KEAAU – They inaugurated a new field surface at Paiea Stadium on Saturday night with a kind of musical chairs approach to the offense, and by the end of the night, Kamehameha made the evening a winning celebration. ADVERTISING KEAAU
KEAAU – They inaugurated a new field surface at Paiea Stadium on Saturday night with a kind of musical chairs approach to the offense, and by the end of the night, Kamehameha made the evening a winning celebration.
The Warriors evened their preseason record at 1-1 with a convincing 23-0 victory over Maui, dropping the depleted Sabres to 0-2.
Along the way, coach Dan Lyons got a look at an assortment of offensive possibilities after rotating three quarterbacks and a trio of running backs in various situations that had a corrosive effect on the Maui defenders.
Junior Kaimialoha Like is considered the returning starter, and he did start the game but seniors Israel Bowden and Michael Jumalon also got a selection of snaps in certain run-oriented packages. Like is more the passer, the others have different running skills that proved effective against Maui.
“We’re taking a look at a lot of different things right now,” Lyons said. “It’s preseason, so we’re seeing what kinds of things we have and as we go along, we’ll have plenty to consider.”
In the first half, 10 penalties gave the Warriors plenty to consider, but they still managed a 3-0 lead on the strength of a 30-yard field goal by Justin Kenoi with 1:05 remaining in the first quarter.
The field goal came at the end of a 12-play, 61-yard drive that was kept alive by a pass interference penalty, one of only two against the Sabres in the first half. On second-and-10 from the 24, Jumalon crashed his way for 15 yards to the 9, but the drive stalled. The Warriors had a delay penalty that moved them back to the 13 before Kenoi added the three points.
The margin was boosted to 10-0 with 8:54 remaining in the third quarter when senior Richard Lindsey found an opening and ran in from the 1, to finish off a 12-play, 72-yard drive that started with Bowden at quarterback, finding some holes to run through and occasionally tossing to Kilohana Hassenritter, finding him for a 17-yard gain to the Sabres’ 8 on the last play of the third quarter.
“It’s a tough thing to see,” said Sabres coach Rodney Figueroa, “we have about 20 kids out right now, most of them injured, some have academic issues. We’ve had broken ankles, all kinds of things in practices and games that have really messed things up for us.”
Asked if the second game was an improvement over the first, a 22-7 loss to Kapaa, Figueroa was hard-pressed for an answer.
“I’m trying to figure that out,” he said. “We’re moving guys to new positions, a lot of them are playing offense and defense and most of the starters are on special teams, so I’m still trying to make sense out of it all, but I know they are playing hard and you can’t ask for much more under the circumstances.”
Bowden impacted the game a few minutes later with 30-yard punt return that set the Warriors up at the Maui 8. One play later, Like hit sophomore Izayah Chartrand-Penera, uncovered in the end zone and Kenoi’s kick made it 17-0 with 6:43 remaining. The final score was achieved after a bad punt snap gave Kamehameha the ball at the Sabres’ 4. Bryce Furili ran it in from the 2, but the extra point failed.
“We’re more together now,” Like said after the game. “We weren’t really all on the same page (at Kauai), but this was definitely a step in the right direction.”
Like finished with 6-of-19 for 44 yards and the scoring play.
On the ground, Furuli ran nine time for 41 yards with the TD, Lindsey had eight carries for 26 with a score and Bowden carried 4 times for 27 yards.
