No. 9 ‘Iolani 33, Castle 28, Final
———-
10:14: Castle picks up a first down with 1 second left but the last gasp Hail Mary falls well short. ‘Iolani holds on to set up a rematch with Damien.
10:12: ‘Iolani successfully gets the punt off. Castle starts from its own 21 with 17 seconds left.
10:11: Castle burns the rest of its timeouts. ‘Iolani will punt from its own 41 after a costly personal foul penalty with 22 seconds left. Expect Castle to bring the house on this punt.
10:04: The onside kick is recovered by ‘Iolani at the Castle 36 and that might do it.
10:04: SAFETY. Matthews is tackled in the end zone after a high snap. Although Castle does have another chance for an onside kick with 1:25 left down 33-28.
10:00: WOW. ‘Iolani goes three-and-out, including two straight incompletions. Castle gets the ball back on its own 3 after the punt, with 2:05 left to potentially tie or win the game.
9:56: ‘Iolani recovers the ensuing onside kick at the Castle 49.
9:54: TOUCHOWN KNIGHTS. WHOA. Kila Kaio and Jonah Figueroa connect for a 72-yard BOMB for a touchdown. Costa’s PAT cuts the deficit to 31-28 with 3:08 left.
9:52: ‘Iolani goes three-and-out but shaves some clock after three straight runs. After the punt, Castle has the ball on its own 28 with 3:21 left.
9:48: Castle ALMOST recovers the onside kick but it goes out of bounds. ‘Iolani will have the ball on its own 47 looking to milk some clock.
9:46: Not so fast. Facing fourth-and-goal from the 1, the Knights have no choice but to go for it, and it pays off when Chazz Tom scores on a direct snap. Costa’s PAT is good and the ‘Iolani lead has been cut to 31-21 with 5:46 left in the game.
9:38: ‘Iolani goes three-and-out and punts a touchback. Castle has 11:05 left to rally, starting from its own 20.
FOURTH QUARTER
9:36: End of the third quarter. ‘Iolani is 12 minutes away from an Oct. 25 rematch with Damien at Aloha Stadium for the right to be the ILH’s lone HHSAA Division I representative. The Raiders face second-and-8 to start the fourth.
9:34: This one is completely swinging in ‘Iolani’s direction. The Raiders force another punt and get the ball bal on its own 44 with 22 seconds left in the third.
9:28: TOUCHDOWN RAIDERS. Hedani punches in another 3-yard touchdown with 1:53 left in the third. Manuel knocks the extra point through and the lead is now 31-14.
9:21: Castle is forced to punt again and ‘Iolani will start at the Castle 30 after a nice return by Cole Ichikawa. It goes without saying that this is a big drive for both sides in terms of momentum.
9:13: Castle starts from its own 20 after a touchback.
9:12: TOUCHDOWN ‘IOLANI. Brock Hedani gets in on the fun, taking in a 3-yard score to extend the lead to 24-14 with 8:09 left in the third.
9:04: Castle quickly goes three-and-out after stopping Matthews on three consecutive runs. The Raiders get the ball at the Castle 46 after the punt, 10:23 left in the third quarter.
9:02: Castle will start from its own 20 after a touchback on the second half kickoff.
THIRD QUARTER
8:43: ‘Iolani runs out the clock to end the first half with a 17-14 lead. Castle has made it very interesting thus far and will receive the second half kickoff.
8:41: TOUCHDOWN KNIGHTS. Once again, the Knights milk the clock and run the ball right down ‘Iolani’s throats. Matthews finished off the drive with a 3-yard rushing score and is already at 140 yards on 22 carries. Costa’s PAT cuts the deficit to 17-14 with 22 seconds left in the first half.
8:31: TOUCHDOWN RAIDERS. ‘Iolani drives down the field with ease. Chong finds Manuel for a 5-yard score. After hauling in the touchdown, Manuel then knocks the extra point through to extend the lead to 17-7 with 4:47 left in the half.
8:20: Castle goes three-and-out and punts. ‘Iolani gets the ball back on its own 35 with 8:52 left in the half.
8:14: ‘Iolani can’t get in the end zone and opts to try for a 22-yard field goal, which Manuel kicks through the uprights. Raiders lead 10-7 with 11:02 remaining in the second quarter.
SECOND QUARTER
8:10: End of the first quarter. ‘Iolani has the ball at the Castle 4 with a fresh set of downs to begin the second. The Raiders appeared to have slowed down their offensive pace, possibly as a counter to how much time Castle shaved off the clock when it had the ball.
7:57: TOUCHDOWN CASTLE. The Knights put together a heck of a drive, with most of its plays coming via direct snap to Kala Matthews, who carried the ball 13 times for 66 yards, his last one being a 9-yard touchdown with 3:20 left in the first. Cheydon Costa‘s PAT is good and we’re square at 7.
7:44: TOUCHDOWN ‘IOLANI. That was a clinic from Jonah Chong, who completed all three of his passes for 37 yards a took a read option keeper for a 22-yard touchdown. Wailoa Manuel‘s PAT is good and the Raiders lead 7-0 with 10:14 remaining in the first quarter.
FIRST QUARTER
7:39: We’re now just about ready for kickoff. Damien’s win over Moanalua at Aloha Stadium has raised the stakes greatly for ‘Iolani, who are now in a must-win scenario to get the ILH’s spot in the Division I state tournament. Castle was eliminated from OIA playoff contention last week, but can play spoiler in front of a full senior night crowd. ‘Iolani will receive to start. Here we go.
7:20 p.m.: A little bit of a later kickoff than expected because the JV game ran late. Kaiser’s JV team made the trek to Kaneohe, beating the home team 20-3.
———
Series history: Series tied 2-2
‘Iolani roster
Castle roster
Knights needs a coaching change.
STAT! PRONTO!
Castle needs parental changes. Parents got to stop blaming the coaches. Its the kids that got to perform. From what i hear in the crowd. There’s a lot of monday morning Quarterbacks and coach dads. Castle fans are the worst
@Puhj-eeeT Careful what you wish for. Coach Hao brought this program a long way from the days where Castle’s team consisted of 25-28 players. I sit in the stands and hear everyone complaining about the coaching but they’re the ones out there trying to help our kids get better on and off the field. There will always be critics, haters, naysayers, etc. but how about we support the coaches as well as the players for once.
@ryan kaio; easy for you to say and defend the coaching staff, your son & nephew, starts and has a lot of playing time. Parents voice their complaints about players missing practices but starts in games, Coaches use of profanity on the field, Staff wearing St. Louis attire instead of Castle at practices, coaches always late to practice, no structured off season program, pop warner mentality of No Cut philosophy, thats why they have a larger roster then before, etc. Is that the kind of program you want your kid to be involved in? If you’re ok with it, so be it. Others want their kid to be ingrained with the right life values. Seems like the AD & Principal have deaf ears to the many complaints. Hopefully next season will. Be better.
Way to hang in there to the very end Castle. But don’t you think you should have that one play that no other team has seen before when the game is on the line?!!!! Hook and ladder, screen pass – receiver pass, reverse-pass, fumble-rooski, etc. Take some notes from your opponents who did that to you folks in the past.
@Getttouthea I’m not sure whether Castle fans are THE worst, but I’m glad someone else heard what I’ve been hearing.
@Castle Track Walker Not sure who I’m talking to, however, if what I say after this offends you, my apologies. I put my name out there because it’s my opinion and I’d freely tell it to you if we were to sit down and have a conversation about it.
First off, my son and nephew’s playing time has nothing to do with the way I feel whatsoever. My son got pulled up to the varsity team as a Freshman for depth purposes. During the course of that season, he hardly smelled the field as there were seniors in front of him that were frankly better. When he questioned whether he should have played on the JV level, I told him to contribute however he can and if he wanted to get more playing time, put in the work to get better. I know what it’s like to go to a game and wait for the 3-4 plays he may get in and any playing time he receives now is a product of the sacrifices and suffering he’s gone through to get there. Same for Kila. I could go on and on about his training during the offseason.
That being said…Did I agree with all of the coaching decisions this staff made? That’s a big negative. There were many play calls and personnel shifts where I openly questioned them to people around me. Did I ever confront the coaches at the team bus or complain to the AD? Not once.
Speaking of complaints, let’s look at those you listed.
1-“Players missing practice but start in games” Valid complaint if there was a policy laid out to parents but ultimately a coaches decision. Neither you or I know if any of these so-called absences was excused so let’s not pretend we do.
2-“Coaches use of profanity on the field” Football is a rough sport and kids these days are a lot more defiant and distracted. I’ve been sworn at many a time by both my Castle and college coaches and deserved it every single time (except maybe once). Have you ever listened to Coach Rod York talk to his team? Unless it’s BYU, I can assure you that it happens more often than not.
3-“Staff wearing St. Louis attire instead of Castle attire at practices” This one is kinda ridiculous to me. They could each wear their own alma mater’s gear and the only thing that should matter is whether or not they’re coaching up the kids.
4-“Coaches always late to practice” Unless we’re being coached by Nick Rolovich or someone else that gets paid to strictly be a football coach, it’s gonna happen. That’s why the majority of us watch from the stands and not the sidelines (at least that’s my reason). Our jobs simply won’t allow us to be there for the start of practice.
5-“Pop Warner mentality of No Cut philosophy” Ummm, isn’t that a good thing? For some of the people grumbling about playing time and what not, their kids might be the ones getting cut. And Pop Warner limits the number of players they can have. I guarantee you can’t find a Pop Warner roster with 50 players.
You closed with speaking about what kind of program I want my kid to be associated with and mentioned “right life values”. I personally believe those values should start with us at home. If we teach them well enough and “ingrain” it into them, no coach who sees them for 3 hours a day should be able to overcome that. I want my kid to be associated with a program that teaches the values of hard work and facing adversity head on. We had a lot of that in every game we played this year and, as evidenced in this last game, the boys never gave up but I feel that some parents may have.
Again, I didn’t mean to write a novel, but felt this had to be said in the hopes of improving things for next year. We have a lot of talent coming back and I’m looking forward to it. I have no idea who you are but you obviously know who I am. Please feel free to come up and introduce yourself and we can have a friendly conversation. If we still disagree then so be it, but I’m sure we’ll still support the team like always.
@Ryan Kaio,
i not sure if you are going to return back to this post to view comments as many don’t and move on but; thanks for your comments. appreciate your frankness and stance. not all will agree with one another and if you are ok, then that’s fine. sorry to hear your boy was pulled up but hardly played. always wonder why those coaches who do that, do so as it deprives one of PT. not going to get into a heavy discussion on philosophy but at the end of the day; one wants all to be Firm but Fair. Coach Kane would definitely agree to that. Good luck to your boys next season and other Castle football alumni who have their sons playing on the team. I’ll just keep walking around the track.