Jim Lebeau | Special to SL

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Kapolei quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa passed for 464 yards and 4 touchdowns in a win over Moanalua. Jim Lebeau | Special to SL

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Sat, Sep 5, 2015 @ Kapolei [ 7:00 pm ]

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Moanalua

21

Kapolei

33

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Moanalua (4-6-0)	0	7	0	14	21
Kapolei (6-4-0)	14	13	0	6	33

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Taulia Tagovailoa 464 yd 4 TD

Alakai Yuen 240 yd 2 TD

L.J. Esperas 40 yd

Alakai Yuen 29 yd

Jaymin Sarono 156 yd 1 TD

Kaimi Kini 94 yd

KAPOLEI — With freshman quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa firmly at the controls, Kapolei's high-speed offense went into overdrive Saturday night.

Tagovailoa completed 44 of his 70 pass attempts for 464 yards and four touchdowns, including three to wide receiver Alika Bantolina, to lead Kapolei to a 33-21 win over visiting Moanalua.

The Hurricanes racked up 540 yards of total offense to pick up their first league win, improving to 2-3 overall, 1-3 in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I Blue conference and snapping a three-game losing streak in the process.

"First of all, glory to God. Without God this wouldn't be possible," said Tagovailoa, whose previous career high of 395 passing yards came just a week ago against Mililani. "It was a team victory. Our defense put in work, they bailed us out from difficult situations and it was really a team win."

Kapolei's no-huddle passing attack ran a total of 98 plays from scrimmage, 33 more than Moanalua had, and led the time-of-possession battle, roughly 28 minutes to 20 for the visitors.

"Our quarterback is young, he makes a lot of big plays, but we're still trying to learn under a new quarterback and a new system — a new passing offense — and there's been hiccups and we've had problems, but we've really had some positive things that we've seen so I'm excited about where we're at," Hurricanes' coach Darren Hernandez said.

Twenty-two of Kapolei's 33 total first downs came by way of the pass. By comparison, Moanalua had 16 first downs for the game.

Hernandez paid due to the offensive line for providing protection for Tagovailoa, who connected with nine different pass-catchers.

"I thought our o-line did a great job. To be sacked three times in (seventy) pass attempts — kudos to the o-line — we were able to throw the ball around, spread it around," Hernandez said.

It was the highest scoring output for the Hurricanes since a season-opening 49-28 win over Kaiser nearly a month ago.

"I'm happy with the direction of the offense," said Hernandez, whose team entered the game averaging 21 points and 347 yards per game. "We're really racking up a lot of yards, but I'm interested also in racking up a lot of points. I told the boys today that getting a lot of yards is great, but you don't win games with yards. It's points, so we've got to convert a lot of those red-zone opportunities into points."

Kapolei scored on its first two possessions of the game on a touchdown passes of 5 and 6 yards to Jaymin Sarono and Bantolina, respectively. The first score — which capped a 10-play, 79-yard drive — was set-up by Jericho Kahooilihala's fumble recovery after Tyler Vasega forced the ball loose from Moanalua quarterback Alakai Yuen.

Sarono led all players with 15 receptions for 156 yards.

Bantolina and Tagovailoa hooked up for a second time at the 5:09 mark in the second quarter on a 5-yard touchdown pass and again just a few minutes later on a 3-yard scoring strike, which gave the Hurricanes a 27-0 lead.

"This was really his first action," Hernandez said of Bantolina, who transferred from Campbell for his senior season. "He hurt his ankle during fall camp and was out of commission. He's still not a hundred percent, but he brings a lot of experience and the hands that he has are remarkable. He's a sure-handed guy and a great possession receiver for us."

Bantolina's first three receptions Saturday night were all touchdown catches. They were also his first receptions of the season. He finished with six grabs for 41 yards.

"When I was sitting on the sideline all I was thinking about was getting back in and when I had my time I just tried my best and that's what happens," Bantolina said. "I give all the glory to God."

Moanalua got on the board on the final play of the first half on a 16-yard touchdown pass from Yuen to Michael Feliciano. Blake Tom tacked on the extra point to cut Kapolei's lead to 27-7 at the intermission.

Feliciano, who leads all of Division I statewide in rushing yards, was limited to just nine carries for 15 yards for the game.

Na Menehune got a pair of second-half scores on a 61-yard Yuen-to-Brandon Bender touchdown pass and a 5-yard run by Rodson Kealohi, which pulled them within 30-21 with 5:42 left in the game. However, instead of kicking the extra point — which would have made it an eight-point difference — they opted to try for the two-point conversion, but Kekaulike Kalua's pass fell incomplete.

Beau Meyer converted on field goals of 42 and 33 yards to account for all of Kapolei's scoring after halftime.

"I tell you what, it feels really good," Hernandez said of ending his team's three-game losing streak. "We actually almost gave that away in the second half. We were outscored in the second half after building a big lead, so we're still a work in progress."

Yuen threw for 240 yards on 17-of-35 passing with two touchdowns, but was also intercepted twice, both times by Leonard Lee.

"It felt good to win this game, because it kind of gives us that momentum going into the next one, so hopefully we can build on it and just go from there," Lee said.

Kaimi Kini had five receptions for 94 yards and Pita Tiave made 11 tackles and Dalton Nascimento 10 to lead Moanalua (2-3, 1-3), which entered the game ranked ninth in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Division Power Rankings, but has now lost back-to-back games for the first time this season and has dropped three of its last four.