By JOE FERRARO
By JOE FERRARO
Stephens Media
KAILUA-KONA — For Kamehameha-Kapalama quarterback Makoa Camanse-Stevens, the Warriors’ goals for a brief stay in Kailua-Kona were simple: take care of business Friday night and spend a morning at the beach the following day.
Thanks in large part to Camanse-Stevens’ performance at Waverider Stadium, the Warriors ensured themselves of enjoying that trip to the beach to the fullest.
Camanse-Stevens threw for 160 yards and two touchdowns, and rushed for two touchdowns as Kamehameha defeated Kealakehe 34-0 in a nonconference football game.
“The coaches told us all the time, it’s strictly business,’’ Camanse-Stevens said of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu team’s trip to the Big Island.
Camanse-Stevens, who completed 8 of 13 passes, said the Warriors (2-1), believing they had an edge in athleticism over Kealakehe (1-1), thought they could throw the ball deep. That’s exactly what Kamehameha did.
One play after Raymond Pedrina returned a punt 24 yards, Camanse-Stevens found an uncovered Austin Gerard streaking down the right sideline for a 39-yard touchdown reception.
Camanse-Stevens went deep again on first play of Kamehameha’s next drive, hooking up with Pedrina for a 63-yard catch-and-run that set up Camanse-Stevens’ 2-yard TD run and gave the Warriors a 14-0 advantage with 4 minutes, 25 seconds left in the first quarter.
“We knew (Kealakehe was) way bigger than us, and we wanted to take advantage of our conditioning,’’ Camanse-Stevens said.
Kealakehe tried taking advantage of that size — its offensive line averages more than 300 pounds per man — with a mix of a power running game and a spread offense that included short, crisp passes
However, miscues disrupted the Waveriders’ most effective drives.
Kealakehe embarked on a 15-play drive that started at the tail end of the first quarter and ate up the first 7 minutes of the second quarter.
Senior quarterback Jordan Cristobal found Vincent Paogofie down the right sideline for a 34-yard pass play, giving the Waveriders a first down on the Warriors’ 10-yard line.
But an incompletion and a bad snap that led to a sack forced Kealakehe to try a 46-yard field goal that junior Keoni Yates missed.
On their next drive, Kealakehe drove down to the Kamehameha 24, but Yates missed a 41-yarder wide right with 1:27 left in the first half.
The Waveriders, who mustered just 135 yards of offense, did not get into Kamehameha territory thereafter until the final drive of the game.
Senior quarterback Jordan Cristobal, who suffered an ankle injury two weeks ago and did not practice with the Waveriders until Tuesday, completed 9 of 16 passes for 95 yards.
“I was encouraged that we were able to run our spread offense with Jordan Cristobal — run if there’s trouble and complete a (high) percentage of passes,’’ Kealakehe coach Sam Papalii said.
However, Papalii said the Waveriders need to limit the number of mistakes they made against the Warriors.
Kamehameha scored its third touchdown when they recovered a Waverider fumble on the Kealakehe 14, setting up a five-play scoring drive Camanse-Stevens capped with a 4-yard touchdown run.
“We don’t like losing like that,’’ Papalii said. “We had opportunities to score, we just didn’t take advantage of them.
“We’ll be a good team. We just need to put in the work.’’