Kapolei's Kingston Fernandez wraps up a McKinley ball carrier. Sylvia Lee | SL

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McKinley's Mathias Tuitele-Iafeta stiff arms a Kapolei defender during a carry. Sylvia Lee | SL

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Kapolei's Mana Reis attempts to escape the grasp of a McKinley defender. Sylvia Lee | SL

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Fri, Aug 16, 2013 @ Kapolei [ 7:30 pm ]

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McKinley

7

Kapolei

20

Final	1	2	3	4	T
McKinley (5-5-0)	0	0	0	7	7
Kapolei (6-4-0)	0	13	0	7	20

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Aizon Kahana 106 yd 1 TD

Denzel Kalahiki-Gasper 48 yd

Kazden Reis 58 yd

Mathias Tuitele-Iafeta 24 yd 1 TD

Kazden Reis 38 yd 1 TD

Malik Kuhia 47 yd

KAPOLEI — It was hardly easy on the eyes, but it was enough to win.

Micah Paris and Tristan Pebria each rushed for a touchdown to lead Kapolei to a 20-7 win over McKinley in a non-league Friday night. A crowd of about 1,000 at the Hurricanes' home stadium saw the hosts win their second straight game to open the 2013 season at 2-0.

McKinley, which had yet to play a game after Roosevelt forfeited the scheduled-opener for both teams last week, fell to 1-1.

The game was hardly a highlight reel, with the teams combining for just 355 yards of total offense and four turnovers.

"We've got a lot of work to do," Kapolei coach Darren Hernandez said. "We didn't play our best game. The turnovers were costly - that stopped a couple of drives - and then the penalties …"

Hernandez's team committed 11 infractions, including six holding calls, that cost it 104 yards. One of the holding penalties brought back an apparent 28-yard touchdown pass midway through the first quarter.

"We have to clean that up before we get playing in the regular season, but you know, we're happy that we're 2-0," Hernandez said. "It's a good thing, but we feel like we haven't really played our best football yet."

Despite just 216 yards of total offense, Kapolei showed balance, rushing for 110 yards and passing for another 106.

"We like balance, but that's pretty anemic numbers," Hernandez said. "We'd like to be double that, so (tonight was) not good. We'd like to rush and pass for over 200 yards - that's our goal - but, you know, McKinley is a tough team."

Aizon Kahana played the entire game at quarterback and completed 10 of his 21 pass attempts, including a 28-yard, fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Mana Reis, but was also intercepted twice. However, neither turnover ultimately hurt Kapolei as the first pick led to a McKinley turnover on downs and the second was the final play of the first half.

"Overall, we could have eliminated a little more of the mistakes," McKinley coach Joe Cho said. "Our turnovers turned into touchdowns for them and when we got turnovers, we didn't turn it them into touchdowns."

Late in the first quarter, Kapolei benefitted from a 3-yard McKinley punt to start its drive at the Tigers' 21-yard line. Eight plays later — on 4th-and-goal — Micah Paris ran in a 1-yard touchdown run to open the scoring.

McKinley had stuffed the two previous rushing plays from the 1-yard line before Paris, who was one of three running backs on the play, found the end zone to cap the 8-play, 21-yard drive that took three minutes and 34 seconds off the clock.

Later in the quarter, Kapolei defensive back Malik Smith intercepted McKinley's Marcus Aikau to give his team possession at its own 40-yard line. Five plays later, Pebria recycled the turnover into a 5-yard touchdown run.

"That's always big," Hernandez said. "Whenever you can manufacture points off of a turnover that's huge, that's what you look for."

The play was set-up by a pivotal fourth-down conversion one play prior when Kahana found Reis for a 16-yard pick up on a 4th-and-2 from the 21-yard line.

The PAT was blocked and Kapolei held a 13-0 lead with 2:51 left until halftime.

The Tigers got their lone touchdown 31 seconds into the fourth quarter when Mathias Tuitele-Iafeta punched in a 1-yard run to close out a 14-play, 88-yard drive that took 6:41 off the clock.

"The second half we played them pretty even, I thought," Cho said. "We finally got some spark in the second half."

McKinley had just 38 offensive yards by halftime and finished with 139 for the game.

Denzel Kalahiki-Gasper played wide receiver in the first half and moved to quarterback — to replace Aikau — for the second. Kalahiki-Gasper finished 5-of-14 passing for 48 yards and added six rushes for 35 yards while Aikau was 3-of-8 passing for 5 yards with two interceptions and rushed three times for a loss of 15 yards.

Malik Kuhia caught four passes for 47 yards for McKinley, which recorded just one first down by pass for the game.

Kapolei got an insurance score with 4:22 to play on Kahana's 8-yard touchdown pass to Reis — the highlight of a 12-play, 76-yard drive that consumed 4:10 — to take a 20-7 lead.

Reis led the Hurricane rushers with 58 yards on eight carries. Kapolei was just 4 of 14 on third downs, but 4 of 4 on fourth downs.

It was the second meeting between the Hurricanes and Tigers in as many years. The teams played exactly one year ago at Roosevelt's Ticky Vasconcellos Stadium, which Kapolei won, 21-0.

Both teams open their respective conference schedules Friday. McKinley plays Moanalua (0-2) at Roosevelt, while Kapolei hosts Mililani (1-1).