OIA Football
Campbell slips past Kaiser, 27-21


  

Sat, Oct 10, 2015 @ Kaiser [ 7:00 pm ]


Final 1 2 3 4 T
Campbell (2-8-0) 14 7 0 627
Kaiser (4-5-0) 7 14 0 021





HAWAII KAI — Campbell quarterback Kawika Ulufale accounted for three touchdowns to help lead the Sabers to a 27-21 win over host Kaiser in the first round of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I playoffs Saturday night.

The Sabers (2-7), who finished the regular season with a 1-6 record to claim the OIA Blue Division's sixth seed, will move on to face Farrington, the Blue Division's second seed, at Roosevelt next Saturday. The Governors won the regular season meeting between the two teams, 21-14.

Kaiser, the OIA Red Division's third seed, saw its season come to a close with a 4-5 mark.

Ulufale's 1-yard sneak broke a 21-all game with 3:08 left in regulation. This capped a 13-play, 80-yard drive that took 7:26 off of the game clock. Campbell's game-winning drive was also aided by four Kaiser penalties and two fourth down conversions.

"Great teams are going to do that," said Kaiser coach Cameron Higgins. "We kind of helped them along the way with some dumb penalties, but we had them on fourth down countless times and we just couldn't get off the field."

The Cougars had to deal with the loss of all-purpose Nicolas Tom for most of the night. The 5-foot-10 senior dislocated his hip after lofting a pass into the end zone and left the game in an ambulance with 4:05 remaining in the second quarter. Kaiser trailed 21-7 at that point.

"It was very unfortunate to lose him in the first half," Higgins said. "It kind of made us one dimensional as an offense. We just tried to make due and it just didn't fall our way today."

Kaiser rallied to tie the game up in Tom's absence, but had no answer for Ulufale and the Campbell offense. The junior signal caller found success against the Cougars' single-high safety defense and completed 21 of his 28 passes for a season-high 240 yards and two touchdowns against one interception.

"Kawika really stepped up tonight," said Campbell receiver Noah Esprecion. "In practice he's been getting his drops and working on stepping up in the pocket so we knew he would do good tonight."

Esprecion thrived against the Kaiser defense and finished with nine receptions for a season-high 134 yards and a 41-yard touchdown grab that gave Campbell an early 6-0 lead.

Also having his best game of the year was Campbell running back Terrell Johnson. The 6-foot senior took a lot of pressure off the passing game and had a season-high 100 yards rushing on 20 carries.

Kaiser went three-and-out on its first possession, but used a 6-play, 55-yard drive to take a 7-6 lead following Esprecion's touchdown catch. After a 30-yard scamper by Tom, the Cougars score on what looked like a designed run play. Jensen McDaniel received an option pitch from Tom before tossing a 5-yard touchdown pass to a wide open Christian Scheer in the end zone.

The Sabers would retake the lead after Nicholas Kernaghan returned a Tom interception 49 yards to the house. Ulafale connected with Johnson on the 2-point conversion to make the score 14-7 in favor of Campbell.

The visitors used a 14-play, 98-yard drive to push their lead to two scores. Zayne Barr-Rauschenburg caught a 22-yard touchdown pass off of a tip on fourth down to give Campbell a 21-7 lead with 8:19 to play in the second quarter.

Kaiser drove all the way to the Campbell 11-yard drive on its next possession before Tom got hurt. The Cougars did not let Tom's effort go to waste and scored on a Parker Higgins' 11-yard run three plays later with 3:30 left in the first half.

The Cougars' next score would come eight seconds of game time later. Kaiser's Chance Kalaugher stripped sack Ulufale on the Sabers' next play from scrimmage and recovered the loose ball in the end zone to tie the game up at 21 apiece.

Kaiser had a chance to take the lead in the third quarter but saw Makana Srivongsana's 25-yard field goal get blocked.



Reach Michael Lasquero at [email protected].




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