Kamehameha-Maui brings home koa trophy to Upcountry

Redemption.

History.

After falling short in two of the past three Division II state championship games, Kamehameha-Maui surged through for the first state title in its football program’s 20th season with a 37-14 win over Kaiser Saturday night at John Kauinana Stadium.

“It feels good to just finally pull it off,” said junior running back Zedekaiah Campbell, who rushed for 239 yards and a score in the win.

Coach Ulima Afoa, who took over the program in 2016, said it felt “awesome” for finally breaking through after suffering championship defeats to Kapa’a in 2021 and Waimea in 2023.

“I feel exhilarated,” said Afoa. “I feel happy for our kids. These are great young men that we get to coach. I’m so blessed with the staff that I have, so it wasn’t a one-man job, you know what I’m saying? They all worked their butts off to prepare these kids to play this game and basically tonight was a result of that.”

Quarterback Kolten Waikiki-Caldeira was also electric with three passing touchdowns on just eight completions while also adding another score on the ground.

Two of Waikiki-Caldeira’s scoring passes went to Tevyn Apo, including a 20-yard scoring grab early in the first quarter. All of Waikiki-Caldeira’s passing TDs came off of play-action.

“Our run game helps open up our pass game,” said Campbell. “It forces defenses to load up on the box and once they do that, we throw over the top, like that first one to Tevyn.”

Waikiki-Caldeira credited the coaching staff with helping to prepare the team for the moment.

“We’re reloading, not rebuilding, and it showed everywhere — in the weight room, on the field, conditioning, the coaches,” said Waikiki-Caldeira. “The coaches gave us the answers to the quiz and we just had to go out there and show them what we did was good.”

Waikiki-Caldeira scored his rushing TD on a bootleg with 16 seconds to go in the first quarter to give the Warriors (9-3) a 14-0 lead.

Apo scored again on a 11-yard reception 36 seconds into the second quarter to make it 20-0 game.

But Kaiser (10-3) fought back to get on the board.

Without any first down on its first five drives, the Cougars put together a 15-play, 80-yard drive that ended with a 27-yard pass scoring connection between Jesse Shinagawa to Caleb Hamasaki.

Kaiser then got the ensuing onside kick attempt and found the end zone again on another Shinagawa to Hamasaki connection. This made the score 20-14 at the half.

It was all KS-Maui after that however.

Jumpstarted by Campbell’s 35-yard scoring run in the third quarter, the Warriors closed out the game on a 17-0 run to seal the game.

On the drive where Campbell scored, he carried the ball five times on the series.

“I just don’t stop my feet, just keep running,” said Campbell of his mentality carrying the football. “I just tell myself don’t get tackled by one person, it should take the whole team to take me down.”

Defensively the Warriors had five TFLs, five pass breakups, two interceptions and a fumble recovery as they held the Cougars to just 185 yards of total offense.

“Our defense was able to get some big stops and big turnovers and got us some good field position too,” said Campbell.

Kaiser was seeking its first D2 crown since 2013.