Moanalua's Michael Feliciano breaks free from a Waiakea tackler on a run. Evan Asato | SL

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Sat, Aug 8, 2015 @ Moanalua [ 3:00 pm ]

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Waiakea

7

Moanalua

62

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Waiakea (2-9-0)	0	0	0	7	7
Moanalua (4-6-0)	48	14	0	0	62

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Alakai Yuen 128 yd 3 TD

Gehrig Octavio 80 yd

Michael Feliciano 230 yd 3 TD

Tevis Holi 44 yd

Richard Choi 44 yd 1 TD

Ethan McBraun-Keiki 60 yd

SALT LAKE — Moanalua christened the new grass surface on its home field Saturday afternoon and put the lights on the scoreboard to test as well in a 62-7 rout of visiting Waiakea.

A small crowd of about 300 fans — beneath a blazing afternoon sun — saw Na Menehune (1-0) score early and often in a one-sided, non-league affair.

Michael Feliciano made the most of the limited work he saw, rushing for 230 yards on eight attempts. The 5-foot-10, 185-pound running back scored on three of his first four carries of the game. He found the end zone on runs of 25, 82 and 95 yards — all in the first quarter.

"As a team, we just worked on our techniques and stuff because we knew that we had this game, so we were just trying to perfect our techniques," said Feliciano, who credited his offensive line for blocking for him. "My o-line is improving as we go on into the season. They're going to be great. I thank them every day for what they do for me."

Moanalua, which is ranked 10th in the Hawaiian Electric Power Rankings, amassed 249 yards via its ground game and also got 128 yards through the air on 7-of-10 passing from quarterback Alakai Yuen, who tossed three touchdown passes to three different receivers.

Yuen hit Ryan Ramones for a 23-yard TD pass in the first quarter and connected with Brandon Bender and Richard Choi on 23- and 44-yard scoring strikes, respectively, in the second quarter.

Na Menehune scored on all six of its first-half possessions.

"We gave the ball to our playmaker and if he gets an opening he's hard to catch," Moanalua second-year head coach Jason Cauley said of Feliciano. "If he gets that one opening he'll get to daylight and nobody will catch him. We had some good blocks on the outside edge and our offensive line did a good job getting to the next level."

Defensively, Moanalua allowed just 144 yards by Waiakea, most of those coming in the second half. It got three defensive scores in a span of 79 seconds late in the second quarter.

Kekaulike Kalua scored on a 69-yard fumble return, Rodson Kealohi took an interception back 43 yards to the house and Kea Rodrigues had a 47-yard pick-6 to give Na Menehune a 48-0 lead after one quarter.

"We came out hard. We were all pumped up for it," said Kalua, a senior linebacker. "I think we were good fundamentally in that sense and we were just going all out, 100 percent, so when we put those two together then we'll get the result that we got today."

Waiakea managed just nine first downs for the game and converted on just two of 11 third downs.

"The defense was stingy and it started out with Kekaulike picking up that fumble and returning it 60-something yards," said Cauley, who praised the out-matched Warriors for their sportsmanship. "I give credit to Waiakea. They didn't quit the whole game and had a great attitude the whole time."

Waiakea, which was without 19 players mostly due to academic probation, got its lone score on a 1-yard Gehrig Octavio quarterback sneak with 6:04 left in the game.

The Warriors went 2-8 last year, losing in the semifinal round of the Big Island Interscholastic Federation Division I tournament last year.

The game, which was being made-up after Hurricane Iselle forced the cancelation of last year's originally-scheduled contest, was played with a running clock for the final three quarters by mutual agreement of Cauley and Waiakea head coach Moku Pita.

The Warriors will host Waimea in another non-league game Saturday at Francis Wong Stadium in Hilo, while Na Menehune will host Waianae Friday.

"This win gives us a lot of confidence," Feliciano said. "We know Waianae is going to come hard since they lost (Friday) to Kamehameha, but we'll be ready for them."