They did it. In front of hundreds of Menehune fans at Vidinha Stadium last night, Waimea stormed the Castle, beating the Knights 41-20 in one of the most memorable games in Kaua’i football history. Castle performed well with their nifty
They did it.
In front of hundreds of Menehune fans at Vidinha Stadium last night, Waimea stormed the Castle, beating the Knights 41-20 in one of the most memorable games in Kaua’i football history.
Castle performed well with their nifty quarterback Joel Botehlo at the helm.
He completed 26 of 39 passes for 260 yards and two touchdowns.
But it wasn’t enough. Not for a running Menehune team who played at the top of their game all night long.
The Menehunes amassed an unheard of 437 yards in the game, only 28 of those in the air and 409 on the ground.
Castle initially stunned the Menehunes with a 32-yard Loren Lum reception that brought the Knight’s into the red-zone. Lum would run it in from seven yards out: 7-0.
Waimea answered.
Following a huge 48-yard run from Timmy Chang-Wo that brought the Menehunes to the Knight’s five-yard line, RB Chelsey Barba would power to the one-yard line, setting up an end-zone fumble recovery by Jordon Dizon which would put the Menehunes on the board. The extra-point failed: 7-6.
Waimea’s defense stepped up in the second quarter, forcing Castle to fumble on the ensuing possession and gaining good field position. Again, Barba powered closer to the end-zone, setting up a nine-yard touchdown pass from QB Adrian Agan to Oliver Villanueva. Extra point failed: 12-7.
The Menehunes wouldn’t stop there. Pulling together after a mindless roughing the passer penalty which gave the Knights a punter’s first down, Waimea stopped Castle’s progression and forced a punting situation.
Bad news for the Knights.
Only two plays later, with less than two minutes left in the half, Jordon Dizon broke loose for a 58-yard touchdown dash which gave the Menehunes a 20-7 first half lead.
They weren’t finished there.
At the onset of the third, the Menehunes again were strong defensively, stopping Castle’s air attack and regaining possession of the pigskin. This set up a Brandon Malama one-yard TD run (one of his three TD’s on the evening) and a 27-7 score.
The Knights battled back with a 20-yard TD pass at the end of the third, but with 1:56 left in the third, Malama ran in his second TD run, again from one yard out, to put the Menehunes up 34-14.
Botelho threw one more TD in the fourth, this one from 17-yards out. But Malama sealed the deal with 4:07 on the clock with another one-yard TD run: 41-20
The Menehunes did exactly what they were supposed to do. They minimized mistakes, let the Castle beat themselves with their own mistakes, and capitalized on these errors with large runs.
Now they will face Kahuku in a semifinal round at Aloha Stadium, next week.
