KEAAU — Kamehameha senior quarterback Micah Kanehailua played San Antonio Spurs basketball on the football field against Kealakehe on Friday night.
The philosophy of the reigning NBA champion Spurs is to make the extra pass, turning a good shot into a great one. Under coach Gregg Popovich, teamwork is San Antonio’s best weapon.
It’s a little different on the gridiron because a quarterback usually passes the ball only once, unless it’s a trick play. But to compare the two sports, basketball’s ball-movement would be equivalent to football’s progression reads, a QB scanning the field for the most open receiver.
Behind Kanehailua’s patient-and-precise passing attack, the Warriors defeated the bigger and taller Waveriders 35-21 in a Big Island Interscholastic Federation game that didn’t seem as close as a two-touchdown score would indicate.
An energetic packed house at Paiea Stadium watched Kanehailua complete 24 of 38 passes for 374 yards with five touchdowns and no picks. (There were three drops.) On four of his scoring strikes, he went through all his reads, each lasting at least three seconds. For a quarterback, that’s an eternity.
With that much time to throw, one thing always happens: routes are worn down, so receivers have to improvise to get open, and they and the QB need to be on the same page. It helps to have a veteran such as Kanehailua, a three-year starter, who’s willing to get clocked to buy his guys a hair of extra time.
And here’s where the teamwork part comes in for football. A quarterback has to trust his offensive line to provide enough protection, so he can keep his eyes downfield. The Warriors allowed no sacks, and on two of his TD throws Kanehailua scrambled out of trouble. It helps to be mobile, and even better to be able to sense when the pocket is collapsing.
“I saw their linebackers coming and my line gave me a pocket that was comfortable and good enough where I could step up,” Kanehailua said. “The key was keeping my eyes downfield, something I didn’t do in the first two games. I trusted my O-line, and I loved the way they formed the pocket. Even when the rush came hard on the edge, I could roll out.
“It helps to have senior receivers because when they break their routes we know each other. I had only one direct touchdown throw. All the others I scanned the field and went from left to right or right to left. They’ll find a way to get open, and I always have a safety valve in Alapaki Iaea.”
What also made the aerial attack so effective was Kanehailua spreading the ball around to his top threats: Bayley Manliguis (nine catches, 109 yards, two TDs); Grant Shiroma (4, 72, 1 TD); Caleb Baptiste (3, 52, 1 TD); and Iaea (4, 51, 1 TD).
Manliguis, with that famous local surname, is better known for basketball. He’s quickly becoming Kanehailua’s favorite target.
“He just goes hard on every play,” Kanehailua said. “On run plays, he’ll block two or three guys, and he gives his all. He gets open because he works so hard.”
It helps to have a running game, too, not only to offer balance to keep the opposition on its toes, but, more importantly, to chew up the clock and give your defense time to catch a breather.
Speaking of catching your breath, that’s not the case for Kamehameha senior Pono Davis, who plays on the offensive and defensive lines. More on him later.
Chase Peneku led the way with 74 yards on 19 carries and Kaeo Batacan added 42 yards on 10 attempts for Kamehameha, which finished with 539 yards of offense.
It was a long night for the Warriors (2-1) and Waveriders (2-1) because the game didn’t start until 8:10 p.m. Kealakehe’s bus broke down on the way to Hilo.
The Waveriders left most of their offense, especially their ground game, back in West Hawaii. They rushed for 41 yards on 33 carries, a 1.2-yard average. Tuitahi Faleofa-Taumoefolau had 19 yards on six attempts; no one else reached double-digits.
The power-running glory days of Kealakehe, which won seven BIIF Division I titles in nine years from 2004 to ‘12, seem like a long ago memory. As something of a school tradition, there is pretty good size on the offensive line, but not the run production from years past.
Senior quarterback Kaimi Wilson was 11 of 26 for 122 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions. Sequoia Iona went 1 of 8 for 35 yards with a TD. That was about it for the offense, which piled up 198 yards.
Davis was a defensive nightmare. He’s 6 feet 1 and 265 pounds, smaller than Kealakehe’s offensive linemen. That didn’t matter a lick because Davis recorded three sacks, and two tackles for loss while terrorizing the backfield with his nonstop motor.
“He’s an animal and his conditioning is great to go two ways,” Kanehailua said. “He goes hard on every single play. He makes a lot of plays because he wants it more, and he plays with a lot of heart.”
In the first half, Kanehailua showed that when he gets on a roll and nice rhythm with his receivers he’s pretty much unstoppable.
He engineered one long drive (55 yards on nine plays) and a quick-strike one (58 yards on three plays) in the second quarter to lift the Warriors to a 21-14 lead at halftime.
The first scoring drive displayed Kanehailua’s poise and mobility. He scanned the field, went through his progressions, and danced away from a rush before he tossed a 6-yard touchdown to Manliguis.
On the second scoring spurt, the Warriors went with a fast-paced tempo, and needed just three plays. Kanehailua’s O-line provided a comfortable pocket and he went through his reads from left to right before he fired a fastball to a wide open Iaea for a 32-yard scoring strike.
That score was a classic Spurs play. Kanehailua had a receiver loosely covered, but he didn’t pull the trigger until he switched his options from a good opening to a great one. The result was a 21-14 lead, and a snowball’s worth of momentum.
Preston Kalai followed with an onside kick, and the Warriors recovered but couldn’t score despite reaching Kealakehe’s 1-yard line.
In something of a hair-pulling stat for the Waveriders, they had 13 possessions and 10 times started from at least their 40-yard line. Despite all those great starting points, the visitors managed just three touchdowns.
In the third quarter, Kanehailua wiggled away from a Kealakehe pass rush, and whipped a 13-yard scoring strike to Baptiste. He later threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Shiroma for a 35-14 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
The Warriors finished with six sacks to Kealakehe’s zero. They could have had about three or four more if their pass rushers beelined at the quarterback’s outside shoulder, keeping him in the middle of traffic, instead of allowing a perimeter run.
But that’s small potatoes, especially on a night when Kanehailua turned Paiea Stadium into a festive aerial fireworks show.
In the junior varsity game, it was Kamehameha 20, Kealakehe 7.
Kealakehe 0 14 0 7 — 21 Kamehameha 7 14 14 0 — 35
First quarter
KSH —Bayley Manliguis 3 pass from Micah Kanehailua (Kaia Mueller kick), 4:34
Second quarter
Kea — Riggs Kurashige 11 pass from Kaimi Wilson (Ari Mench kick), 11:42
Kea — Kurashige 1 run (Mench kick), 6:38
KSH — Manliguis 6 pass from Kanehailua (Preston Kalai kick), 3:19
KSH — Alapaki Iaea 32 pass from Kanehailua (Kalai kick), 1:04
Third quarter
KSH — Caleb Baptiste 13 pass from Kanehailua (kick failed), 8:00
KSH — Grant Shiroma 20 pass from Kanehailua (Chase Peneku run), :31
Fourth quarter
Kea — Kurashige 29 pass from Sequoia Iona (Mench kick), 5:26
