Nanakuli overpowers Kalaheo in season debut


Nanakuli's Keahi Ah Sui escapes pressure and rushes for the first down in the third quarter. Ah Sui rushed for 28 yards and threw 257 yards against the Mustangs. CJ Caraang | SL

ALIAMANU — Keahi Ah Sui passed for 257 yards and three touchdowns and Nanakuli cruised to a 49-0 win over Kalaheo in an Oahu Interscholastic Association Division II football game at Radford's John E. Velasco Stadium Saturday afternoon. 

The Golden Hawks (1-0) rolled up 456 yards of total offense in their season debut and held the Mustangs (0-2) to minus-33 net yards. 

David Kalili led all players with six receptions for 116 yards, including a 28-yard touchdown pass from Ah Sui that was part of a 21-point second quarter for Nanakuli. 

"It was a good team win, (but) there were a lot of procedural things we can work on," Golden Hawks coach Kili Watson said. 

Ah Sui completed 13 of his 19 pass attempts without an interception. His 49-yard TD pass to Joseph Lewis IV capped his team's first possession and opened the scoring a few minutes into the contest. 

Allen Mahoe III ran for a 1-yard touchdown just before the end of the first quarter and also caught a 20-yard scoring strike from Ah Sui in the second stanza. 

Branztyn Reyes scored on a 55-yard punt return that gave the Golden Hawks a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter. They took a 35-0 lead into halftime and added second-half scores on runs of 35 and 3 yards by Christian Asinsin and Blaze Baltazar, respectively. 

Asinsin, a 6-foot, 190-pound sophomore, finished with 17 carries for 143 yards. 

"He's our premier back, but we do have some guys behind him that can spell him," Watson said. 

Nanakuli rushed for 199 yards as a team and averaged a gaudy 7.7 yards per carry, but was penalized 11 times for 113 yards. 

"The second half, we did come out with a lot more penalties than we needed and we wanted, so it's definitely stuff we gotta clean up, but it's a good team win for the boys; the team was the MVP tonight," Watson said. 

Micah Nihoa converted on all seven of his PATs. 

Kalaheo was 1 of 9 on third-down conversions and 0 for 3 on fourth downs. It registered only five first downs for the game — two of them by virtue of penalties against the Golden Hawks. 

Khalil Federico and Lester Meyers III had two sacks apiece for Nanakuli defensively. 

While the Golden Hawks were making their season debut, the Mustangs were coming off of a 42-7 loss at Pearl City last week. 

"Kalaheo's always had the characteristic of just being fighters. I think that's just the natural character for them," Watson said. "I mean, a lot of respect to them and to coach (Nelson) Maeda and what they're doing over there."

The Mustangs are in their first season under Maeda, the former longtime Castle coach, after Darrell Poole stepped down following the 2019 season after eight seasons at the helm. 

Kalaheo will visit Kaiser (2-0) Friday, while Nanakuli will face Kaimuki (0-2) the following night at Farrington's Edward ‘Skippa' Diaz Stadium at Kusunoki Field. 



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].