LIHUE — Kapaa High School’s varsity football team delivered a win for the home crowd on its school’s Homecoming night, defeating Kauai 29-0 Friday night at Vidinha Stadium. The Warriors (2-0 KIF) are now in front in the Kauai Interscholastic Federation standings.
LIHUE — Kapaa High School’s varsity football team delivered a win for the home crowd on its school’s Homecoming night, defeating Kauai 29-0 Friday night at Vidinha Stadium.
The Warriors (2-0 KIF) are now in front in the Kauai Interscholastic Federation standings.
“These kids work so hard. I’ve never been around a bunch of kids with this drive and dedication,” said Kapaa head coach Philip Rapozo. “I’m not surprised that we’re doing all right … This is the kind of stuff that happens.”
Warriors quarterback Rudy Agoot had 122 yards passing, including two touchdown throws to receiver Shane Davis. He also had one rushing touchdown.
“It feels really good. It was awesome,” Agoot said, who is also the school’s Homecoming King. “We’re just all brothers. We’re really close. We have no conflict with each other.”
The win was Kapaa’s second-consecutive game in which its defense did not surrender any points. The Warriors defeated Waimea 36-0 in the KIF season opener two weeks ago.
“It’s incredible. That’s very hard to do,” said Kapaa defensive coach Mike Tresler. “I’ve been coaching football for many years. I cannot remember the last time we had back-to-back shutouts.”
Warriors linebacker Mosese Fifita said the team’s defense has been effective because it works “as one.”
“We’re running to the ball and finishing plays,” he said. “We were playing our game instead of Kauai High’s game.”
After rushing in the triple-digits last week against Waimea, Kauai’s rushing attack was mostly ineffective.
The team found some success passing late in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t make its way to the end zone to break Kapaa’s shutout.
Red Raiders coach Tommy John Cox said Kapaa was simply the better team that night.
“They outplayed on all facets of the game,” Cox said. “There were some breakdowns here and there … We got to adapt and make some changes. We’ll try and do that during the next two weeks.
Red Raiders linebacker Kelii Efhan said the loss serves as a “big lesson” and hopes he and his teammates will perform better the next time they play Kapaa.
“We just weren’t ready,” Efhan said. “We’re going to work hard in practice. No fooling around.”
In a strange turn of events, a game clock was not available. Kapaa had a chance to score in the closing seconds of the second quarter, but time ran out without the team knowing.
“It was working last week. This week it’s not. I don’t know why,” Rapozo said. “That cost us on that drive, but can’t do anything about that.”
Kapaa will remain at home Saturday to play Waimea (0-2 KIF). The junior varsity game begins 5 p.m. and the varsity plays at 7:30 p.m.
“We expect them (Waimea) to be a better team. We got to be better than we were tonight. Every week, we got to be better than we were (the last week).” Rapozo said.
Kauai (1-1 KIF) will travel to Hanapepe to play Waimea on Saturday, Sept. 27. The JV will start at noon and the varsity will begin at 2:30 p.m.
