Spirited Marauders Forge Ahead
By Jack Danilewicz
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Pearl City sophomore Donovan
Nieves spikes the ball over the
net. Photo courtesy of the school.
In their bid for an Oahu Interscholastic Association White Conference title, Waipahu’s greater chore is to tend to the matter at hand.
While the Marauders are well aware of their place in the standings, there’s little talk about it these days, according to Waipahu coach Sean Saturnio.
“Sometimes (too much talk) can cause you to put undue pressure on yourself,” said Saturnio, whose team was to play Kalani over the weekend in an important match-up. “We’re just doing our best to do things right. If we do things right, that encompasses a lot of things.”
The Marauders are in the midst of a four-game stretch of road games that will determine their fate. At 6 p.m. Saturday Waipahu visits Nanakuli. A game at Kailua versus Anuenue follows on Oct. 14th. Not until Oct. 20, when the Marauders celebrate homecoming with a much-anticipated game against Kaiser, will Waipahu play another home game.
“Anytime you keep traveling, you’re facing a team that wants to make sure that they don’t lose on their home field,” Saturnio said. We’re taking our season one day at a time right now. As a group, I’ve really been pleased with them. They’ve really progressed as people, which is more important to me than anything we do on the football field.We have big plans for these kids as far as being leaders someday in the community. I love these kids. They’ve worked very hard at becoming the type of men that the world needs.”
For the present, the Marauders have also done well on the football field. In taking a 3-1 record into the weekend,Waipahu had already produced one of the best turnarounds in the state, having won just one game last season. Last week, as they prepared for Kalani, the Marauders were trying to shake off the effects of their only setback to date - a 13-6 loss to Pearl City Sept. 23 that had left them a game back of then-league leader Pearl City.
More significant than coming up on the short end of the scoreboard, however, was the loss of quarterback Gil Fernandez and running back Matt Soueira to injuries. Both were to miss the Kalani game, but figure to return in time for Saturday’s game with Nanakuli. Also missing from the Waipahu lineup lately has been standout nose guard Samson Ma’u.
“That has affected us a lot on defense, but we’ve had some other kids step up,“Saturnio said.“Gil has been working hard and progressing as we’d hoped.”
Regardless of who’s 100 percent this week, Saturnio sees a tough game ahead against a Nanakuli team that has always been physical.
“You can always expect them to play hard,” he said.“They’re coming off a win (over Kalani), so they have some momentum going. We’ve seen them a few times on film already, and as we ‘game-plan’ for them, there are a lot of different things we need to prepare for.We’ve heard that they’ve had injuries to key people, so we’ll see. . .
“If their running back (McShane Sausi) is playing, he’s a load to stop,” he added. “And anytime you have a tall receiver (Juan West) and a quarterback (Chase McGill) who can throw the ball down the field like they do, it’s tough (to stop). Defensively, they line up in some unusual fronts.”
With only one loss at the mid-season point, the Marauders’ collective attitude is at an all-time high, according to Saturnio. Only a year ago, Waipahu had to forfeit a game in the wake of suspensions for off-the-field mishaps that had limited their roster. Those days are clearly in the rear-view mirror this fall.
“Our spirits are high,” Saturnio said. “Our only loss was a onetouchdown game that just came down to Pearl City executing better than we did. Football is a game of execution. We had some breakdowns in containment and in coverage on defense, and we’re cleaning up those errors this week.
“We want to use that game as a good learning experience and make sure we’re taking care of all of the little things.”
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