HANAPEPE — Liko Perreira, the new head coach for the Waimea High School Menehune football program, got a good start on their 12th KIF championship as they stayed ahead of challenges exerted by the visiting Woodbridge Warriors in a 25-20
HANAPEPE — Liko Perreira, the new head coach for the Waimea High School Menehune football program, got a good start on their 12th KIF championship as they stayed ahead of challenges exerted by the visiting Woodbridge Warriors in a 25-20 contest that went to the wire on Saturday night at Hanapepe Stadium.
Waimea runningback Jordon Dizon finished the night with a 295-yard collection on 19 carries including three touchdowns, one of which spanned 80 yards.
Totally, the Menehune relied on their ground attack with Austin Arthur adding 111 yards on 20 touches, and Ryan Parbo got his feet wet on a pair of carries in the Menehune’s 405-yard pickup on the ground.
Dizon galloped for 25 yards on the Menehune’s first series and scored with 8:02 left in the first quarter with Justin Estes following through on the point-after kick.
Dizon followed that score with another 55-yard scoring breakout with no time left on the clock, but this time Estes’ PAT effort was blocked by Woodbridge for the 13-0 bulge.
Settling down from the confusion over a too-soft football, Woodbridge broke into the scorebooks with a long pass from QB Mike Anderson who hit Zac Segay for a 68 yard score with just a minute peeled off the second quarter.
Totally, Anderson went to the skies on 54 attempts with 23 successful hits and one interception for a 284-yard pickup including a pair of scores, one hitting Segay, the other to Jason Gill with just 34 seconds left in the first half.
Michael Calderon’s point-after boot kicked the scoreboad to 13-7 only to have Dizon respond with his 80-yard scoring run with 10:21 left in the half.
Tyler Welsh blocked Estes’ PAT attempt for the 19-7 Menehune lead.
The flurry of scoring was contained in the first half with Waimea quarterback John-Vincent Palacio connecting with Estes on a 3-yarder with no time left on the clock.
But, Woodbrige Warriors would not go away, and came back in the second half with a pair of field goals by Calderon to trim the lead down to just five points.
Calderon’s first came in the third quarter with 5:10 left on a 30 yard and his second came in the final quarter on a 20-yard boot with just over five minutes remaining.
Another long drive fell short as Fia Moe took the sail out of the Warriors’ sail with a sack of Anderson setting up a fourth-and-11 with seconds showing in the contest.
The pre-season win for Waimea sets the stage for their KIF home opener this coming Friday when they host the Kapa‘a Warriors at Hanapepe Stadium.
The JV contest kicks off at 5 p.m. followed by the varsity contest kicking off at 7:35 p.m.
Joel Pahukula will air the varsity contest live on KONG AM 570 and J Robertson will do the play-by-play for the tape delay televised version which will air on Sunday night on Channel 6.
