A season that started out with so much promise quickly became a nightmare out at Kapolei.
The Hurricanes were a comfortable 3-0 when they self reported the use of an ineligible player against Castle, resulting in a forfeit. A 21-point loss to Farrington and an overtime defeat against Leilehua followed, leaving Kapolei suddenly fighting just to make the playoffs.
It wasn’t until a 36-0 shutout of Nanakuli on the final weekend of the regular season that Kapolei clinched a playoff berth.
Yet, here we are on the cusp of yet another OIA quarterfinal game between Kapolei and Kahuku, and both teams will be ranked.
The Hurricanes, which dropped out of the rankings after the first month of the season, are back after a six-week absence at No. 10 in the latest Honolulu Star-Advertiser Football Top 10.
Kapolei (5-4) will play Kahuku, which finished one vote ahead of Mililani for the No. 2 spot, in the OIA quarterfinals for the third time in the last four years.
It will also be the sixth meeting between the two schools since the start of the 2014 season.
No. 1 Saint Louis remained unanimous after a 40-20 victory over No. 4 Punahou, which stayed at No. 4 for the sixth straight week.
Kamehameha remained at No. 5 with Leilehua moving up one spot to No. 6, ahead of No. 7 Waianae.
The Mules hadn’t been ranked in the top six of the Star-Advertiser poll since Week 3 in 2013.
After Campbell’s tougher-than-expected win over Castle in the first round of the OIA playoffs, voters dropped the Sabers from eighth to ninth. Defending Division II state champion Lahainaluna got one more vote than the Sabers to jump up to No. 8.
It’s the highest ranking for the Lunas this season and matches their highest ranking since they were seventh in 2013 before losing in the Division II state semifinals to Kaiser.
The Hurricanes moved into the 10th spot after previous No. 10 Damien lost 19-0 to St. Francis. The Monarchs did not receive a vote this week.
Other teams receiving votes were Waipahu (4), Konawaena (1), Farrington (1), Maui (1) and Hilo (1).
TOP 10 SCHEDULE
FRIDAY, OCT. 13
>> No. 10 Kapolei at No. 2 Kahuku, 7:30 p.m.
>> Moanalua at No. 3 Mililani, 7:30 p.m.
>> No. 4 Punahou vs. No. 5 Kamehameha, 7:30 p.m., Aloha Stadium
>> Farrington at No. 7 Waianae, 7:30 p.m.
SATURDAY, OCT. 14
>> No. 9 Campbell at No. 6 Leilehua, 6:30 p.m.
IDLE: No. 1 Saint Louis, No. 8 Lahainaluna
Honolulu Star-Advertiser Top 10
| FOOTBALL | ||
|---|---|---|
| Updated: 10/23 | ||
| RANK | SCHOOL | VOTES |
| 1. | Kahuku (10) | 100 |
| 2. | Miililani | 86 |
| 3. | Campbell | 81 |
| 4. | Punahou | 73 |
| 5. | Saint Louis | 53 |
| 6. | Kapolei | 50 |
| 7. | Konawaena | 40 |
| 8. | Farrington | 23 |
| 9. | Lahainaluna | 18 |
| 10. | Kamehameha | 8 |
This should be a good game, it’s going to come down to the OC’s play calling. . . IMO. . .
Kapolei getting smashed by Farrington is crazy with the talent Kapolei has. Farrington struggles on offense and Kapolei has stars in defense yet couldn’t stop them from scoring
Defensive TD, fake punt for TD, and a trick play on O. I think that was the 3 tds for Farrington. So can’t single out Kapolei d. More of a credit to Farrington team and its opportunistic play. Kahuku should take this in a low scoring affair. 2 awesome defense will battle. 10-0 Kahuku.
Kahuku defense has been consistent in holding teams to few points, #15 nationaly ranked Bingham only scored 17pts on Kahuku so I dont see Kapolei scoring more then 14pts.
Kahukus run game was non-existent against Campbell so look for Kahuku to rely on the pass game to open things up and probably score. 10-7 Kahuku
Won’t be close…just like all the previous opponents…including those games everyone else was predicting would be close.
Big Red hasn’t lost a home game in 10 years. End of story.
Who do we play after we beat the Mild Trade Winds? Not that it matters. Looking forward to us vs. Trojans in OIA Championship game and then States.
RRFL.
Awrite!! – only 3 of Bingham’s points came from a sustained drive. 14 points from trick plays. Our offense and special teams got outcoached… our D was killing them.
Meke- according to your logic then Kahuku only scored 14pts on Campbell from sustained drives, the other 31 points were defensive/special teams related or generated.
Football works in 3 phases (Off,Def,Specialteams) and its never good for a teams offense to be the weakest of those 3. Kahuku wins games against the weak OIA but as seen against Bingham if the offense is crappy you will not win no matter how tough the defense was. They might beat kapolei but will not beat STL or MILL if the offense cant get its act together soon. Im predicting the offense will get better every week, two of those scoring drives against campbell was pretty sweet so there should be better progress in the coming weeks.
I love how people pretend to be me. I am famous.
I’m gonna go with the sleeper….leilehua. I think they are peaking at the right time, the D is staunt and the O does enough to put up points. There only 2 losses were to kahuku. ( who couldn’t score till the end of 2nd quarter)in the beginning of the season when the team was still trying to find themselves . And millilani who out right beat them.
I think the move they made on the O line were the best moves the team made.
I would not be surprised to see millilani and leilehua play for the championship. I know crazy right!
Oh how I cannot wait for states. If St. Louis wins the ILH and go undefeated they will be the #1 seed which means kahuku and mililani will be 2 and 3. So that means they will play each other twice in 2 weeks. Can’t wait to see everyone complaining about that one. They going know how it feels to play the same good team twice. Lol
Sorry that’s not happening, #2 oia will be on the same side as the ilh champion. The hhsaa will not allow a repeat of the oia championship in the semi-final round. It’s always been that way.
What made Kahuku’so offense is the run and the ability to win in the trenches! They should’ve kept on perfecting the Run game and short passes along with the playaction. That’s what set us apart from everyone. Now they’re playing right into the hands of the ILH teams. The ILH see the pass every day every game! But they Never come up against a physical Run team ,so now you get another New OC who tries to turn Kahuku into a passing team and it’s terrible, plus the ILH will stop Kahuku with no problems! They’re laughing, the whole state is!! But we’ll waste another year because these clowns just don’t get it. We Breed Runners! Look at every State Tittle we won,it was by the run! So Coaches get your head out of your A $$%! It’s not too late! Ken Nuimatalolo stresses the run,repetition over aND over again, Dominate the Trenches! Wake UP Before it’s Too late. Solvay isn’t a strong passer, he’s a running QB!
Going have too much cry babies that’s why. They should’ve let in one more ILH instead of the third place oia team. That’s why the states going suck because going have one boring blow out game. As a fan wouldn’t you rather see kahuku or mililani vs punahou or kamehameha instead of the 3rd place oia team. They should seed it that way since the oia when cry and threaten to pull out of the open.
The game is not played for the fans, its for the players to enjoy their high school careers and work toward college. The OIA and ILH are doing things based on whats best for their own leagues. The ILH is the bully that is treating the OIA like a punching bag so that their ILH kids can get more benefit then the OIA kids. OIA recognized the “use and abuse” treatment and is telling the ILH to shove it.
The only game that fans should worry about is the championship game and when that happens the best team in the state will win it. Unless of course its Kahuku then the ILH going cry and say Kahuku has a weak schedule and should play Pun/KAM mulitple times in order to deserve a state title.
Awrite…. last time I checked they changed the format because St. Louis won.
Recruit dis – check again.
The originally changed the format because Big Red was winning and ILH was crying. OIA had to let it go for a season…but as I predicted over a year ago, they exercised their considerable influence on this year’s playoffs – because they have the leverage due to their size, and ILH doesn’t.
If HHSAA doesn’t get their act together, pretty soon there will be no “State Playoffs”…because OIA is not bound to that organization. They can just do their OIA playoffs and engineer a Prep Bowl scenario directly with ILH and HHSAA will be left out.
Duh.
If StL. wins ILH outright then they should play OIA #2 in States semis, then play OIA #1 for the State championship. That way they can say they beat the best. Nobody wants to see the OIA championship again, disguise in a state semi game. The forces that organized that “open”fiasco last year made it so #1 Kahuku would play Punahou and St.Louis. They didn’t count on Kapolei upsetting Punahou.
RR and Lulu’s defense are great, its the team with the least crappy offense that will win.
In other words, field position battle to get a short field for your offense.
Check again- they changed it back because ILH won and to top it off OIA now has less entries into the state tournament from a year ago. Awesome job.
OF RRFL, you are so right in your assessment. The DNA of Kahuku is smash mouth,elephant,pound the rock ball. 300 lb.offensive line, 260lb TE and RBS blocking down. Alabama always go RUN first. The best defense for a high flying passing offense is keeping them on the sidelines. The establish run does this.
Toomeke….. if the oia pulled out that would be the stupidest thing they ever did. Nobody would want to watch high school football because you would see the same schools playing each other . Duh….
Remember we are talking about high school football and the only ones going lose out are the kids.
Coach c…. I hope St. Louis plays mililani and kahuku that way nobody can make any excuses when they win. If you look at there schedule the only team unranked was Baldwin and everybody else in the top ten. Now that’s a real schedule.
@schmuck
Was referring to the oia championship