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Campbell To Test Waialua’s Strong O-line On Friday

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When his Waialua football team opens its regular season Friday night at Campbell, Bulldog coach Lincoln Barit is hoping his team’s best defense will be its offense.

“We have to try to keep the ball in our court,” said Barit, who is beginning his fifth season as Waialua’s head coach.“We have to keep our defense off of the field and control the game. That’s a key for us.”

Friday’s game will mark Campbell’s first since being shifted to the OIA White Division in the off-season. And while the Sabers have a new head coach in Amosa Amosa, Campbell is hardly a mystery team, given Amosa’s reputation as one of the game’s top offensive minds. (He’s mastered the run-and-shoot offense and was offensive coordinator under Wendell Say at Aiea the past eight years, including in 2003 when Na Ali’i won the Division II state title.)

“We know Amosa is going to put together a good package for them with the run-and-shoot, and we hope our defense comes to play,” said Barit, whose team went 2-5 last year.“We have to eliminate mistakes because they’ll eat you up if you have a blown coverage or missed tackles. When you play Campbell, you have to be flawless.”

For their part, the Bulldogs are counting on their own offense to pave the way to what they hope will be a season akin to 2006, when Waialua was the OIA Division II’s surprise team en route to a 6-3 record and a playoff appearance. Waialua has been running the spread offense since Barit took over the program and has what he terms “the best and the biggest offensive line we’ve ever had” this fall.

With that in mind, while the Bulldogs run-versus-pass play ratio leaned heavily toward the latter in past years, Barit sees his team being more run-oriented this time around, with Micah Hatchie (6-5, 265), Graham Rowley (6-3, 265), Hunter Thompson (6-2, 275), Johnny Tago (5-11, 260) and Pone Aleofa (6-3, 240) poised for solid seasons up front.

The Bulldogs haven’t produced any Division I college prospects on the line in the past four seasons, but all five projected starters could earn such offers by the time their careers at Waialua have run their course, according to Barit.

Hatchie and Rowley are only juniors this fall, but have already received scholarship offers from UH-Manoa, and both are being recruited by Pac-10 schools. Tago and Thompson also are being recruited by West Coast colleges.

“Our line is definitely our strength,” said Barit, noting that a pair of sophomores are fighting it out to be starting quarterback. “Johnny is the smallest guy on the line, but he’s our leader there. He directs our blocking schemes. Micah has terrific technique from going to Brian Derby’s lineman camps every summer. He’s a very coachable kid and probably our strongest on the line.

“Graham is probably the fastest lineman that we have - he runs a 4.8 forty(-yard dash), and his leadership is unreal. He comes at you every play, and if you take a play off when you’re going up against him, he’ll take you out. Hunter is our senior leader and captain. He’s another guy that comes at you full force.”

At the skilled positions, Waialua welcomes back a trio of play-makers in running back Joseph Kaululaau, wide-out/running back Kaleo Lopes and defensive back Jacob Deuz, who is one of only two returnees to the Bulldog defense along with linebacker Brysen Agricula.

“Kaleo runs a 4.4 in the forty - he’s our ‘go-to’ man,” Barit said. “Jacob has a lot of experience in the secondary, and we’ll be very young on defense. He’s our defensive captain. Joseph’s going to be a good one. His strength is unreal for his size, and he can cut on a dime and pick up speed at the same time. Brysen has a lot of speed, and he has a fun attitude, but he still gets the job done.”

Among the defense’s priorities Friday will be to slow the Sabers’ stellar running back Samson Anguay, who tallied 11 touchdowns for Campbell last season.

Barit is equally weary of first-year quarterback Lalo Respecio, who played against Waialua last year while quarterbacking for Nanakuli.

“He did a good job against us there at Nanakuli. We think their passing game will be good, so we know they can run and pass. Not giving up the big play is a key. Hopefully, our defensive backs can do the job.”