Underdog Mustangs Prepare To Face Victorious Knights
By Jack Danilewicz
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Del.icio.usThe Kalaheo football team won’t have to wait long for an opportunity to make its presence felt in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Red East race. The Mustangs, who return to Division I this fall, open their regular season at Castle Saturday night (approximately 6:30 p.m.) against a Knights team that has won 11 of its last 12 league games over the past two seasons.
The schools haven’t met since the 2002 season (a 19-0 Castle victory), the last year Kalaheo had competed in Division I.
“They’re a great football team,and we want to play against the best,” first-year Kalaheo coach Chris Mellor said of Castle. “There’s no better way to see where we stand. It’s a natural rivalry, and (Castle) Coach (Nelson) Maeda is a class act.”
“We know we’re the underdogs, but if we can compete until the end, it would be a great boost for our program,” he continued. “We have to believe we can compete against a team like Castle to have a chance. We’ll bring our A-game.”
The two teams faced off in a 7-on-7 passing league game this summer, but Kalaheo is perhaps less concerned with Castle’s personnel than it will be with keeping it simple, Mellor said.
Kalaheo has gone to the split-back, veer option offense, which Mellor brought from De La Salle High School in Concord, Calif., where he coached previously.Execution of that scheme helped De La Salle to a much-publicized 151-game win streak, and the Mustangs will need to avoid turnovers against Castle, which used stellar defense and its quick-score capability to earn its first win in 17 years over eventual state champion Kahuku last September. That win set the tone for Castle during the 2005 season as they went on to a 6-0 regular-season record and a Red East championship.
For their part, the Knights dominated their scrimmage at Kapolei on Aug. 19, conceding only a single touchdown to the Hurricanes, while scoring early and often in a variety of ways themselves. Special teams, long a Castle trademark, also played a large role for the Knights, who blocked a pair of punts that day.
Defense remains the Knights’ forte, however, and figures to be in the spotlight for Castle in the coming weeks as they are in the midst of a three-game stretch (vs. Campbell,Kalaheo and Saint Louis), where they’ll face run-oriented attacks. Campbell, last weekend’s pre-season opponent, runs the wing-T (4-back set), while the Mustangs have installed the aforementioned veer offense.
“Anytime you face an option team, it is a concern because it really stretches your defense,” Maeda said.“It’s a quick-hitting offense - the back can get to the hole quickly - and you have to be very disciplined and play ‘assignment’football.”
While Castle was playing Kapolei on Aug. 19, Kalaheo had traveled to the Big Island where they scrimmaged both Kealakehe and Konawaena in preparation for their pre-season game last Saturday with Kalani. Like the Mustangs, Maeda’s focus this week is on his own team.
“We need to emphasize what we need to do, which is to be fundamentally sound and disciplined and play with great effort and intensity,” Maeda said.
A talented corps of veterans - defensive back/slot back Scott Kieter-Charles, quarterback Bryce Ukauka and linebacker/wide-out Corey Paredes - paved the way in Castle’s scrimmage with Kapolei.The Knights had also received an added boost in time for the Campbell game with the return of slot-back/defensive back Kaleo Silva, who had missed some of fall camp while tending to an injury. Kalaheo counters with quarterback Cody von Appen, running back/linebacker Koa Siliga and two-way linemen Dillan Hanawahine and Riley Atanoa, among others.
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