Waialua quarterback Tevesi Toia accounted for two touchdowns to help the Bulldogs post a third consecutive victory on Sept 16, 2016, one of seven wins that season. Mycah Yokotake | Special to SL

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Fri, Sep 16, 2016 @ Roosevelt [ 6:00 pm ]

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Waialua

13

Roosevelt

7

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Waialua (7-3-0)	0	0	0	13	13
Roosevelt (2-6-0)	0	0	7	0	7

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Shastyn Kekahuna -3 yd

Tevesi Toia 118 yd 1 TD

Shastyn Kekahuna 58 yd 1 TD

Risein Campbell 97 yd

Kekoa Lima 3 yd

Sam Merrill 33 yd

The 2016 prep football season was one to remember for the Waialua Bulldogs.

An overall record of 7-3 was highlighted by the school's first league football championship in more than six decades and culminated with its very first state tournament berth.

None of it easy to come by.

In fact, Waialua's 2016 campaign got off to a rough start with an overtime loss to Kaimuki that came down to a failed two-point conversion. Longtime coach Lincoln Barit recalls the game that saw his team twice blow a touchdown-lead.

"I remember we had a touchdown called back late in the game, by Lancen Kuni, but later on I saw the video and it was definitely a clipping (penalty). We had a lot of guys grumbling about it, but I told them, ‘you cannot grumble, it's on video,' " Barit chuckled.

Without the services of several key players that night due to academic probation, Waialua surrendered 331 yards through the air, including a pair of 100-yard receivers, but got two touchdown receptions from Kuni in the loss. The teams combined for 10 turnovers that night at Kaiser Stadium, including nine interceptions.

Barit was optimistic following the 22-20 defeat and tried to instill that attitude in his players.

"That was our first game and I remember talking to them after the game on the side of the hill and telling them that ‘if we play Kaimuki again in the playoffs, you guys are gonna beat ‘em,' " Barit stated with conviction.

Barit's bunch gutted out a 16-14 win over Kalani that was sandwiched around a couple of bye weeks before blasting Kalaheo, 49-15, to go to 2-1 in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division II standings.

Waialua faced a short week of preparation between its Saturday-night home victory over Kalaheo and its Friday-night visit to Ticky Vasconcellos Stadium for a clash with Roosevelt — which had defeated the Bulldogs in a double-overtime thriller the year prior.

"Going into that Roosevelt game the momentum was just building and the kids were thinking positive thoughts. We kind of instilled into the leaders that they need to lead this team, which they did, but I think it all started during the offseason," Barit said.

"They really pushed themselves to lift weights and run and stay in shape, that's what really built the team for 2016. And they really wanted it. After they had their first win and then the second one and after that it all started rolling, they started to believe in themselves."

With no scoring in the first two quarters — and the Rough Riders utilizing a run-heavy offense — the first half took less than half an hour to complete. But that included one costly injury for the visitors.

"We lost our running back, Howard Nahooikaika. He got a concussion," Barit recalled. "He was running down the sideline and he got hammered — I remember that because it happened right in front of me — but the boys just kept on pushing through. We had to settle them down and get them focused and let the trainers tend to Howard."

The Bulldogs offense struggled without Nahooikaika and turned it over on downs multiple times in the first half. Barit said that he had offensive line coach Micah Hatchie address the unit after halftime.

"Roosevelt was playing well defensively, definitely," Barit noted. "But I think what got (the offense) going in the second half was when they came off the field, I'd have him talk to the boys and correct the blocking, which he did."

Hatchie was a highly-sought after offensive tackle himself coming out of Waialua. The 2010 graduate went on to play collegiately at the University of Washington.

It was the Rough Riders, however, who got on the score board first on quarterback Shastyn Kekahuna's 43-yard run about four minutes into the third quarter.

"What I remember is a lot of missed tackles, a lot of two-hand touch. If it was two-hand touch, we would have probably tackled him in the backfield," laughed Barit, who recalled middle linebacker and leading tackler Dayton Kaopua-Lee being double-teamed by a pair of Roosevelt offensive lineman on the play.

"If I'm not mistaken two guys screen him and that was it. I think we stunted on that one and I'm pretty sure he got picked up."

Roosevelt's 7-0 lead held through three quarters. It wasn't until 9:40 left in the game that quarterback Tevesi Toia scored Waialua's first points of the game with his 11-yard TD run on a scramble.

"I remember looking at my (offensive coordinator) and I told him, ‘brah, you better score this one now or you not gonna hear the end of it when we get home' " Barit said of his son, Keoki. "But he called the right play at the right time; it was supposed to be a pass, but (Toia) kept the ball and was flushed out of the pocket so he ran the ball."

Toia gave his team the lead for good with just 2:29 to play on a 20-yard TD pass to Kuni.

"I think Lancen just beat the (defensive back) off the corner; that boy is fast," Barit said of Kuni, who made up for the fact that he never played football before his junior year by rarely coming off the field as a senior. In addition to his duties at wide receiver, Kuni also earned All-OIA D2 First Team honors at both defensive back and returner.

"He was always a basketball player, so we were fortunate to have him come out for football as a junior and senior. I was trying to get him to come out since he was a freshman, but the summer before his junior year he started lifting weights, so that was good and started building his confidence," Barit explained.

But the victory wasn't secured until Emilio Lorenzo's sack of Kekahuna in the final seconds. At the end of the night, Waialua's defense limited Roosevelt to 189 yards of total offense. Kaopua-Lee, who collected league Defensive Player of the Year honors at the end of the season, led the way with 12 1/2 tackles.

"The defense played awesome. Dayton was going to get his nine, 10, 11 tackles and the other guys were going to contribute, too. I think the main thing their year was they played as a team, that concept of ‘one team,' and I think that it showed that they played as a team because even though they lost a starter, everybody came out and picked up the slack and did what they needed to do to get the job done," Barit said.

A week later, however — on Sept. 23 — came a 26-7 defeat on homecoming night at the hands of Waipahu. It would be the last time the Bulldogs found themselves on the losing end of a game until November.

In hindsight, Barit calls it a much-needed wake-up call.

"I think going into that Waipahu game they were a little bit too high," he said. "Coming off of three straight wins and they were too high already and came back down to reality when they lost to Waipahu."

In the wake of the 19-point loss to the Marauders, Barit delivered a familiar postgame talk.

"It was the same thing as our Kaimuki loss: we told them, ‘hey, next time you see them, we're gonna beat them,' " Barit recalled.

The Bulldogs would have their chance at redemption just five weeks later.

After wins over McKinley and Pearl City to conclude the regular season as the third seed in the four-team OIA tournament, Waialua upended second-seeded Kaimuki, 19-14, in the semifinals to set-up a showdown against Waipahu in the title game.

This time around, Barit's boys were ready to go.

"When Waipahu came out of the tunnel in (Aloha) Stadium, you could see our boys wanted it, (whereas) when we played them in our homecoming game, you could see a little bit of fear in them and that's natural for a team when you look across the field and all the guys are 6-feet and 270 pounds, but I told them the second time it was gonna be a little bit different," Barit said.

He was right.

After building a 21-7 lead after the first quarter, Waialua allowed Waipahu to score four of the next five touchdowns to take a 35-29 lead after three quarters. However, just 26 seconds into the final stanza, Toia connected with Risein Campbell on an 8-yard TD pass to even the score before Dylan Hardin knocked through the go-ahead extra point.

Kuni, Julian Fely-Menor and Kymani Ayonon each had an interception and Matthan Hatchie blocked a Waipahu PAT as all three phases contributed to the win for the Bulldogs.

The result was Waialua's first OIA title since 1955, when the league was called the Rural Oahu Interscholastic Association and had just increased from five to six schools with the addition of Kailua. That title was Waialua's fourth in a row and sixth overall. The next one wouldn't come for another 61 years.

"If you look back we made the playoffs about four times and then it took the fifth time to win it," Barit explained. "We usually make the playoffs but would lose in the first round (semifinals), so we just couldn't get over that hump, but this was a veteran group with good leaders. It's always harder after you lose a game to try and pick them up, but we had a veteran team, so they ended up picking up each other and working harder for the next game."

Waialua saw its season end with a 40-0 loss in the first round of the state tournament, but was well-represented in both all-league and all-Hawaii balloting.

In addition to Kaopua-Lee and Kuni, the Bulldogs placed offensive lineman Kapono Kamai and defensive lineman Matthan Hatchie on the All-OIA D2 First Team. Hatchie was also selected as the first team punter.

In his 14th season at Waialua, Barit was tabbed as league Coach of the Year.

Kaopua-Lee earned All-Hawaii First Team defensive honors, while Hatchie and Kuni made the First Team at punter and returner, respectively.