OIA Football
Surfriders send out seniors with down-to-the-wire win over title game-bound Aiea


  



Fri, Dec 3, 2021 @ Kailua [ 7:00 pm ]


Final 1 2 3 4 T
Aiea (4-3-0) 0 6 0 713
Kailua (2-4-0) 0 0 0 1414
Romeo Ortiz 133 yd
Ezekiel Olie 207 yd 2 TD
Romeo Ortiz 56 yd 1 TD
Japheth Lilo 64 yd
Jheremie Cacpal 114 yd 1 TD

KAILUA — The Kailua football team closed out its season with a bang Friday night. 

Keoni Williams blocked a field goal and Pomaikai Konohia returned it 75 yards for the game-tying score and then Theodor Bierbrauer kicked the go-ahead extra point to help Kailua rally to a 14-13 win over visiting Aiea on a chilly evening at Alex Kane Stadium. 

The game-turning sequence — after Na Alii (3-2) seemingly had the game in-hand with a 13-0 lead and under six minutes to play — took place with only three minutes and 38 seconds left on the clock and gave the Surfriders (2-4 overall, 2-3 league) their first and only lead of the night. 

After Kailua finally got on the board with quarterback Romeo Ortiz's 1-yard touchdown run on a naked bootleg with 5:11 remaining in the fourth quarter, Aiea picked up 47 yards on a short pass from Ezekiel Olie to Jheremie Cacpalon the first play of its ensuing possession. 

However, after three consecutive plays of no gain, Na Alii marched kicker Bryson Boyea Quiton to attempt a 27-yard field goal from the right hash. However, his kick was blocked by Williams, who came off of the left edge to bat it down. After a few seconds of confusion, Konohia picked up the football and ran away from everyone else for the touchdown. 

"We needed it and I mean, things happen for a reason and maybe the football gods of Alex Kane Stadium were with us for that one because that normally don't happen," Surfriders coach Hauoli Wong said. 

Williams, one of the team's 13 seniors who were recognized after Friday night's game, said his fellow members of the class of 2022 were his motivation on the blocked kick. 

"I knew it was my last time on this field with all my boys and I was telling myself, ‘We can't lose this,' " he recalled, in an almost dream-like state. "I went all out and I woke up to us scoring," 

Aiea coach Wendell Say was of the opinion that the play was blown dead by a member of the officiating crew before Konohia scooped up the pigskin. 

"That's why they didn't pick it up and then all of a sudden they picked the ball up and ran and nobody blows the whistle," Say said. "I mean, that's my curiosity I was asking the ref — ‘Wait, one guy blew a whistle?' — but, you know, (it) happens, I guess, and it always happens against us."

The loss, however, was really of no consequence for Na Alii, who have a date with No. 13 Moanalua (4-1) in next Saturday's Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I championship game. 

Still, a week after Say's squad clinched its spot in the title game with a convincing 38-7 win over Waipahu, it left much to be desired with its performance Friday night — when it was held to season-lows in both points and total yards. 

Kailua quarterback Romeo Ortiz scored on this play to get the home team on the scoreboard late in the fourth quarter against Aiea. Greg Yamamoto | SL    Purchase image

"The takeaway is we cannot make mistakes like we did and expect to win," Say expressed. "We gotta cut out those mistakes and be sharper. We beat ourselves, we shouldn't have put yourselves in that situation. I mean, Kailua is a good team, they're tough; every team in our division is tough, so you cannot take anybody lightly."

Aiea got the ball back with 3:24 to play near midfield after a 35-yard kickoff return by Kane Lorenzana. After Olie threw incompletions on first and second downs, he connected with Jayden Chanel for a 7-yard pass on third to set-up fourth-and-3, but running back Kaimana Lale-Saole was stopped for no gain on the run and Na Alii turned it over on downs. 

That gave Kailua possession of the ball with 2:31 remaining. The Surfriders ran the ball three straight times to leave fourth-and-2 from the Na Alii 45-yard line. After Aiea used its final timeout to stop the clock with 1:13 left, Ortiz was able to draw the defense offsides for a crucial encroachment penalty that essentially sealed it for Kailua, which was able to take a knee twice after the first down-by-penalty to run out the clock. 

It was a rather ironic clincher after the Surfriders had been stung throughout the game by 11 penalties (for 112 yards) — including five times for being offsides. 

Wong credited quarterbacks coach Noah Auld for drawing it up. 

"He said, ‘Hey, let's go on two,' and I didn't know what he was talking about and I said, ‘Wait, hold on, I'm gonna bring my tight end in here and we're gonna make like we're gonna run it out here,' and it was a good call; that's why we got the staff that we have, we listen to each other," Wong shared. 

Kailua won the game despite losing the turnover battle, 3-0. Ortiz was intercepted twice in the first half and early in the fourth quarter, Japheth Lilo lost a fumble after a completed pass from Ortiz. Wong's team was out-gained in total yards, 232 to 220, by Na Alii.

"To me, it's a testament to my coaching staff and how we prepare these kids and how resilient and how they pay attention to detail and how they come every day — Nobody ever did complain, nobody ever did point no finger, nobody ever did cry, nobody ever did complain about playing time — it was just come out here, bring your lunch pail and go to work," Wong said. 

After an 0-4 start to the season, the Surfriders put together back-to-back victories to end the year following their 30-13 win over rival Castle last week. Although they were already mathematically eliminated from playoff contention entering Friday's game against Aiea, the win was an important one nonetheless for Wong and his players. 

"It was super big for us because this is the team — for the last three weeks we had the bye, then we had Castle, then we had Aiea — this is the team that we should have had in the beginning," he said. 

"Before the shutdown this is what we had and in our division, I felt I had a really good shot, but you know what, I mean, things happen and we couldn't have this team in the beginning, so hey, we had to roll with what we had. We coach who's here and as they come up, come back we just got stronger and stronger as the season went along," Wong added. 

One of those players who missed earlier action this season was Williams. 

"Coming into this game as a senior, I was just thinking that I ain't trying to go out with Kailua losing, especially to a good team like (Aiea) — all props, they was a good team, but we was Kailua," Williams said. "We wasn't strong the first couple games that we had, but now that we was at full strength, I wanted to pay the boys back because I wasn't with them all those games with this dub, so that was for my boys."

Ortiz finished 12-of-20 passing for 133 yards and also ran for a game-high 56 yards on nine carries. 

After a scoreless first quarter, Aiea struck first with Olie's 18-yard touchdown pass to Jayden Chanel with 2:52 left until halftime. The two-point conversion was no good and the 6-0 lead held until the 7:02 mark of the fourth quarter, when Olie and Cacpal hooked up for a 44-yard TD pass five plays after defensive lineman Sila Unutoa recovered a Kailua fumble. 

On the scoring play, Olie tossed a short pass to a crossing Cacpal, who picked up a key block on the edge from Chanel that sprung him free for the touchdown. Quiton added the PAT to make it a 13-0 lead for the visitors, but Williams returned the ensuing kickoff 48 yards all the way to Na Alii 31-yard line. 

Two plays into their drive, Kailua picked up a big chunk with a 23-yard pass from Ortiz to Quiton and three plays after that Ortiz scampered into the end zone with his 1-yard keeper. 

"They're a good team, they deserve to win. We beat ourselves," said Say, who now has a week to prepare his team for the opportunity to claim just its second league football crown and first since 2003. 

"Oh yeah, I mean, you know, the good thing is the mistakes are correctable. Every mistake we made is correctable," Say said. 

Aiea played without a handful of players, including leading receiver and junior slotback Geronimo Ulgaran, who ranks third in the OIA D1 with 447 receiving yards. 

Wong's team has faced both Aiea and Moanalua in the past four weeks; Na Menehune handed the Surfriders a 21-7 defeat at Kane Stadium on Nov. 12. 

He anticipates a highly-competitive game between Na Alii and Na Menehune when they face-off next weekend. 

"It's gonna be tough because they're two really good teams and, you know, it's the revenge game and who can make the adjustments and who can create the turnovers, especially in a playoff atmosphere," Wong said. 

But Friday night was about his team, specifically the senior class. 

"We're just happy for these seniors to send them out the right way tonight," Wong said. 



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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