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WAIANAE - Puletua Wilson was at his best Friday night.

The Wai'anae quarterback threw for 245 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for another to lead his team to a 34-16 win over Kealakehe in a first-round game of the First Hawaiian Bank/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I State Tournament.

A crowd of about 1,200 at the Seariders' Raymond Torii Field saw their team improve to 5-7 and advance to Friday's semifinal round, where it will meet Mililani for a third time this season. The Waveriders, Big Island Interscholastic Federation champions, saw their season come to an end at 10-2.

"This feels good because a lot of people, they look at us and even though we had a bad record, they think we have no chance in the state, but tonight we proved that Waianae can compete in the states," Wilson said.

The Seariders scored the first 28 points of the game and enjoyed a 28-3 halftime lead, thanks in part to a pair of Kealakehe fumbles.

"Once we start rolling, we keep rolling, nothing can stop us," Wilson said. "You gotta come hard if you like stop us. Our train could be going 170, but you gotta be going 180 to stop us."

The Seariders picked up most of its yards through the air behind Wilson, who was 9-of-12 passing. The 6-foot-1, 185-pound senior completed his first seven attempts and threw touchdown passes of 6, 30 and 43 yards - all in the first half. Wai'anae finished with 392 yards of total offense, including 147 on the ground.

"We just came out firing and doing our assignments, executing it the way we worked on it," Wilson said.

His third pass TD gave Waianae a 28-0 lead, but Kealakehe answered with 10 straight points. Junior Tyler Yates booted a 41-yard field goal just before halftime and he threw a 35-yard scoring strike to Jacob Ontiveros midway through the third quarter to cut Waianae's lead to 28-10.

"It was a sloppy second half. Somehow we lost focus, both players and coaches and that kind of thing we've got to look out for because if we throw how we did in the second half, it's going to be hard to win (against Mililani)," Wai'anae coach Dan Matsumoto said.

The first four possessions of the game resulted in a fumble and three punts before the Seariders got on the board with a 17-yard run by fullback Bryson Panui. He took the dive from Wilson and went untouched up the middle to paydirt. The play was set-up by a 48-yard pass from Wilson to Ho'okena Kamana. The extra point was no good.

Waianae took advantage of a Kealakehe turnover on its next drive and drove 85 yards on seven plays to extend its lead to 12-0. Jaylen Mitchell hauled in a 40-yard pass from Wilson on a third down and Mitchell picked up 31 yards two plays later to set-up first-and-goal from the Waveriders' 10-yard line. Two plays later, Wilson found tight end Malei Suiaunoa wide open on a bootleg pass in the back of the end zone.

Another Kealakehe fumble gave the hosts possession from the Waverider 30. Wilson connected with Keola Bradley on a 30-yard, play-action pass on the very next play to make the score 18-0 with 5:57 left in the second quarter. Wilson also ran in the ensuing two-point conversion.

"I'm glad he's been progressing each game," Matsumoto said of Wilson. "I guess he's starting to see what we want him to do and he's actually executing our plays well. He's learned a lot, he's gained a lot of confidence and I think he carried the team well."

The Seariders' defense forced a three-and-out on Kealakehe's next drive and extended its lead with a six-play, 80-yard drive that was highlighted by Wilson's third TD pass of the first half, a 43-yarder to Kamana, who went untouched on a wide receiver screen play. Wilson's pass two-point conversion pass to Panui was complete to make it 28-0 with 2:01 until halftime.

Kealakehe got on the board with Yates' 41-yard field goal as time expired in the second quarter to make it 28-3 at the intermission.

Wilson scored on 1-yard run late in the third quarter, which made it 34-10, before Kealakehe's Psalm Wooching closed the scoring with a 1-yard plunge with 4:46 left to play.

Yates finished 22 of 40 for 217 yards passing. The Waveriders were held to 51 rushing yards on 32 attempts and were 7-of-17 on third-down conversions.

See also:
> Student Voices: Wilson, Waianae progressing each game