed him to avoid numerous sacks and extend some drives.

“Tonight Jordan (Taamu) played a heck of a game,” said Kami on his quarterback.  “He’s only a junior but he played real well tonight.”

Taamu’s awareness in the pocket was in display early in the game as he was able to scramble out of a sack on a third-and-ten situation to find wide receiver Timothy Rivera for a 15-yard gain to extend the Chargers’ first scoring drive.  Just a play later, Cooper took a sweep around the left side for a 48-yard touchdown run.  Dominic Maneafiga’s PAT was good giving Pearl City an early 7-0 lead with three minutes and 39 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

The young quarterback was also a key factor in the Chargers’ next scoring drive, completing three of three passes for 42 yards.  The key play on this drive was when Taamu looked off the bubble screen, sucking defenders in, only to fire a strike to Cooper in the seam for a 21-yard hook up.  Two plays later Cooper took it into the end zone from ten yards out to extend the Pearl City lead to two scores with two minutes and four seconds remaining in the first half.

Brum and the rest of the Kalani offense would not go down without a fight as they were able to drive down the field for quick score for the half.  The Falcon quarterback completed three passes to receiver Brandon Roberts on the drive, with the final pass being a 17-yard connection in the end zone for Kalani’s first points.  Marc Teshima’s PAT was good, making the score 14-7 in favor of Pearl City at halftime.

Kalani received the second half kickoff and went straight back to work on offense, scoring on a 33-yard touchdown pass from Brum to a leaping Ikona Mamiya down the left sideline.  Teshima’s kick was good and the game was knotted up at 14 a piece with ten minutes and 11 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

Pearl City responded with a 14-play scoring drive that took off seven minutes and 45 seconds off the game clock.  The Chargers converted on third down four times on this drive, with the last conversion being a 16-yard touchdown pass from Taamu to Kristian Vaana-Kikuyama on a slant pattern out of the I-formation.  Maneafiga’s PAT would get block by Kalani’s Isaac Akiona making the score 20-14.

The Falcons were able to drive all the way to the Pearl City 20-yard line on their ensuing drive, but would come up short and turn it over on downs. 

Following the turnover, the Kalani defense was able to quickly put the Chargers in a third-and-six situation, but they had no answer for the escape artist named Jordan Taamu.  The quarterback avoided numerous Falcon defenders in the backfield before scrambling up field for a 12-yard gain.  Vaana-Kikuyama added a rushing touchdown four plays later to make it a 12-point game.

The two-point conversion came with a bit of deception as Kalani was unaware of a receiver split out wide in the field goal formation.  Falcon coaches had to run down the sidelines to let their players know, but by then it was already too late; Taamu was able to hit Rivera for an easy two-point pass for the final score of 28-14.

This game’s drama didn’t stop there as Kalani was given a breath of life to make things interesting.  Kalani finally forced the Chargers into a three-and-out late in the fourth, and was rewarded with a bad snap on the punt attempt.  They took over at the Pearl City 19-yard line and were primed to score.

The Falcons was able to take it deeper into Charger territory to give them a first-and-goal situation at the 5-yard line.  However, Brum would not complete another pass and threw his seventh straight incompletion on fourth down.  There was a pass interference penalty in the end zone giving the Falcons the ball at the two yard line, but the ensuing snap went off Brum’s knees and linebacker Zebediah Selu was able to recover it for the Chargers, essentially ending Kalani’s chances.

“It was big,” said Kami on the fourth down stop deep in their own territory.  “All year round, our defense held (their own) on the goal line.”

Pearl City was able to run out the clock thanks to a 61-yard scamper by Cooper and the final score was 28-14, in favor of the Chargers.

Even though Kalani’s season is over, it served as a big part of the school’s history.  This was the first time in the football program’s 55-year history that the team made the postseason.

“What they accomplished this year, they have a lot to be proud off,” exclaimed Taguchi.  “(This is) the first team in 55 years of Kalani’s existence that the football team went to postseason; that’s a tremendous accomplishment.  (That’s something) that they will always be remembered for.   They (helped) bring our school community together; look in the stands tonight and look at what people are saying now, they’re still proud of them.”



Reach Michael Lasquero at [email protected].




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