After having its 18-game winning streak snapped in a 35-7 loss to No. 1 Bishop Gorman on Saturday night in Las Vegas, Hawaii’s No. 1-ranked team, Kahuku, remained in the USA Today Super 25 rankings released Monday.
Kahuku (5-1) dropped seven spots to No. 24 after allowing a season-high 35 points to the Gaels, who got four touchdown passes and a touchdown run from quarterback Tate Martell in the win. Kahuku extended its scoreless quarters streak to 15 before giving up two second-quarter touchdowns. The Red Raiders trailed 14-7 at halftime before getting outscored 21-0 in the second half.
Bishop Gorman ran its winning streak to 43 games, but finished with 35 points against Kahuku, which tied for a season low. The Gaels have also won games over No. 10 St. John Bosco of California, 35-20, and Cedar Hill of Texas, 44-17.
Kahuku returns home to finish off the OIA regular season with games at Moanalua (3-3, 2-3 OIA Blue) on Saturday and at Kaiser (2-5, 1-5) on Sept. 30. The Red Raiders’ last regular season loss was two years ago at Kaiser, 20-19.
Kahuku did fall out of the CBS Max Preps Xcellent 25 this week and was not one of five bubble teams listed. Cedar Hill was ranked No. 11 and St. John Bosco was seventh behind No. 1 Bishop Gorman.
I think a key part missing was kahuku’s special teams/kickoff return game. Arent they averaging a score a game? I think they couldve pick up valuable yardage trying to return it atleast once, its one of their best weapons! Even if they were kicking it deep, stokes or kaniho in space can create alot of problems for teams.
They have an all American kicker. All kicks were touchbacks.
Hi Moanalua.
BGs QB admitted he had never played in front of a crowd like that before. We lost big on the field but gained a lot of respect from many people on the mainland. All in all the trip was more then a success. Love my RR nation. RR4L
It’s nice to still be in the top 25 even after losing by 28, but I think the voters in this poll recognized that Big Red is still a solid team. Only Hawaii competition for the rest of the season, so any loss will drop us out like a rock.
Looking forward to BG against St Thomas Aquinas from Floriday; will be cheering on the Hawaii boys on BG.
As far as special teams, Nevada rules are like Hawaii rules when it comes to kick offs into the endzone..
Nice. The national pollsters know the game was a lot more physical and close then the score indicated. That last”taking the knee” bombing down the end zone must have wow them. Some went back to re read that nasty letter from Texas HS head. An undefeated season in Hawaii should bring them up to #14. Did anybody inform the troll on the Gorman/Kahuku there’s a new KAHUKU thread? I think he’s on his 110 post about math bowl etc.etc. lol.
The Kahuku Red Raiders put up a VALIANT effort, hats off to them. You still did this state proud.
If you have some knowledge about football, that game with BG was close, the score doesn’t seem so…Kahuku played their game, moved the ball rather well against BG’s D. On defense they did give up big plays, which ultimately did them in, but they made stops. Big props to Kahuku, definitely the team to beat here in Hawaii. That loss will only help them learn more about themselves.
I am a transplant Hawaiian who moved to Las Vegas 22 years ago. My daughter is a senior at Bishop Gorman. Saturday night, I saw on display everything I love and miss about Hawaii. For the first time, I saw a sold out visitor section. Even when Gorman plays teams from nearby Utah and California, there are many empty seats. There were even a lot of Kahuku supporters on the Gorman side because those were the last seats available. There was amazing support for the Hawaii kids! The cheering and enthusiasm was awesome. I loved that there was even pre-game tailgating that took up most of the parking in the school lots. Even after the game was over, the Hawaii fans stayed put to sing and watch the team haka. The Kahuku fans and team are special!
These are my observations on the game.
I will start with the pros:
1) Took a risk to play a top team
2) Played hard
3) Strong community pride and support with all those people traveling from Hawaii, within the state of Nevada, or surrounding states to get there. That is a nice show of support for the kids.
Now the cons:
1) Never opened up the playbook
2) Played too slow
3) Did not take enough chances on offense to give them a shot at being more competitive in the game.
4) Could have taken more risks defensively.
Thoughts: While Kahuku gets by on having extraordinary athletes who play with a lot of pride and play hard, I don’t think they are being pushed to reach their ceiling of excellence.
In my opinion, the goal should not be a state title. It should be getting each individual closer to their ceiling of how great they could be. After that you combine them to collectively be great. If both of these things are done, then a state title will be the byproduct of that growth as a player and as a team.
Yes they are successful in Hawaii. But their lineman are mostly run blockers. if they want to excel in college or hopefully the pros, they need to do a combination of both.
Their skill position players are mostly blockers or decoys. They have enough talent in JV and Varsity to develop these positions along with the QB.
On defense they get by on having faster and more physical athletes. There is little variation on defense. I rarely saw any blitz packages to change momentum or confuse BG. I saw the same base defense over and over again that wasn’t working. They rarely changed the formation of the defense to try and either take away the run or the pass. I am not saying they would have done it, but as least try. Bisop pretty much moved the ball at will other than one lazy fumble and a blown call towards the end of the first half.
If someone was ever patient enough to develop more diverse packages on offense and defense and gave themselves a 3-5 year window, Kahuku would pretty much win more state titles and the next time they travel to the mainland they would give their teams a fighting chance to compete.
This time the game wasn’t really a competition. The score wasn’t really that close and it wasn’t the kids fault. It is challenging to be one-dimensional on offense and defense and expect success against a team that is better coached, with better athletes, and on Saturday seemed a little tougher. It looked like Kahuku’s players weren’t ready to be bullied when 99% of the time they are the ones bullying others.
All i know is i feel sorry for the teams in hawaii now…kahuku had to adjust to a higher level of play..faster athletes…better offense n defense…coming back home now we gonna b even more dominant…the boys did great against bg just wish they played under center from the beginning running from shotgun takes more time with the rb getting the ball from 2-3 yrds back n the holes was closing in that one second…great learning experience for the coaches and players..
vs Cedar Hills 44-14 (30pt margin)
vs Cocoa FL 46-10 (36pt margin)
vs St John Bosco 35-20 (15pt margin)
vs Kahuku 35-7 (28pt margin)
Gotta give it up to Kahuku. The saddest thing about all this is realizing that Hawaii high school is light years behind elite national teams.
Their gameplan was NOT to show much first half. Second half, who they going throw to?? The Coaches know their personel. Kahuku has aoways thrived on RUN GAME first to open up a pass game (if any). The run game was working but Kahuku got killed on penalties and field position. Had the OLine just sustained 1 second longer on blocks, they wouldve hit more longer runs. Thats coming from observation combined with a sibling who plays Offense and and cousins who Coach.
For me, it came down to experience. Idk why but a lot of fundamentals went out the door when they stepped on that field. Defense, who usually break down and wraps up on tackles were going for useless strips and big hits. Offense, the line’s base was terrible. Watch how many times they fall on their own basically. That environment, actually leaving Hawaii, playing in front of a crowd like that, against a really good team? Not used to that…and thats okay. Win or Learn, Never Lose. RRFL
The run game was working? Didn’t they average around 3 yards per carry? I wouldn’t call that working.
Great job Kahuku! you play them close until the second half. I’m trying to figure out why 88 is so quiet. Also looking for my boy Toomeke, I’m still here. Cheeehooo
No, there were returnable ones, even if in the endzone.
@oia#1 – Not allowed to return anything that goes into the end zone.
EducationFirst: “The run game was working? Didn’t they average around 3 yards per carry? I wouldn’t call that working.”
4.6 yards a carry. But 45 out of their 152 total rush yards came on a single play from Sol-Jay off their only td. Other than that, Kahuku was ineffective the entire night.
uhhhh, who said Hawaii high school football is not up to national levels? We had a Heisman winner two years ago, three years ago we had a Linebacker at Notre Dame come in 2nd in the heisman. The Senior QB at St.Louis is the #1 QB prospect in the nation (sorry Martell you got beat out by Tua at that summer camp).
Hawaii has the individual talent but it is scattered through out the state. Heres an idea I posted about yesterday
————————————————-
Lets keep the ILH in its own conference and have a one game championship like the old prep bowl days. The OIA fan boys would be happy with the distinct seperation of the conferences. Now since we all love our 808 high school football why dont we root for a team like Punahou or St. Louis to stack their rosters with all the elite talent around the state, not for the purpose of winning a prep bowl title but for them to travel to the mainland to take on the BG’s of this world.
A BG parent told me that they were in awe of Kahukus support and told us that if we wanted to get on the same level as BG we need alumni and booster donations to better our facilities and yes, recruit. Kahuku will never be able to do that because of DOE, but our ILH schools are already doing that and if the blessings of the OIA fan boys are behind it we could really stack a SUPER TEAM at either STL or PUN and easily beat BG or any other team in the country. Im down for that because I know not only will Kahuku boys be on that team but all the elite talent around the state.
The ILH alumni are approaching this conference alliance the wrong way, they are pissing off the OIA fan boys because they are using their recruiting abilities to beat up on the OIA schools. ILH should leave the OIA conference alone and make it clear that they want to go national. So instead of Kahuku going up to rep Hawaii with our 20,000 loyal fans and the other 20,000 haters from Hawaii that want to see us fail. How about all 40,000 of us Hawaii peeps root for a super team from Hawaii? STL or PUN
@anywaaayys “The ILH alumni are approaching this conference alliance the wrong way, they are pissing off the OIA fan boys because they are using their recruiting abilities to beat up on the OIA schools.”
Which ILH alumni are you talking about? And what OIA fan boys are you talking about aside from yourself? Why are you even bringing up the ILH right now? Who is talking about them? Didn’t you already post this on another blog posting? Why are you doing it again? It was just as uninteresting now as it was then.
This might be a good read for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferiority_complex
Peace be the journey, brother.
Jeezy you been living in your mothers basement for far too long following High school football when your alma mater aint even in the top ten. Who does that? If the article is not about Kahuku Im not posting my comments because I have better things to do then to troll other schools, I guess your misery needs company.
C’mon oia#1. Killing me!
At least know what you’re talking about. Kickoffs into ends one = automatic touchback.
Why do you think they just let it bounce on the turf? Not a live ball.
@Gormanmom: thank you. Also, a lot of Kahuku people started cleaning up the parking lot later that night. Cuz Das how we do!
@anywaaays “Jeezy you been living in your mothers basement for far too long following High school football when your alma mater aint even in the top ten. Who does that? If the article is not about Kahuku Im not posting my comments because I have better things to do then to troll other schools, I guess your misery needs company.”
u mad bro?
@Jeezy33: haha yeah, he mad. Textbook deflection. He can’t address the argument so he starts going off about something else.
Jeezy33 September 19, 2016 at 12:36 pm
EducationFirst: “The run game was working? Didn’t they average around 3 yards per carry? I wouldn’t call that working.”
4.6 yards a carry. But 45 out of their 152 total rush yards came on a single play from Sol-Jay off their only td. Other than that, Kahuku was ineffective the entire night.
Thanks for the clarification. When I watched I really never noticed any carry longer than 2-3 yards. I recalled the long run and about 4 more that went between 4-7 yards.
Al & Jeezy, please realize that we are often talking to adults that:
1) didn’t graduate high school
2) tested below 6th grade during their high school years
3) were never taught to write properly
They are just angry. When they come onto this board and they often see a level of writing that they cannot comprehend and only wish they could come up with, they get jealous and hatred appears.
Im flattered that the three stooges ( jeezy, educ, al) are camping on Kahuku articles like article police. I got three red shirts guys ill send them to you since you want to convert to red raider nation so badly. Misery needs company!
@anywaaays “Im flattered that the three stooges ( jeezy, educ, al) are camping on Kahuku articles like article police. I got three red shirts guys ill send them to you since you want to convert to red raider nation so badly. Misery needs company!”
It’s okay if u mad bro. how’s that working for you? Some of the other red raider fans here I respect. you? not so much. but it’s okay if u mad.
anywaaaays!! September 19, 2016 at 2:34 pm
Im flattered that the three stooges ( jeezy, educ, al) are camping on Kahuku articles like article police. I got three red shirts guys ill send them to you since you want to convert to red raider nation so badly. Misery needs company!
Hey anywaaayyss did you end up showing up for that big bet after E.F. called you out? I would love to hear how that is going!
HI 88!
You guys care so much to keep posting, wow, Im even more flattered that you keep loving Kahuku soo much to post in these Kahuku articles! oh well, Misery needs company and there are a lot of shoulders to cry on here in RR nation once you guys join us. So what size red shirt do you need?
“Hey anywaaayyss did you end up showing up for that big bet after E.F. called you out? I would love to hear how that is going!”
That’s the thing, I Love 88. Anywaaays will never address what you say. He just resorts to juvenile deflection and pathetic name calling. And of course he didn’t do anything with the big bet or meet EF to place it at the sushi restaurant on Kapahulu. Anywaaays, like most little kids, are just all talk. I bet the guy never even played football before. lol it’s sad, really. He’s giving Kahuku fans a bad name.
That’s a good point about anywaaays never playing football before. maybe that’s why he takes everything so personally. Don’t worry, anywaaays. Maybe when/if you have kids, they’ll get to play football for Kahuku and you can live through him.
If I had to guess why kahuku played bad it would be because this trip was more about play than work. Granted some of these kids will never see Vegas it makes sense they get there early and do all the fun stuff. Next you have nerves playing the best team in the nation but I thought that would have disappeared by the second half.
I’ll give the coaching staff the benefit and assume they didn’t want to show their playbook to the teams back home. Now let’s assume that’s not the reason then, the coaching staff did a bad job calling that game, the defense is loading the box and you can only gain few yards at a time and getting lucky BG is making penalties for you. First half understandable. Second half not so much, you’re down multiple possessions but yet don’t attemp to throw the ball? The box is loaded, you can play action? Do something instead of running the same play over and over, give your team a chance, maybe go down swinging? PBP guy even said it wasn’t until the 3rd quarter they changed formations. I actually thought kahuku could win.. Seemed like BG knew kahuku better than kahuku did. It’s a head scratcher for sure. HC refusing to talk to media adds on to the dissapointment.
Friendly bet to whoever. Kahuku will win the state championship. $20.00 simple friendly bet. We will back to back state champions. I invite all to the game Nov.8 at Aloha stadium. I will be sitting behind the end zone. Bring family, friends and most importantly bring the KEIKI’S. Come and enjoy it’s an experience you will never forget. We don’t need to talk. Just come on by plenty of seats for everyone.RR4L
Richard Ngalu September 19, 2016 at 7:53 pm
Friendly bet to whoever. Kahuku will win the state championship. $20.00 simple friendly bet. We will back to back state champions. I invite all to the game Nov.8 at Aloha stadium. I will be sitting behind the end zone. Bring family, friends and most importantly bring the KEIKI’S. Come and enjoy it’s an experience you will never forget. We don’t need to talk. Just come on by plenty of seats for everyone.RR4L
How about this Richard, I will take Kahuku and I will put $200 on it. I mean, you are taking the #1 team, defending champs, and arguably the area that has the best physical specimens. At least give some odds if you are going to take Kahuku. I think 8-1 is fair.
So I will out $20 against your $160.
Just a repeat…
It’s so sad to read some of the comments here on this forum, the bad mouthing of a few individuals towards a group of young men who lost a football game. These young men from a small school, a small community, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, took their team and played one of the biggest powerhouses in the nation, and lost. So. Although they lost, these young men showed more maturity by accepting the loss with pride and dignity, knowing they did their community and school proud. Their supporters continued to rally around these young men, even in the loss, my question is, ‘Why can you not put away all this animosity and give these players the kudos they deserve, they represented the 808 with much pride.’ Shame on you who can only spout diarrhea from your waha, shame on you.
DAS HOW DEE MITCHELL! EVERYONE JUST LIKE TALK CRAP WHEN THEY KNOW THEIR TEAMS IS SO JUNK THEY WOULDN’T EVEN MAKE OUR INTERMEDIATE TEAM! AHAHAHAHAHAHA! THE ONLY REASON WHY WE WENT LOSE IS BECUASE WE GAVE BISHOP GORMANT CHANCE. BUT HEY, ONE LOSS IS ONE LOSS, BUT WAIT TILL WE PLAY YOUR SCHOOL. WE GOING POUND YOU ON THE FIELD, POUND YOU IN THE PARKING LOT, THEN POUND YOUR CHICK BU!!!!
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
RRFL! HATE US CUZ YOU AINT US BRUH! ENEMINES OF THE STATE!!
Abcdeer September 19, 2016 at 6:28 pm
If I had to guess why kahuku played bad it would be because this trip was more about play than work. Granted some of these kids will never see Vegas it makes sense they get there early and do all the fun stuff. Next you have nerves playing the best team in the nation but I thought that would have disappeared by the second half.
I’ll give the coaching staff the benefit and assume they didn’t want to show their playbook to the teams back home. Now let’s assume that’s not the reason then, the coaching staff did a bad job calling that game, the defense is loading the box and you can only gain few yards at a time and getting lucky BG is making penalties for you. First half understandable. Second half not so much, you’re down multiple possessions but yet don’t attemp to throw the ball? The box is loaded, you can play action? Do something instead of running the same play over and over, give your team a chance, maybe go down swinging? PBP guy even said it wasn’t until the 3rd quarter they changed formations. I actually thought kahuku could win.. Seemed like BG knew kahuku better than kahuku did. It’s a head scratcher for sure. HC refusing to talk to media adds on to the dissapointment.
This statement right here explains it all.”Kids not seeing Vegas, fun instead of play, they didnt want to show their playbook to the teams back home”. Are you really serious? You’re telling us that your opinion is that Kahuku went on vacation rather than handle business?? C’mon man. Everyone knows their “playbook”, its called “run the ball every down” it’s no secret. Their playbook it all of one page long. These kids can’t comprehend any reads to call audibles to adjust. The play calling is to.the learning level of the kids, one dimensional.
Let’s just call this the humble cookie that the RR HC needs. I hear he’s been making a fool of himself being arrogant & boasting about his team as if he “owns hawaii high school football”. Hate to break it to you but Kahuku won’t get out of the state semi final.
#NewRulingTacts