Hurricanes Get In Gear For First Game With Waipahu
By Jack Danilewicz
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The mushroom cloud that hovered over the Kapolei football team for a few weeks has moved on. So have the Hurricanes. Indeed, the forecast for Friday night’s game against Waipahu is for clear skies - literally and figuratively for Kapolei, to hear coach Darren Hernandez tell it.
After his team lost team leaders and highly touted college prospects Chad Lopati and Luke Spencer to injuries in the late stages of the first half of their Aug. 23 inter-league game with Kamehameha-Oahu, the Hurricanes found themselves in an uncharacteristic funk.
“We haven’t been the same since,“said Hernandez.“In the first half of our game against Kamehameha-Oahu, we held them scoreless. When both of them went down, we gave up a lot of points in the second half, and with both of them out, we really suffered at the hands of Waianae’s power running attack.”
This week, the Hurricanes are preparing for Waipahu’s run-oriented one-back, spread-option attack with both Lopati and Spencer expected to be back in the lineup. Spencer returned to action in the 4-0 win over Nanakuli Sept. 5, while Lopati practiced Sept. 8 for the first time since injuring his knee, with hopes of playing in last Friday night’s game against defending state champion Leilehua.
This weekend’s matchup with Waipahu will be the first-ever between the schools. Since they began playing varsity football in 2002, the Hurricanes have always found themselves in a different division from the Marauders. In Waipahu, Kapolei will face a program that has won 26 games over the past two-and-a-half seasons, including a 3-1 start to this season in Division I,heading into last weekend.
While both the Hurricanes and the Marauders run the one-back, spread-option offense, similarities between the teams end largely with the formation, making preparation for each other’s schemes no easier than against other OIA Red West teams, according to Hernandez.
“They emphasize a few things that we don’t, so there isn’t any innate advantage (to practicing against a similar formation in practice),“he said.“They do it their own way, and they do it well. We’ll have to be very strong against the run to have a chance.”
The return of Lopati and Spencer would be a big boost for a unit that also features key playmakers in middle linebacker Simione Vehikite, linebacker Cyril Ontai II and safety Shaydon Akuna.
“We’re starting to come together as a team, which is great to see,” Hernandez said of his defense. “Winning is the bottom line, and we’ve been winning with that (defensive) formula. Offensively, it’s been a strange season because we really haven’t gotten the ball to our playmakers yet.”
On that note, the Hurricanes may look to get Ontai and Vehikite more involved on offense. Vehikite had just four carries in the win over Nanakuli for 39 yards - albeit two attempts went for touchdowns - while Ontai covered an impressive 39 yards on his two carries in that game.
Like the Hurricanes, Waipahu is stacked with veterans on both sides of the ball. The Marauders entered last weekend’s game with wins against Kea’au (38-7), Pac-Five (42-7) and Pearl City (42-12) on their resume and are outscoring opponents by an average of 34-11 a month into the season. The Marauders’ only loss was a 20-10 setback to Mililani on Sept. 6.
Waipahu’s defense is led by interior lineman Cabel Puletasi, nose guard Nathan Bartley, linebacker Nick Tagaloa, and defensive backs Kaimi Haina and Anthony Veu.
One of the Marauders’ top defensive assets this season has been its offense, which has used its large and agile offensive line to keep opposing offenses off of the field. The Marauders’ line includes Gafatasi Veu, Bronson Henriques, Craig Masaniai,Chester Manalo and Lafoga Tulafale.
Friday’s game is the second in a brutal stretch for Waipahu, which will play Kapolei, Waianae and Leilehua in successive weeks.
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