What a difference a week made for the Kapolei football team.

The Hurricanes were flying high after a 49-point offensive output in a season-opening win over Kaiser last week. They found the going a lot tougher Friday night.

Kapolei, which entered the weekend as the No. 7-ranked team in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Division I Power Rankings, was held in check to just one score in a 27-7 loss against fourth-ranked Kahuku.

Against the Red Raiders' vaunted defense, the Hurricanes struggled to sustain drives and were plagued by untimely mistakes, including a couple of fumbles. When they did move the ball, they had difficulty putting points on the board. They finished with 16 first downs, but just two came before halftime, and were 3 of 11 on third downs.

Kapolei coach Darren Hernandez lamented his team's multiple missed opportunities, but said Kahuku's defense played a big part in them.

"We had that one pass to Jaymin Sarono that he bobbled. If he had caught it he would have gone to the house then we had that nice long pass to Barboza, but we had a holding call, but all the praise goes to Kahuku," Hernandez said. "If anybody wanted a blueprint on how to play defense, watch Kahuku because they do a great job with their athletes. They're so tall and rangy and strong, long and fast and they just come at you in waves, not only with their defense, but with their run game.

The Hurricanes actually improved on run defense from a week ago. They "held" Kahuku to 196 yards rushing after surrendering 373 to Kaiser last week.

"If you take away that long (38-yard touchdown) run by (Kahuku's Sefa) Ameperosa, we pretty much held them in check, but it's just a matter of time before you wear down with a team like this, especially when the offense was struggling as much as we did."

Quarterbacks Ezra Savea (11-of-15 passing, 146 yards) and Taulia Tagovailoa (5 of 13, 65 yards) failed to get much help from the run game. Outside of L.J. Esperas' 45 yards on nine carries, the 'Canes had minus-29 rushing yards.

Hernandez said he hopes the loss will prove to be a blessing in disguise in the long run.

"I think it's good for us to get this wake-up call," Hernandez said. "You score 49 points one week and you think you're on top of the world and then it all comes kind of crashing down at your home field, so there's a lot of soul-searching and we're going to have to go back to the drawing board."

Kapolei hopes to turn the tide back in its favor when it visits Kailua Saturday.