Looking back at Waianae’s last win over Kahuku

It’s a rivalry, no doubt. A rivalry that has been dominated for over a decade by the guys from the North Shore.

Kahuku and Waianae meet Saturday night at Aloha Stadium with the OIA Red division championship at stake. Two storied programs that have remained true to what they’ve always been about, smashmouth football at its finest.

First-year coach Walter Young has done a great job coming back from a season-opening 20-point loss to Kamehameha to run the table through league play to this point. Waianae has done it in impressive fashion, scoring at least 50 points in each of its last four games with eight different players rushing for at least 133 yards.

That offensive success will be put to the test against a Kahuku team that has given up just 22 points THE ENTIRE SEASON. Average that out and the Red Raiders just need to score more than a field goal to top the 3.1 points allowed.

The Kahuku-Waianae rivalry goes way back and was intensified by the eight meetings from 1982 to 2000 in the OIA championship game. Kahuku won that 2000 title game, 32-13, and subsequently has won the next 13 meetings on the field (Kahuku had to forfeit the 2010 game).

Waianae’s last win over the Red Raiders came two months earlier in that 2000 season at Aloha Stadium. Kahuku outgained the Seariders 326-73 in yards but the Seariders pulled out the 12-7 win being opportunistic on defense.

Kahuku turned the ball over seven times with Waianae defensive back Kekoa Reyes intercepting Kahuku QB Inoke Funaki three times. Waianae’s two touchdowns came after linebacker Brian Lave forced a fumble and defensive lineman Rommel Reed recovered a second fumble at the Kahuku 5.

Graen Enriquez caught an 8-yard TD pass from QB Brandon Lopes and Peter Sarono scored the game-winner on a 1-yard TD run out of that wishbone offense the Seariders have perfected over the years.

Kahuku threw the ball 35 times that game, which surely won’t happen Saturday. The Seariders won’t put up the 73.7 points they are averaging over their last three games either.

Both teams are going to line up behind their big boys up front and try to cram it down the throats of the opposing defenses. It’s not the kind of football we’ve grown accustomed to seeing in the new pass-happy spread style off football that is dominating the game today, but it should be just as good.

This will be Young’s first opportunity to go at Kahuku as Waianae’s head coach. The man he replaced, Daniel Matsumoto, beat the Red Raiders only once in his 15-year tenure. That one win? It came in his first game against Kahuku.

Will history repeat itself?

UPDATE: Thanks to @slafonz on Twitter for showing us this YouTube Clip from a 1995 meeting that ended in a 21-21 tie. Here is Waianae’s Chris Paogofie on a kickoff making a crazy play.