HONOKAA — Behind a stingy defensive effort and 251 yards and four touchdowns from quarterback Kainoa “Boo” Jones, Konawaena rolled over Honokaa 60-0 on Friday night.
It was the Wildcats largest margin of victory since a 91-8 win over Ka‘u in 2012.
All of Jones’ touchdowns came in the first half. He connected with wide receiver Jesse Canda four times for a whopping 140 yards and two touchdowns. Honokaa finished with less than 50 yards of offense, the longest play of the night being a 14-yard carry from Richard Reinbolt.
Konawaena’s first quarter included four touchdowns, 144 yards of nearly unstoppable offense, two fumble recoveries and an interception. The Dragons managed just seven yards of offense and the only first down they picked up over the first 12 minutes was because a Konawaena player drew an unsportsmanlike flag for doing push-ups after dropping a sure pick-six.
The front-seven of the Wildcats overwhelmed Honokaa’s mosh pit of an offense, with linebacker Samson Iona and defensive tackle AJ Alani causing the most disruption in the backfield early.
Jones and Canda connected for the longest play of the night in the second quarter. Jones lobbed a perfectly placed ball just over the Honokaa defenders and Canda scampered untouched into the end zone for an 89-yard score.
Just a few plays later, the defense got in on the action, with Iona picking up a fumble on one hop and finding the end zone for a scoop and score TD.
Maui Ellis-Noa added another defensive score just before half, ripping the ball out and being escorted by a horde of his fellow defenders 64 yards to make it 47-0 at the half.
With a running clock in the second half and both teams content to run the ball, there was little action the rest of the way.
Sophomore Kaden Baptista had two four quarter rushing touchdowns in QB relief duty.