Radford quarterback Quintin Iriarte passed for 288 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another score in a win over Konawaena. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Sat, Nov 14, 2015 @ Roosevelt [ 5:00 pm ]

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Konawaena

46

Radford

48

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Konawaena (11-2-0)	19	7	7	13	46
Radford (13-0-0)	21	15	12	0	48

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Quintin Iriarte 288 yd 3 TD

Austin Ewing 272 yd 5 TD

Kodi Ongory-Mathias 176 yd 1 TD

Algene Kelekolio 44 yd 1 TD

Thomas Reid 135 yd 1 TD

Reyson Ching 84 yd 1 TD

MAKIKI — Top-ranked Radford kept its unblemished record intact with a 48-46 semifinal win over Konawaena Saturday night at Ticky Vasconcellos Stadium in the highest-scoring Division II state tournament game.

The Rams (12-0) will meet Kapaa (9-0) in the title game of the First Hawaiian Bank/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division II Football Championships at Hawaiian Airlines Field at Aloha Stadium next Friday.

"It's an indescribable feeling," said receiver Blaise Manabe, who caught a game-high seven passes for 97 yards and a touchdown. "We worked so hard for this all throughout the offseason. This next game is our last goal and we have to take care of it to check it off our list."

The 94 combined points broke the previous record 81 set in the first round of the 2006 tournament when Iolani beat Kaimuki, 41-40. 

Konawaena, ranked third in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Division II Power Rankings, saw its season end at 11-2. The Wildcats' 46 points is the most by a losing team in the D2 tournament; the previous best was Kaimuki's 40 in the 2006 game.

"I think I'm happy and sad at the same time for these kids," said Konawaena first-year coach Brad Uemoto, whose team won the Big Island Interscholastic Federation. "I'm happy for the way we fought, sad that the ride is over. What a great group of kids and coaches that we had this year."

The Wildcats trailed 48-33 after three quarters of play, but made it a two-point game with 6:40 left in regulation thanks to a pair of Radford turnovers.

Jeriah Cacal returned a Quintin Iriarte interception that was bobbled by a receiver 57 yards to give Konawaena its first possession of the fourth quarter at the Radford 40-yard line. After a 10-yard completion to Kupono Kane and a roughing the passer penalty, Tristan Fleming-Nazara brought down a tipped Austin Ewing pass for a 15-yard score. Ewing's PAT made it a one-possession game 70 seconds into the period.

Konawaena's final score of the game came after Trey Basque recovered a Manabe fumble that traveled 40 yards to the Radford 4-yard line. Algene Kelekolio ran it in for six on the ensuing play, but the 2-point pass failed to leave the score at 48-46.

The Wildcats' comeback bid would fall short as Radford was able to run out majority of the remaining time before turning it over on downs at the Konawaena 4-yard line with 12 seconds left in the game.

Running back Kodi Ongory-Mathias helped the Rams dominate the time of possession with 26 carries for a career-high 176 yards and a 27-yard score. Radford held the ball for 34 minutes and 39 seconds to Konawaena's 13 minutes and 16 seconds.

"We're maybe 40 kids strong and they're a big physical team," said Uemoto. "They had depth and we wore down. We kept fighting and fighting, but we just sort of ran out of gas there."

Ewing completed 21 of his 36 pass attempts for 272 yards and five touchdowns against one interception in the loss.

Radford quarterback Quintin Iriarte had one of his better games of the year and was 18-for-32 passing for a season-high 288 yards. He tossed three first-half scores and was picked off twice.

Iriarte's favorite target early on was Thomas Reid, who caught a handful of jump balls against one-on-one coverage. The 6-foot-3 wideout had five grabs for a season-high 135 yards and a 26-yard touchdown catch.

"Thomas has been kind of under the radar this year and he came up big this game," said Radford coach Fred Salanoa, whose team won the Oahu Interscholastic Association. "He made some key catches down the road so we're grateful for that."

Konawaena fumbled the ball on its first play from scrimmage, but got the first score of the game after Jeremiah Casuga-Llanes returned a Reid fumble 66 yards one play later.

Radford responded with a eight-play, 77-yard drive that was capped with Ace Faumui's 1-yard touchdown run. Roman Gennero's PAT made it a 7-all game with 8:25 remaining in the opening period.

Ewing tossed a 6-yard score to Kayson Mahiai on the Wildcats' next series, but missed the PAT to make the score 13-7.

The Rams took their first lead on Iriarte's 8-yard touchdown pass to Manabe on the ensuing drive. Gennero was good on the extra point to make the score 14-13 in favor of Radford.

Konawaena went back up two plays later after Ewing tossed a 73-yard strike to Kamakana Ching for his second score of the game. The 2-point attempt failed leaving the score at 19-14.

Radford took the lead for good on Iriarte's 15-yard touchdown pass to Faumui on a wheel route. Gennero drilled his third straight PAT to give the Rams a 21-19 advantage.

The Rams extended their scoring streak with Iriarte's final passing touchdown of the night and a 47-yard fumble return by Jordan Walker. Faumui's pass to Manabe on a 2-point conversion gave Radford a 36-19 lead.

Konawaena was able to stop the string of Radford scores with Ewing's 11-yard touchdown pass to Mahiai on fourth down to make the score 36-26 at the half.

ScoringLive reporter Stacy Kaneshiro contributed to this report.