Pearl City’s Focus On Offense In Friday Game At Moanalua
By Jack Danilewicz
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While it isn’t unusual for defense to be ahead of offense only three weeks into the prep football season,first-year Pearl City coach Kai Kamaka still can’t overestimate the impact of his defense so far in 2009.
“They’re basically keeping us intact,” he said.
That was never more true than in Week Two when the Chargers made several big plays on the defensive side to beat a good Aiea team, 16-14. At the forefront of their win was converted defensive end Marco Gonzales,a 185-pound senior, who stepped into the path of an Aiea screen for a tide-turning interception. A linebacker a year ago,Gonzales also had three sacks versus Na Ali’i.
“We were so stacked there (at linebacker) that we moved him to defensive end,“Kamaka said.“He has a knack for (getting to) the ball and he’s aggressive - he runs 110 miles an hour.”
Gonzales is just one of several players having all-conference-type seasons in the early going. Middle linebacker Cyrus Coen is the most well-known of the unit and hasn’t disappointed with eight solo tackles and a pair of sacks against Aiea. Fellow linebackers Hayden Concepcion and Chayse Tagalog have also played tall for Pearl City.
“(They’re a combination of) speed and power,” Kamaka said in sizing up the group. “They’re quick off the ball and ready to hit. Our game plan against Aiea was to try to nullify their speed, and we didn’t want to let their quarterback just sit back and be able to throw.”
The challenges keep coming.The Chargers were to play against OIA White Conference foe Radford last weekend and are preparing for a key league game at 7 p.m. Friday at Moanalua. Na Menehune is among the surprise teams in the OIA this fall with back-to-back wins over Kalaheo and Radford in recent weeks. Moanalua also is one of few pure-option teams on the Island at present, so the Chargers are facing an attack they don’t see but once a year.
“You have to be real disciplined against them,“Kamaka said.“You take the quarterback first, then the dive, and you go from there. They’re pretty quick, but I think we match up with them well.”
As with most teams, Pearl City’s first goal is to avoid beating itself.Kamaka is hoping his team can cut down on its self-imposed miscues - the only blemish in an otherwise spirited effort against Aiea.
“The kids realized that if we cannot play our best and still win a game, we can be really good when we play error-free football,” Kamaka said. “It seems like we’ve made 2,000 mistakes.”
The Chargers also made good use of their bye week after a lopsided loss to Division I Castle in their preseason game Aug. 15. The loss to the Knights looks better in retrospect, given that Castle is perhaps the surprise team in the state this year.
“The Castle game was a good thing for us. It opened our eyes. We had done really well in our scrimmages with Pac 5,Nanakuli and Roosevelt. When Castle humbled us, it got us back to square one.”
Offensively, the Chargers are still finding their footing, although their special teams play has more than picked up the slack of late. Return specialist Ray Cooper has been electrifying as advertised, according to Kamaka, noting his long kickoff return versus Aiea.Kicker Tyler Yamanouchi also has been automatic with field goals covering 25,15 and 44 yards against Na Ali’i.“Ray is a big asset,” Kamaka said, “and on Tyler’s 44-yarder, he kicked it another 10 to 15 yards further.
“Our offense is just waiting to explode,“he added.“We see signs of it. The kids can see the openings. It’s a matter of getting our timing down.”
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