LIHU‘E — The Kaua‘i High School Red Raiders (8-1) hosted the Radford High School Rams (10-1) Saturday at Vidinha Stadium. The Red Raiders were coming off of a solid finish to the regular season with four straight wins to close
LIHU‘E — The Kaua‘i High School Red Raiders (8-1) hosted the Radford High School Rams (10-1) Saturday at Vidinha Stadium. The Red Raiders were coming off of a solid finish to the regular season with four straight wins to close out the KIF season, which helped them run away with a first place finish. The regular season performance pinned Kaua‘i up against Radford for its opening game in the First Hawaiian Bank Division II State Football Championships.
With Radford taking the lead late, Kaua’i had an opportunity to take the lead with 30 seconds left in the game. The Red Raiders were on the Radford 26-yard line and attempting to get in the endzone or within kicker Grant Basquez’s field goal range. On third and three yards to go, quarterback Trey Aguano dropped back to pass and released a throw toward the side line, but watched his ball land in the hands of a Radford defender, which would end the game and the Red Raider’s season as the team fell 22-21 to the Rams.
“We won the KIF, but obviously we wanted to extend the season,” said Kaua‘i High School Head Coach Cory Aguano. “We had a heartbreaker at the end there, these kids played their butts off, but Radford just played a better game”
The Red Raiders came out struggling on offense through the majority of the first half of play with its only success coming on the ground where Kaua‘i was able to effectively move the ball for the majority of the game. Radford’s defense put up a seven spot in the first quarter on a pick six, where Aguano was trying to get the ball out into the flat, but the ball got plucked from the air by the defensive end. The play put Radford up 7-0 halfway through the first quarter.
Kaua‘i’s special teams unit would respond late in the first quarter with Radford backed up near its own endzone and ready to punt. Dreyke Smith-Butac was able to get into the back field and block the punt, scoop the ball up and take it to the endzone for the Red Raiders score, which made it 7-7.
Radford’s offense responded on the ensuing drive with an eight play 65-yard drive, which finished with a 9-yard touchdown pass giving the Rams the 14-7 lead, which it stayed through the first half of play.
Coming out into the third quarter, it was the Kaua‘i defense, which would spark some offense for the Red Raiders as cornerback Kaiea Iwasaki would come away with an interception and proceed on an impressive 43-yard return before being tackled inside Radford’s 20 yard line.
Iwasaki finished with five tackles on the night to go with his interception and excellent coverage.
“We made some changes and I think we won the battle in the second half,” Cory Aguano said. “They just made the plays to win in the end and we didn’t.”
Aguano and the offense would waste no time capitalizing on the turnover. With the next play, Aguano would connect with Chanse Ramirez for the 17-yard touchdown strike and tie the game at 14 all.
Ramirez finished with a team high 52 yards on four receptions, and he also added 20 yards on the ground.
On its next drive Radford would be intercepted once again, this time by Austin Manera after a Basquez deflection.
Unfortunately for Kaua‘i, it could not capitalize on the turnover as the team ended up punting.
Kaua‘i’s offense seemed to be slowly gaining traction and becoming more efficient as the game went on. With the game still tied at 14 late in the third quarter, Kaua‘i went on an impressive six play 44-yard drive, which put the Red Raiders inside Radford’s 20 yard line. Once again, it was the turnovers that came back to bite them as Agauno was picked off in the endzone.
Kaua‘i’s next drive was setup by another outstanding special teams play as punt returner Grant Basquez was able to break off a 30-yard punt return, which allowed the Red Raiders to set up shop on the Radford 33 yard line.
From there, Kaua‘i turned to Reggie McFadden whom they handed off the ball three times and finished the drive off with a 8-yard touchdown run, which put Kaua‘i up 21-14.
McFadden, who was the workhorse on the ground for Kaua‘i finished with 83 yards rushing on 20 carries.
The Red Raiders held that lead through most of the fourth quarter and it wasn’t until Radford put together the most impressive drive of the night that went for 14 plays and 78 yards and finished with a 2-yard rushing touchdown that would leave the score 21-20 in favor of Kaua‘i.
The Radford coaches then made what ended up being the gustiest call of the night, when instead of kicking the extra point for the tie, they decided to go for two.
The Rams coaching staff definitely had a play drawn up just for that situation as they came out and shifted multiple players strong to the right side, which cause the Kaua‘i players to shift with them. The quarterback went play action to the right side but rolled to his left and had a wide open receiver in the back of the end zone, which made for an easy conversion and a 22-21 Rams lead and final.
Despite the loss, Kaua‘i led in multiple offensive categories including rushing yards, total yards and first downs.
The Red Raiders struggled with third down efficiency going only 1 for 14 in third down efficiency, on the flip side, Radford had a solid 6 for 14 efficiency on third down.
Aguano finished with 146 yards through the air with one touchdown and three interceptions. He also added 53 yards rushing to his totals.
With the loss Kaua‘i fell to 8-2 overall for the season, as Radford moved to 11-1 and advances to the next round of the First Hawaiian Bank Division II State Football Championships.