After face-planting opponents into the ground all season, Hilo High’s football team finally began in a hole.
Cardboard photo cutouts of the Vikings’ 23 seniors in their yellow uniforms were positioned into the infield grass prior to Friday night’s regular-season finale at Wong Stadium.
It was a nice touch, and, as it turned out, the only new look of the night.
The Viks were magisterial once again, and the BIIF Division I championship preview against Konawaena served as only latest the reminder that a seventh consecutive league title appears all but inevitable – and they show no signs of stopping there. Kilohana Haasenritter hauled in three of Kyan Miyasato’s four touchdown passes as Hilo rolled to a 45-7 victory, vowing to follow its dominating recipe before the teams reconvene at Wong on Nov. 2 for the title game.
“What is it, we’re 10-0?” coach Kaeo Drummondo said. “We beat them twice, but we have to do it again, so we have to show up to practice (Monday) ready to go.”
The Wildcats (8-2) could have wrestled away home-field advantage with a 44-point victory – kind of an absurd notion considering the Vikings have allowed only 34 points in league play all season – so for all intents and purposes the game didn’t technically matter.
Drummondo doesn’t deal with such technicalities.
“Every game matters, if we’re out here playing, it matters,” he said. “It’s not even about how I think they played tonight, it’s all about the approach during practice. If the game doesn’t matter, we’re not going to practice all week.”
What mattered most afterward was paying homage to his seniors, a group, Drummondo said, that reminds him a lot of his history-making 2017 bunch. A senior-heavy Hilo squad delivered the program its only state title two years ago. Last season, the Vikings lost in the HHSAA championship game.
“I think we both had the same amount of work ethic, and we’re both hungry,” senior defensive lineman Joshua Niro. “We both had a chip on our shoulder wanting to win it. (The 2017 class), the year before they lost at states, too.”
Konawaena dressed 28 players, so even if coach Brad Uemoto wanted to take this game easy, he couldn’t have.
“We played to win,” he said. “We just have to work on execution.”
The Wildcats’ complete lack of offensive execution didn’t give its defense much of a chance. Konawaena’s first 12 plays went for 0 or negative yardage, and it was in danger of finishing in the negative until Kaden Baptista caught a long touchdown pass from Kainoa “Boo” Jones to cap the scoring late in the fourth quarter.
Hilo was looking for its eighth shutout, a list that includes a 43-0 win at Kealakekua on Sept. 20
“We prepared the same,” Niro said. “We watch film and study them.” After that, it’s “just alignment and assignment.”
Uemoto’s program prides itself on facing stiff challenges. Konawaena went to Oahu last season to play Kahuku, and earlier this season they took on Mission Viejo (Calif.).
Uemoto said Hilo deserves every bit of its top-five state ranking. However, he said, “At the end of the day there aren’t any excuses, but we had a bad week of practice and that didn’t help. Our field is trash, it’s hard to get anything going.
“This late in the year, we should be executing a lot better. Defensively, we played well, but we stay on the field for the majority of the game. Something’s going to give, and it’s giving.”
Before checking out midway through the third quarter, Miyasato, a senior, completed 13 of 23 passes for 261 yards and has thrown 21 touchdown passes since his last interception – five weeks ago in the win at Konawaena – giving him 37 TD passes against just three picks on the season.
Haasenritter, a senior and the 2018 BIIF Division II offensive player of the year, caught three touchdown passes for the second consecutive week, making six receptions for 136 yards. His 10 scoring grabs tied him for the team lead with senior Fiki Aguiar. The 2018 BIIF Division I offensive player of the year was responsible for the touchdown that sent Hilo to the second quarter leading 7-0.
“I don’t even care about my stats, as long as the team wins, I’m good with that,” Aguiar said. “I just love my brothers.”
Lyle Silva, a sophomore, ran for 91 yards and a score.
Hilo lost the turnover battle 3-2, but it stuffed Konawaena after losing the ball twice on special team’s miscues. Junior Kapana Kanae-Kane had two interceptions for the Vikings.
When the teams return to Wong for the final, those cardboard photo cutouts will be gone. The seniors on a mission will be back.
“When it’s all said and done, it’s a group I’m definitely going to miss,” Drummondo said. “But they’ve got a lot more work to do. We don’t want our journey to be done.”
Konawaena 0 0 0 7 – 7
Hilo 7 24 7 7 – 45
First quarter
Hilo – Fiki Aguiar 9 pass from Kyan Miyasato (Keanu Keolanui kick)
Second quarter
Hilo – FG Keolanui 25
Hilo – Lyle Silva 1 run (Keolanui kick)
Hilo – Kilohana Haasenritter 32 pass from Miyasato (Keolanui kick)
Hilo – Haasenritter 67 pass from Miyasato (Keolanui kick)
Third quarter
Hilo – Haasenritter 23 pass from Miyasato (Keolanui kick)
Fourth quarter
Hilo – Don Moody 14 run (Masila Siua kick)
Hilo – Kaden Baptista 79 pass from Kainoa “Boo” Jones (Ro’o Satta-Ellis kick)