Kapolei's Titus Mokiao-Atimalala tries to shake a Campbell defender in a non-league matchup Friday night. Sylvia Lee | SL

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Sylvia Lee | SL

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Fri, Aug 4, 2017 @ Campbell [ 7:00 pm ]

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Kapolei

23

Campbell

7

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Kapolei (5-5-0)	14	0	0	9	23
Campbell (7-5-0)	7	0	0	0	7

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Krenston Kaipo 109 yd 1 TD

Kaniala Kalaola 220 yd 3 TD

Jacob Covington 72 yd

Dreyden-Steele Kawewehi 38 yd

Pokii Adkins-Kupukaa 39 yd 1 TD

Titus Mokiao-Atimalala 63 yd 2 TD

EWA BEACH — A couple of new faces played big roles in No. 3 Kapolei's season-opening 23-7 win over No. 10 Campbell Friday night.

Freshman wide receiver Titus Mokiao-Atimalala caught a pair of touchdown passes and senior defensive lineman Aaron Faumui notched three of his team's four sacks — including one for a safety — in the non-league game before a crowd of about 1,000 at the Sabers' home field.

The Hurricanes (1-0) scored 16 unanswered points to break open a 7-all tie and pull away from the Sabers (0-1).

Kapolei scored on its very first possession. Tamatoa Mokiao-Atimalala — a sophomore receiver and the brother of Titus — got the scoring started with an 11-yard touchdown grab to cap an 11-play, 60-yard drive. He hauled in the pass on third-and-goal from quarterback Kaniala Kalaola in the back left corner of the end zone just under four minutes into the contest.

The drive included two fourth-down conversions, the first coming on a 34-yard run on punter/running back Dreyden-Steele Kawewehi, and the second on a 14-yard pass from Kalaola to Tamatoa Mokiao-Atimalala.

However, Campbell answered with a seven-play drive that covered 65 yards and culminated with a 39-yard touchdown pass from Krenston Kaipo to Pokii Adkins-Kupukaa on a well-designed screen pass.

Adkins-Kupukaa — who also intercepted a pair of passes from his safety position on defense — was aligned to the left side of the formation pre-snap. After pulling down the short pass from Kaipo, he weaved his way through a wall of blockers on his way to the end zone. Ariel Villanueva's extra point was good to tie it at 7 with 5:09 left in the first quarter.

The Hurricanes wasted little time in reclaiming the lead. The very next play from scrimmage resulted in a 40-yard pick-up when Kalaola bought time in the pocket before delivering a strike to Keanu Barboza. Three plays later, Kalaola hit Titus Mokiao-Atimala on a quick slant for a 2-yard scoring strike. Braedon Bantolina tacked on the PAT to make it 14-7 with 3:15 left in the first.

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The score held until the first play of the fourth quarter, when Titus Mokiao-Atimalala broke free down the left sideline and Kalaola found him for a 34-yard TD pass.

Kapolei closed out the scoring with Faumui's sack of Kaipo in his own end zone, resulting in a safety. That stretched the lead to 23-7 with 10:18 remaining.

Faumui, who played for Radford's Division II-winning state championship team as a sophomore in 2015 before attending Orem (Utah) last year. His three sacks Friday resulted in a loss of 20 yards.

"He had a great impact, but he also had two personal fouls that I'm not happy with, so he has to clean that aspect of his game up," Kapolei coach Darren Hernandez said. "He's a great player, plays with a lot of passion. We've just got to make sure he does the right thing all the time."

Kalaola, a Saint Louis transfer also making his varsity debut, threw for 220 yards on 21-of-40 passing, but was intercepted thrice.

"It's the first start for our quarterback and he's going to get better with more reps," Hernandez said.

Kalaola completed passes to six different receivers, but the Mokiao-Atimalala brothers were Kalaola's favorite targets. Titus finished with five catches for 63 yards and Tamatoa posted seven grabs for 62 yards.

"It's just a blessing just to perform, just to do my best and it's just amazing," Titus Mokiao-Atimalala said.

Campbell was held to just 159 yards of total offense in the loss. Kaipo, a first-year starter at quarterback, completed nine of 24 passes for 109 yards. He was intercepted twice — both times in the end zone by Saige Mactagone-Kuhaulua.

"They did a lot," Titus Mokiao-Atimalala said of the Hurricanes' defense. "They got us a lot of stops and on the offensive side we just tried our best to do our job."

Jacob Covington rushed for 72 yards on 11 carries to lead the Sabers, who netted just 50 rushing yards and played without a key starter on the offensive line in junior center Sir-Wallace Chanel, who suffered a leg injury in a scrimmage at Castle last week.

"I think defensively they did great. We wanted to stop the dangerous run game, that was the big thing," Hernandez said.

Campbell squandered several scoring chances in the second quarter.

A Kapolei muffed punt return gave the Sabers the ball back at their opponents' 32-yard line. However, they went four and out, turning it over on downs when Kaipo was dropped for a five-yard loss on a sack by Faumui.

Three plays later, Adkins-Kupukaa picked off a Kalaola pass and returned it to the Kapolei 43, but only to see the offense turn it over five plays after that on a Kaipo interception.

Just before the half, the Hurricanes erred on special teams, when punter Kevin Burkel tried to run for the first down on fourth-and-24 at his own 6-yard line. He came up well short of the mark to gain and gave the Sabers possession inside the red zone with just over a minute to play. On fourth-and-13, Kaipo found an open Vernon Etrata-Daite in the end zone for a would-be touchdown, but it was dropped to end the half.

Isaiah Cabel-Tivao also recorded an interception in the loss.