Optimistic Trojans Play Seariders Saturday In Pivotal Game
By Jack Danilewicz
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Del.icio.usRod York didn’t need to review film of last year’s 54-41 loss to Waianae to know where his Trojans struggled.
The first-year Mililani head coach could practically recall the details in his sleep. Lest anyone forget, Waianae rolled up an eye-opening 465 rushing yards and scored seven touchdowns against a defense that had helped the Trojans to wins in six of seven weeks to that point.
“I tell our kids that since 1852, they’ve been running that (Wing-T) offense, and it doesn’t matter if you know how to stop it - they out-execute everyone with it,” said York, whose Trojans host Waianae at 7 p.m. Saturday in a key OIA Red West Conference game. “Last year, they out-executed, out-coached and out-played us. We definitely have that in our memory.”
The Trojans also have momentum with impressive wins over Kaimuki and Iolani to begin the 2010 season. Mililani, which was to play Radford over the weekend, would be pointing to Friday’s game with Waianae even if the Seariders hadn’t administered last year’s thrashing, as both teams expect to be in the mix for the Red West crown.
While much focus will be on stopping Waianae’s power run game, the Trojans’ best defense this week may be their offense, which is perhaps just balanced enough to keep the Seariders’ own offense off of the field with lengthy drives.
“We’re coming off of two good performances - not just on the scoreboard, but the way we played. We took care of the football, and we’ve had a bend-but-don’t-break defense.”
Against Iolani, their run-game was the focus as running back Zachary Payomo rushed for 257 yards. Senior quarterback Trent McKinney was also in sync, hitting on eight of 11 passes for 110 yards, and wide receivers Hassan Richardson and Ervan Jean-Pierre caught three passes each.
York expects the yards to be harder to come by versus Waianae, but likes his weapons, as well as an offensive line whose rotation currently includes Kawika Barabin (left tackle), Landon Freitas (left guard), Chase Yamada (center), Cameron Lalau (right tackle), Jarred Serrao (left tackle) and Ryan James (right tackle).
Former Kamehameha and University of Utah standout Tyler Williams is offensive line coach, and the offense is led by first-year coordinator Bobby George.
“He (Williams) has really come on and made a huge impact on our offense, and he spends a lot of quality time with the offensive line going over academic reports and grading out their film,” York said. “They have become a tight group, and they believe in one another.
“I mainly just tell Bobby George to be balanced (on offense),” said York, Mililani’s defensive coordinator in addition to being the head coach. “We were pleased with the Iolani game, but at the same time, we outweighed them (up front) by 100 pounds per player. We want to take what they give us. At times, you’ll see Trent throw for 300 yards and other times it will be 100.
Against Iolani, his efficiency was good. They gave us the run all day.
“Waianae is a run-stopping team,” he added. “If we run for 257 yards against Waianae, then we can say we did something.”
Waianae lost to Saint Louis and Kahuku in weeks one and two, but York is still expecting the prototypical Waianae team to show up on Saturday.
“Waianae is Waianae - they are an upper-echelon team,” he said. “They had to play the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the state. They always struggle in the preseason, but they buckle down in the regular season, and they peak in the post-season. They have their quarterback (Puletua Wilson) back, so they’re still prolific.”
Wilson was one of three Seariders to top the 100-yard mark in last year’s meeting, rushing for 115 yards on 10 carries and throwing for another 62 yards through the air.
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