Kamehameha, Campbell advance to quarterfinals

Brian Bautista | SL

PEARL CITY - Lethal on both sides of the line of scrimmage, Kylee Sivertsen made key plays as a receiver and a pass rusher to help second-seeded Kamehameha over relentless Waiakea, 26-6, Wednesday night in the opening round of the inaugural Hawaii Dental Service Girls Flag Football State Tournament at Bino Neves Stadium.

The Warriors, the Interscholastic League of Honolulu champions, will play Campbell in Thursday's 7:30 p.m. quarterfinal at the PCHS campus. The other quarterfinal, at 6 p.m., pits Nanakuli against Mililani.

Sivertsen hauled in the first score of the game on a 15-yard pass from Hayden Kaahaunui-Cera at the seven-minute, 15-second mark in the first quarter. It was the first of three TD passes by Kaahaanui-Cera, who also rushed for a TD.

On defense, Sivertsen registered four tackles, but three were sacks of the shifty and speedy Waiakea quarterback Kaya Texeira.

"I've never seen myself playing defense," Sivertsen said. "I've always been an offense-type of player. But I really love (defense), sacking that quarterback."

The Warriors were not surprised at Texeira's speed and elusiveness. They had reviewed video of her, and they practiced for it, Sivertsen said. She said one of the male coaches mimicked the Waiakea QB at practice.

"At practice, one of our coaches, - he's pretty fast- so he went as quarterback and running around in circles…If we can catch him, we can catch anybody."

And Sivertsen did.

Texeira was a major task for the Kapalama girls. One of the team's leading scorers on the Waiakea basketball team, Texeira was the Big Island team's sole rusher, netting 61 yards, and scored Waiakea's only TD on a 3-yard run to cut Kamehameha's lead to 13-6 at the half. Texeira side-stepped or rolled out of pressure, but Sivertson played a big role in minimizing the damage to her defense.

"We did our homework and got a good grade," Sivertson said.

Meanwhile, Kaahanui-Cera was on her best game, too, completing 23 of 30 passes for 251 yards. She threw two interceptions (by Kiara Patterson and Shayleah Aukai). She also rushed for 32 yards, including an 8-yard TD run in the fourth quarter to seal the game for Kamehameha. She stalled Waiakea with either her sacks or pass break-up.

In another opening-round game, Maya Gonsalves passed for 185 yards and three TDs to lead Campbell over Baldwin, 27-18.

Gonzalves threw TD passes of 60 yards to Jyzelle Gorion, and 64 and 5 yards to Kealohilani Akana. Gonzalves also returned an interception 27 yards for a TD.

Mililani quarterback Zenn Nelson accounted for 177 yards (77 rushing, 67 passing 33 on punt returns), while scoring on an 18-yard run and catching a TD pass from Brooke Kurasaki. Nelson also caught two 1-point conversion passes in the Trojans' 14-8 win against Waianae.

Nahealani Choy Foo and Sophie Foster led the defense with seven flags pulled each, for the Trojans.

Nanakuli QB Charyssa Asinsin passed for 205 yards on 12-of-21 passing and three TDs; she also returned an interception 26 yards for a score in the Golden Hawks' 39-19 win against Konawaena.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at [email protected].