Rudy Kealohi caught six passes for 65 yards and hauled in a 26-yard touchdown pass. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Fri, Oct 18, 2019 @ Moanalua [ 7:30 pm ]

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Kailua

14

Moanalua

21

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Kailua (4-7-0)	0	7	0	7	14
Moanalua (10-2-0)	0	10	11	0	21

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

RJ Javar 202 yd 2 TD

Cameron Friel 244 yd 1 TD

Soo Saole-Teixeira 85 yd

Samson Rasay 64 yd

Rudy Kealohi 65 yd 1 TD

Landon Clevenger 99 yd 1 TD

SALT LAKE — The weight of last year's playoff failure has been lifted.

RJ Javar threw two touchdown passes and the secondary nabbed five interceptions as No. 10 Moanalua defeated Kailua, 21-14, in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I Playoffs semifinal at Moanalua Friday.

Last season nearly a year ago, Moanalua went unbeaten until it was upset in the playoffs against Castle, 28-14, to end a promising season and a spot in the championship game. That bitter-tasting loss lingered until tonight.

"The monkey is off my back. I feel so much better. It's a relieving feeling. I still remember and I have it in my office and I remind myself for almost 365 days. I screwed it up. That was me. I take blame and full responsibility. As a whole team and a family tonight, we rectified that," Moanalua coach Savaii Eselu said of the playoff win.

Moanalua (9-1 overall, 7-0 OIA) advances to the OIA title game to face Leilehua after the Mules defeated Waipahu, 13-7, in the second game of a triple header at Aloha Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 26.

"It feels good and I'm happy. Last year coach Savaii didn't want this to happen. I'm glad I made the guys from last year proud. I think they will be happy for us," Javar said.

Na Menehune won the regular season matchup, 24-20, on Aug. 30.

The win also awards Na Menehune a state tournament berth and will be playing postseason football in November for the first time since 2016.

"We haven't won a playoff game for Moanalua. We came in strong knowing this will be our first dub and we're going to get to the state tournament and OIA championship," said senior Rudy Kealohi, who spent four years with the program.

In Moanalua's way to playoff redemption was Kailua, one of the league's most improved teams. Na Menehune narrowly beat the Surfriders on Aug. 16, 19-18.

The Surfriders, who mounted a valiant comeback against Waipahu in the fourth quarter last week and had another fourth quarter comeback tonight, end their season at 4-7 overall, 3-4 in the OIA.

"The main thing was to keep Cam (Cameron Friel) in the pocket. When he gets out, he can work. His legs do a whole lot of great things for them. It's a tall order because they realize how powerful they are. What better team to go against than coach Joe Wong and his boys. I'm proud we got to meet one last time and go from there," Eselu said.

RJ Javar threw for two scores and 202 yards on 21-of-34 passing and no interceptions.

Dacyres Domingo added 65 receiving yards and Jensen York had 33 receiving yards and a touchdown reception.

Griffin Motas went 2 for 4 from field goals. He made a 41-yard field goal to put Moanalua up, 3-0 and made a 42-yard field goal in the third quarter, but missed from 42 and 22 yards out.

Aukai Grace had two of Moanalua's five interceptions. His first interception came in the first quarter in the end zone as the Surfriders' opening drive went 14-plays that nearly took six minutes off the clock.

Christian Sison, Lopez, Jr., and Chase Tau each recorded one pick. Marcus Marion and Jett Tanigawa had three tackle for losses and two sacks for Na Menehune.

"I knew our defense would shut it down. That's what they do. Practices go off and I feel our defense can go up against anybody," Kealohi said of the secondary he has to face day-in-and-day out in practices.

"That was a big part of the game," Javar said of the secondary forcing turnovers.

Javar threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to York on third-and-goal to cap a 48-yard, 10 play drive that came off of Jesus Lopez, Jr.'s interception for a 10-0 lead.

After Moanalua went three and out, Kailua nearly took a minute off the clock and managed to score on a 6-yard touchdown pass from Cameron Friel to Landon Clevenger on a fourth-and-goal 15.2 seconds before halftime to trail, 10-7.

Clevenger led all receivers with 99 yards and Samson Rasay added 46 receiving yards and 64 rush yards.

Rudy Kealohi caught six passes for 65 yards and hauled a 26-yard touchdown pass from Javar. He also doubles as the PAT holder and botched the snap, but gathered the ball and rolled to his left to find Brad Lilo for the two-point pass for a 18-7 lead.

"We practice the fire drill and it was the right place at the right time," Kealohi said.

The ball continued to bounce Na Menehune's way as Motas' 42-yarder he made in the third quarter hit the cross bar and bounced in to give Moanalua a 21-7 lead.

"My heart stopped for a while," Eselu said. "It worked out well. When we played Damien, they had a whole lot of bounces going their way. It feels good to have that go our way especially on a high stakes game like tonight."

Soo Saole-Teixeira rushed for a season-high 85 yards as Na Menehune was able to average 4.7 yards per carry.

"We wanted to make sure the clock kept moving and we wanted to be efficient in everything we did. I'm glad we're establishing an indentity on the ground. We have established ourselves through the air," Eselu said.

Friel threw for 244 yards and a touchdown on 20-of-42 passing. He completed a 22-yard pass to Nainoa Peters, but he fumbled and Clevenger recovered the ball in the end zone for the final score of the night.