Kapa’a pulls away from Damien, 55-33

By Wes Nakama

Led by Nainoa Simmons’ 261 yards and three touchdowns on 33 carries plus a defense that came up with six turnovers, Kapa’a pulled away from Damien, 55-33, Friday night in the First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA Division I football state semifinals.

A vocal crowd of about 2,500 at Farrington’s Skippa Diaz Stadium watched the Warriors outscore the Monarchs, 27-12, in the second half to improve to 8-2 and advance to next Saturday’s 7:30 p.m. championship game against Konawaena at Mililani. Damien ends its season at 8-2.

The Monarchs had tied the game at 21-21 after AJ Tuifua’s 11-yard touchdown toss to Dayton Savea and Sam Kawakami’s extra point with 3:21 remaining in the second quarter, but Kapa’a took a 28-21 lead into halftime after Evan Daligdig’s 42-yard TD pass to Kamalei Gonsalves and Micah Rapozo’s PAT with 57 seconds left.

After the teams traded touchdowns to open the second half, Simmons broke free for a 47-yard scamper to paydirt and Rapozo’s extra point made it 42-27 with 4:47 remaining in the third quarter. Linebacker Ryan Peters then returned an interception 30 yards for a pick-6 to help push the score to 49-27 two minutes into the fourth quarter, and Simmons effectively sealed the victory with a 73-yard sprint to the end zone with 4:36 on the clock.

“Coming into the second half, the way our offense was playing, we just asked (the defense) to get a couple stops to win this game,” Warriors coach Mike Tresler said. “They exceeded that, they had a bunch of stops, interceptions and then we had a score on defense. So that was amazing.”

Tuifua completed 28 of 44 passes for 412 yards and four touchdowns, but was intercepted four times after entering the game with only three picks the whole season. Damien was held to 73 yards rushing on 20 carries.

“We tried to take their run away and make them one-dimensional,” Tresler said. “That was our game plan, and I thought we did very well with managing that. But then we had to deal with their throwing game, and that was a whole ‘nother issue. But I guess we figured it out. We don’t play a bunch of passing teams of that quality, so that was great for us, our kids stepped up and found a way. We had been talking about that, sometimes you need to wet-fit it and just find a way.”

Kapa’a made an interception and return to the Monarchs’ 32 on the game’s first possession, then punched it in eight plays later on Daligdig’s 3-yard quarterback keeper. Simmons then ran in the two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead. The Monarchs answered with a seven-play, 72-yard scoring march capped by Tuifua’s 32-yard pass to Wyatt Ho-Williams, and Kawakami’s extra point closed it to 8-7.

Simmons then responded with a 12-yard run to paydirt to help extend the lead to 15-7 with 28 seconds remaining in the first quarter. Damien came back with a 16-play, 82-yard drive culminating in Tuifua’s 2-yard toss to Savea, and Kawakami’s PAT cut it to 15-14.

But on the ensuing kickoff, Nash Burkhart fielded it at the 18, found a seam and then bounced outside and sprinted untouched down the right sideline for an 82-yard TD. The two-point conversion attempt failed, leaving the score at 21-14 with 6:42 left in the second quarter.

The Monarchs then tied it up at 21-21 after the 11-yard Tuifua-to-Savea touchdown and Kawakami’s PAT with 3:21 before halftime. The Warriors then took the lead for good on the 42-yard scoring pass from Daligdig to Gonsalves.

Simmons, a tough, fluid and explosive 6-foot, 185-pound senior, had 90 yards on 18 carries in the first half, then added 171 yards on 15 carries in the second half. He now has 1,501 yards for the season, with one more game to play. Tresler said Simmons has garnered some interest from NCAA Division I programs, but hopes to get more.

“We’ve got some attention on him, from that Farrington game,” said Tresler, a former standout cornerback at the University of Hawai’i. “Hopefully this will break him through, because he’s got that quality, he can play at that level for sure.”

Daligdig finished 3 of 7 with 67 yards and one TD and no interceptions, and added 57 yards rushing on eight carries. Most importantly, he managed the game efficiently with nifty ball-handling and accurate reads on run-pass-option.

“Evan was just fabulous, he was on-point tonight,” Tresler said. “He played within himself, his ball-handling was tremendous. And when he needed to run the ball, he ran, and when he needed to make the throws, he made the throws. He was stellar, he had a flawless game, pretty much. And that’s what we need, that’s what it takes to continue winning.”

The Warriors opened the season on the same field at Farrington, coming away with a 35-12 loss. Kapa’a then played host to Open Division opponent Kapolei, doing better in a 35-16 defeat. Tresler said those nonleague games were instrumental in setting a higher standard for the regular season and state tournament.

“Absolutely,” Tresler said. “We were very green coming into Farrington, and that was ugly. But we stuck with it and gained a lot more confidence against Kapolei, and then that catapulted us into the (regular) season. And every day, every week, they just kept buying in and gaining confidence. So that was huge — we’re a completely different team now.”