Despite loss, Kapa’a still primed to be Warriors

of Warriors football, there lies little room for sportswriters and other media

types.

After watching Kapa’a do all within its power to play KIF spoilers

Friday night in Hanapepe, the reasons for that silence have crystallized – a

little.

If we’d spoken, those players and I, important secrets may have

been revealed. Not the least of which would’ve been that Kapa’a really is a

pretty good football team, a team with heart, fight and fire.

The Warriors

pushed Waimea, the fifth-ranked team in the state, as far as it would go

without breaking. The Menehunes escaped 14-0, but there are plenty scenarios

whereby that score might never have seen the final books. Plenty transpired

that might have sent Waimea into a tailspin, changed the face of not only the

Menehunes’ confidence, but the KIF season as a whole.

Kapa’a’s three lost

fumbles and two interceptions jump obviously out from the stat sheet, but do

not tell the entire story. In between those give aways, grit and inspiration

drove the Warriors to nearly pull off the unthinkable anyway.

I happened

to be standing just outside the back of the end zone as Kapa’a tailback Dahson

Gonzales took a pitch from his QB, Dustin Mundon, and slipped free of the

stingy Waimea defense. His effort took him past linemen and linebackers,

safeties and cornerbacks, until nothing but open field lay ahead of him. Mud

caked thick onto what once had been a white jersey flew free of bond as

Gonzales pounded the soupy Hanapepe grass. And 66 yards later, the running back

was in my face, arms raised, teammates smashing into him with glee.

What

Gonzales couldn’t see from his station beneath four joyful Warriors, was the

pending disappointment just tossed from the back pocket of the referee.

Holding against Kapa’a was the call, and it negated all that had just

unfolded in front of me, the tackle slipping, the cornerback passing, the caked

mud falling, the arms raising and the joyous celebration. It negated the six

points, and probable seventh, that would’ve improbably tied the KIF battle with

just four minutes remaining in the game. And it negated the monumental

advantage in momentum the Warriors would have taken into the next series of

plays.

Instead of a tie on the scoreboard, Kapa’a ran two more plays and

then punted.

Waimea drove, on its next possession, deep into Warriors’

territory. Deep enough, in fact, to score with less than one minute on the

clock, and pad the final score.

But it was a spirited contest, one the KIF

needed to find competition again. Yes, Waimea again played outstanding defense,

allowing just 102 yards of total offense and recording its third shutout of the

season. But that grittiness, that domination, was, for the most part, matched

by the Warriors. There were goalline stands and forced fourth downs for Kapa’a,

just as there were stands and forced punts for Waimea.

The grumblings were

loud and clear in the stands and around the field where families drop blankets

and sit basking in their proximity to the action: this was one of the best KIF

games in recent memory.

Waimea and Kapa’a will again take the field as

opponents Oct. 20, will again plot and strategize for a battle that will carry

little meaning in the KIF standings. It will be a game that should forced

packed stands at Vidinha Stadium, because the Warriors are getting close,

dangerously close if you’re a Waimea fan, joyously close if you wear Kapa’a

green.

But close indeed.