Kailua RB Chauncy Gonsalves-Bell carries the ball against Nanakuli Saturday night at Alex Kane Stadium. Leighland Tagawa | Special to SL

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Kailua's Dylan Kurahashi-Choy Foo (right) celebrates with Taylor Tagupa (left) after returning an interception for a touchdown. Leighland Tagawa | Special to SL

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Sat, Aug 26, 2017 @ Kailua [ 6:00 pm ]

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Nanakuli

14

Kailua

40

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Nanakuli (1-7-0)	8	0	0	6	14
Kailua (4-5-0)	6	20	12	2	40

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Aaron Mejia 120 yd 2 TD

Nahum Kipi 133 yd 1 TD

Chauncy Gonsalves-Bell 92 yd

Pookela Piilani 45 yd 1 TD

Tanner Wright 53 yd 1 TD

Reno Curtis 89 yd 1 TD

KAILUA — Aaron Mejia threw two touchdown passes and ran in another score to help No. 9 Kailua to a 40-14 win over Nanakuli at Alex Kane Stadium Saturday night.

The Surfriders pounded out 346 rushing yards and 466 overall on offense and benefitted from a couple of scores from their defense to improve to 3-0 overall and 2-0 in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I Red conference.

Seven different players registered at least one rush attempt for Kailua, which averaged 6.9 yards per carry. Of its 26 total first downs, 18 of them came via the ground.

Chauncy Gonsalves-Bell rushed for a game-high 92 yards on 12 carries, Samson Rasay had 91 yards on 13 attempts and Alika Teramoto pitched in with 55 yards on eight rushes. Cameron Dudoit-Kamai also contributed three carries for 32 yards, including a 20-yard TD run, and Kealoha Hanawahine-Wong scored on a 6-yard run.

"We have three running backs — and if you add Alika and Hanawahine into the mix, we've got five running backs — but I like that because when you get into the thick of our division and so on, so forth toward the playoffs, we've got a lot of depth all over the place, so it's (a result of) unselfish play and it showed," Kailua coach Joe Wong said. "Dudoit scored, but Samson and Chauncy contributed, too, big time."

Kailua drove 80 yards in nine plays on its opening possession, which culminated with a 22-yard touchdown pass from Mejia to Tanner Wright about four minutes into the game. A bad snap on the PAT led to a failed conversion attempt to keep it at 6-0.

Just two plays into Nanakuli's drive — and 64 seconds after the Surfriders scored — Nahum Kipi hit Reno Curtis on an 89-yard scoring strike to tie it. Curtis, who was aligned wide to the right side of the formation, hauled in the short pass after beating his defender and went untouched on the score.

Chayce Morgan ran in the ensuing two-point conversion to give Nanakuli an 8-6 lead that held until early in the second quarter.

Kailua's Dylan Kurahashi-Choy Foo (right) celebrates with Taylor Tagupa (left) after returning an interception for a touchdown. Leighland Tagawa | Special to SL    Purchase image

Dylan Kurahashi-Choy Foo's 30-yard pick-6 put Kailua ahead for good with 10:52 left in the first half and ignited a string of 34 consecutive points by the hosts.

"We went up the field (on our first drive) and scored, but (Nanakuli) scoring right after that … I think it was an eye-opener for our team," Wong said. "But we adjusted and we shut them out for three quarters of the game, so I like how we responded."

Near the midpoint of the second quarter, a short Nanakuli punt gave Kailua possession at the Golden Hawks' 25-yard line.

The very next play saw Mejia toss a 25-yard TD pass to Gaege Kupahu, who went up between a pair of defenders and snagged the catch just as he crossed the goal line. Teramoto tacked on the extra point to give the Surfriders a 20-8 lead.

Hanawahine-Wong sent his team into halftime with a 26-8 advantage after he scampered into the end zone behind a full house backfield from six yards out on third-and-goal. The touchdown came five plays after Dakota Kadooka picked off Kipi and returned it 14 yards to the Nanakuli 44.

Kailua did not turn it over on offense, while its defense managed four sacks — two of them by Teuaigaava Sagapolu — and three interceptions.

"You've got to get takeaways to win the game and you've got to protect the ball to win the game and they did exactly what we wanted them to do and I just like how they hung in there and they adjusted for the remainder of the game," Wong said.

The Surfriders got a pair of touchdowns in a span of 23 seconds in the third quarter. Dudoit-Kamei scored on a well-executed cut back run to cap a 10-play drive, and after a recovered pooch kick, Mejia turned on the jets for a 10-yard TD run up the middle on a read-option. Mejia's TD run was set-up by a 25-yard pick-up by Gonsalves-Bell one play prior.

Mejia, a senior quarter, finished 9-of-20 passing for 120 yards and added nine carries for 69 yards.

Early in the fourth quarter, the Surfriders notched a safety when Justus Rogers-Makainai sacked Kipi in the end zone to extend their lead to 40-8.

Nanakuli closed out the scoring with Pookela Piilani's 7-yard TD run with 3:44 left in the game.

The Golden Hawks (1-3, 1-2) finished with 218 yards of total offense.

The game was plagued by penalties, 20 of them coming after halftime. Kailua was flagged 19 times for 216 yards and Nanakuli drew 14 for 92.

"That's something that we've got to address. We can't have that," Wong said. "We've got to clean that up right there. That's not going to be something that sits well with me."

Both teams continue league play Friday night. Kailua will host Farrington (2-1), while Nanakuli will host Castle (2-1).