Leighland Tagawa | Special to SL

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Lincoln Barit couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief late Friday night.

"Finally," the longtime Waialua football coach elated just minutes after his team's come-from-behind 19-14 semifinal win over Kaimuki at Kaiser Stadium. "Finally, we got the monkey off our back."

Indeed.

The win not only put the Bulldogs into next Friday's Oahu Interscholastic Association Division II championship game, it also punched their ticket to the first state tournament in school history.

"It feels damn good because I think five times we went to the playoffs and we just couldn't get over that hump," said Barit, the 14th-year Waialua coach. "I told the boys that the hump becomes a hill after a while."

The Bulldogs avenged a hard-fought 22-20 overtime loss to Kaimuki back on Aug. 13 — the season opener for both teams. That night, Waialua couldn't hold on to a 14-8 third-quarter lead and ultimately fell short on an incomplete two-point conversion pass.

This time around, the Bulldogs saw a 13-0 first-quarter lead slip through their hands with 14 straight Kaimuki points, but persevered to score the go-ahead touchdown on a 1-yard run by Howard Nahooikaika with 8:16 left to play.

The defense certainly did its part, picking off Kaimuki quarterback Jordan Solomon three times and forcing punt after punt in the second half.

"Every time we got out there, we were pumping up everybody; that was our motivation," said senior defensive back and wide receiver Lancen Kuni, whose interception led to Nahooikaika's first 1-yard TD run in the first quarter.

Kuni, who opened the scoring with his 50-yard touchdown pass from Tevesi Toia in the opening minutes, passed the praise on to the coaching staff.

"I'm just thankful for our coaches," Kuni said. "They pushed us all week for this win and our team for hanging in there."

Julian Fely-Menor, whose late interception off Solomon helped close it out, was especially happy for Barit.

"It's great because we got our coach over the hump," Fely-Menor said. "All the years he's been at the school and we never got to states, so it's all for him. We're doing it for him."