The worst disease that can plague a team, regardless of sport, is Murphy’s law — the old adage that proclaims: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
The worst disease that can plague a team, regardless of sport, is Murphy’s law — the old adage that proclaims: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
Waiakea contracted a terrible case of Murphy’s law against Hawaii Prep, falling 14-13 in a BIIF football game on a windy Saturday at Ken Yamase Memorial Stadium.
The Warriors (1-4, 0-2 BIIF Division I) had seven turnovers, including two that led to Ka Makani scores. HPA (2-1, 1-1 BIIF D-II) had three giveaways.
“When you have that many turnovers and too many mistakes, you’ll rarely see yourself on the winning side,” Waiakea coach Kalei Young said. “Our defense did a good job and kept us alive to the end. But the message to the team is we have to finish.”
In the second quarter, Dean Connors had a seven-yard pick six, and Kamuela Lindsey scored on a 60-yard fumble return.
In the third quarter, Waiakea safety Sean Icari snagged an interception, and quarterback Noah Eblacas later scored on a 2-yard run.
One of the fundamental talking points for coaches is execution or everyone doing their job, Bill Belichick’s famous line.
The opposite of execution is beating yourself, a symptom of Murphy’s law, which struck the Warriors, again, in the decisive fourth quarter.
On fourth and goal, Waiakea’s offensive line provided Eblacas a clean pocket, and he fired a five-yard TD pass to Kingsly Kalili on a crossing route.
Immediately, one bad play followed a good one when someone on the O-line failed to cover a gap, which HPA’s Todd Hill sneaked through for a blocked PAT attempt.
Still, there was more than eight minutes left in the game.
The Warriors had two possessions to smash Murphy’s law, but a fourth-and-1 pass failed from the HPA 20 and a 34-yard field goal attempt went wide left with 1:43 remaining.
It was a frustrating loss for Waiakea, which dominated on both sides of the ball.
From either the spread or full-house backfield (fullback and two split backs), Eblacas rushed for 83 yards on 18 carries, ripping off consistent yards on RPOs (run-pass option).
Waiakea, which moved defenders backward in the trenches with leverage and muscle, finished with 154 yards on 37 attempts, a healthy 4.16-yard average. Kade Kamau added 36 yards on nine carries, and Ka’iolana Kon had 27 yards on four attempts.
HPA recorded zero QB sacks and couldn’t collapse the pocket on obvious passing downs or neutralize short-yardage, third-down runs.
Eblacas went 6 of 20 for 47 yards with a touchdown and four interceptions.
Before jumping to conclusions, Young pointed out that on a few picks receivers stopped their routes or the O-line didn’t angle off their blocks enough.
Meanwhile, Waiakea’s 3-5 defensive front smothered HPA’s ground game to submission to the tune of negative 20 yards on 25 attempts.
When the guards pulled, the Warriors clogged the running lanes and created traffic. When any Ka Makani ball-carrier ran to the perimeter, he was chased down.
That often left Ka Makani QBs Seth Beach and Umi Kealoha in unfriendly passing situations. Beach was 1 of 8 for 29 yards, and Kealoha went 3 of 7 for 36 yards and a pick.
Warrior junior linebacker Able Pacatang had a monster day with two tackles for loss, a QB sack, and a fumble recovery.
Ka Makani sophomore linebacker Jaysen Bragado had two interceptions that changed the momentum. Kealoha had the other pick.
Sophomore kicker/punter Conor Hunt converted both PAT attempts and drilled two beautiful punts, one 57 yards and another for 52 yards that pinned Waiakea at its 7, helping the visitors win field position battles.
On a bigger scale, Connors and Lindsey produced defensive TDs, and Hill blocked a PAT attempt. All three executed, and critical plays can carry a team when not much else is working.
“I liked our heart, and we played hard,” Ka Makani coach Daniel Te’o-Nesheim said.
From a connect-the-dots perspective, two week ago, HPA beat Seabury Hall 27-14 in a preseason game in the Spartans’ first 11-man game on Maui. On Friday, Pahoa defeated the Spartans 28-16 at Keaau High in eight-man football.
HPA had a roster of just 26 players, which featured a lot of two-way players. Waiakea had 58 players.
There’s little doubt that the depth-deficient Ka Makani are rebuilding. But they’re going back to their roots.
Like Te’o-Nesheim, Ka Makani assistant coach Bern Brostek also played in the NFL. Brostek is back with the program, and he’s one of the best at manufacturing collegiate and NFL linemen, including Te’o-Nesheim and Max Unger.
“He’s given me the best advice,” Te’o-Nesheim said of Brostek’s work on the O-line. “He continues to do that for me and the kids. He teaches technique and motivates them. He gets them to play past their comfort level.”
Back in the day when the ground-proficient Ka Makani last won BIIF titles in 2002-04 and ’09, Te’o-Nesheim, Unger, and Shane Brostek (Bern’s son) were O-line bulldozers.
“One of the things I liked is that our line had almost everyone playing the entire game,” Te’o-Nesheim said. “That’s HPA football.”
HPA 0 14 0 0 — 14
Waiakea 0 0 7 6 — 13
Second quarter
HPA — Dean Connors 7 interception return (Conor Hunt kick), 4:27
HPA — Kamuela Lindsey 60 fumble return (Hunt kick), 1:18
Third quarter
Wai — Noah Eblacas 2 run (Ryden Quitoriano kick), 6:37
Fourth quarter
Wai — Kingsly Kalili 5 pass from Eblacas (kick blocked), 8:07.