John Lujan | SL

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Sat, Oct 8, 2016 @ Leilehua [ 6:30 pm ]

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Aiea

27

Leilehua

42

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Aiea (3-6-0)	0	0	8	19	27
Leilehua (5-8-0)	14	21	7	0	42

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Konapiliahi Andres 253 yd 2 TD

Kobe Kato 315 yd 2 TD

Konapiliahi Andres 53 yd 1 TD

Isaiah Ripley 62 yd

Charles Watson 114 yd

TeeJay Tome 50 yd 1 TD

WAHIAWA – Leilehua played a dominant first half to knock off Aiea, 42-27, Saturday night in an opening round game of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I tournament at Hugh Yoshida Stadium

The Mules (4-5) will play defending state champion Kahuku (7-1) in a quarterfinal Friday at Kahuku. Both teams qualify for a state tournament. The winner will make the Open tournament with the loser guaranteed a spot in the Division I tournament.

The season is over for Na Alii (3-6).

Leilehua took a 35-0 lead into the half and scored on its first series of the second half to take a commanding 42-0 lead with the running clock in effect. But Na Alii responded with 27 unanswered points to stop to the running clock.

Leilehua will need a better effort in both halves if it expects to contend with Kahuku.

"We have to learn how to finish better," Leilehua coach Nolan Tokuda said. "I take all the blame. For some reason, if our guys think we can let down, then that's something we cannot let happen, so that's something I will address come Monday."

On the other side of the field, it was a nice effort by Na Alii to not fold their tent under an insurmountable deficit.

"I told our kids at halftime I've never known them to quit," Aiea coach Wendell Say said. "And we won't start now. We made a lot of mistakes in the first half. We kept shooting ourselves in the foot. For us, we're a better team than that and I didn't want to see (our season) end that way. So we challenged our kids."

The Mules' defense accounted for two first-half scores: a 50-yard interception return by Destry Pulawa-Lopez and a fumble recovery in the end zone by Odin Mersberg. Pulawa-Lopez also had second-half interception at the goal line after Na Alii recovered an onside kick and drove to to Leilehua's 12.

As usual, Kaleoaloha Piceno and Konopliahi Andres shared snaps at quarterback, combining for three TD passes and 289 yards.  Andres was 10 of 16 for 253 yards with TD passes of 43 yards t Kawai Phifer and 41 yards to Kendrick Betzel. Piceno was 6 of 9 for 36 yards, including a 1-yard TD pass to Phifer. Piceno also scored on a 6-yard run.

Aiea QB Kobe Kato pass for 315 yards on 25-of-43 passing with two TD passes, one to TeeJay Tome for 24 yards and another to Ty Matsunami for 19 yards.

After Leilehua took a 42-0 lead to start the third quarter, Aiea finally got on the board. Arman Magote's 36-yard kickoff return to the Aiea 43 set up a seven-play drive that ended with a Kato's 24-yard TD pass to Tome. Kato connected with Fabian Bautista for the 2-point conversion to cut the deficit to 34 to stop the running clock.

The clock stoppage allowed Aiea to chip away, but the poor first-half showing was too much for Na Alii to overcome.

For the Mules, they will meet the Red Raiders for the second time this season. In the crossover season opener, Leilehua won 49-15.

"We walked off that field knowing that was the state champion," Tokuda said. "We put up 15 on them. We always talk about if you want to be the best you have to beat the best, so we have another opportunity at that."