Roosevelt High School’s convincing 31-7 first-round victory over Kamehameha High Saturday afternoon of the 2019 First Hawaiian Bank Football Division II Championships made the championship picture clear.
The top two seeded teams, Kapaa and Lahainaluna, will both play this weekend after a one-month hiatus after both were awarded first-round byes.
The Warriors (6-0, 7-1), achieved the No. 2 seed in the Hawaii High School Athletics Association playoffs after capturing the Kauai Interscholastic Federation championship title, and will host Kaimuki at 2 p.m. Saturday at Vidinha Stadium.
Top-seeded Lahainaluna (8-0, 9-1) is the defending HHSAA Division II champion after they toppled Kapaa 34-32 in the 2018 HHSAA Division II football championship game.
The Lunas will play the fifth-seeded Rough Riders (8-2, 10-2) at 7 p.m. Saturday at Lahainaluna High School.
The Lunas are a well-balanced offense.
According to www.scoringlive.com, their quarterback Esekielu Storer has only thrown the ball 114 times during the year.
Storer has thrown nine touchdowns on the season, and their primary running back Joshau Tihada has amassed 1,114 yards and scored 19 touchdowns.
Roosevelt will try to control the ball on the ground against top-seeded Lahainaluna.
They have two backs that split carries in this committee approach. During the victory over, it was third-string back Mitchel Camacho with the majority of the team’s carries as he finished the game accumulating 102 yards on 10 rushes.
Warriors’ coach Phillip Rapozo said he’s familiar with both teams as they continue to prepare for Kaimuki.
The Bulldogs’ offense is high-octane. They are averaging 257 passing yards and 159 rushing yards on the season.
“We’ve done a little film study on the remaining teams in the playoffs,” Rapozo said. “We’ve probably seen the most film on Roosevelt because they play in Kaimuki’s conference. However, we have to focus on the team in front of us.”
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Jason Blasco, sports reporter, can be reached at 245-0437 or jblasco@thegardenisland.com.
