Waialua pulls away from McKinley to keep playoff hopes alive, 33-14

HONOLULU — It wasn’t a pretty win, but the Waialua football team will take it.

The Bulldogs built a 26-0 lead through three quarters and held off late surge by McKinley on its homecoming night to come away with a 33-14 OIA Division II win at Ticky Vasconcellos Stadium Saturday night.

Waialua improved to 2-5 overall and 2-3 in league play in what was a must-win game for its postseason chances.

The Bulldogs were able to take the lead in the opening period, but a number of procedural penalties and turnovers on offense kept them from taking control outside of the third quarter.

“Tough win,” said Waialua senior Jace Apau. “They played hard, still got more things to work on. Penalties and all that almost cost us the game, just got to keep pushing, we’re almost there.”

Apau carried the ball just six times for 23 yards, but three of those carries reached the end zone. He scored on a 2-yard run in the first quarter and added two more scores in the third quarter to give Waialua a 26-0 lead. For his efforts, Apau was named the Fun Factory Game ‘VIP of the Game.’

“First of all I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” said Apau, who also plays on defense and special teams. “I just want to thank the O-line, big props to them. Without them the three touchdowns wouldn’t be there.”

While the Waialua offense struggled early on, defense kept the Bulldogs in it with three takeaways in the first half. Kaipo Suenaka-Mannners recovered a fumble in the end zone early in the second quarter for a defensive score while Jeremiah Clark came down with two interceptions before halftime.

“They stepped up,” Waialua coach Gary Wirtz said of the defense. “Hats off to McKinley, they’re a solid squad, but we were prepared. Defense was dialed in, locked in, did their job. That was the main thing, they did their job, trusted their brother was going to do their job and we executed.”

Ruben Berlin’s blocked punt in the third quarter led to Apau’s 12-yard TD run with 1:20 to play in the stanza.

The Tigers (1-5, 1-4) wouldn’t go down without a fight however.

Fabian Pudja was inserted at quarterback after halftime and made plays with his feet and arm that led to his 15-yard TD pass to Alyza Taufa with nine minutes left in regulation.

Taufa later scored on his second interception of the game 75 seconds later. After Tarsen Soliaga ran in the 2-point conversion, the score read 26-14 with 7:45 remaining.

Momentum was still riding McKinley’s way on the next Waialua possession as a fumbled handoff on first down and a tackle for loss on second down made it third-and-long for the Bulldogs.

But senior quarterback Emery Abilla put a dash to the Tigers’ comeback bid with a 61-yard scramble to the end zone for the final points of the game. Abilla finished the game with 118 rushing yards on 14 carries while completing 14 of his 22 passes for 133 yards.

“Straight heart with him,” Wirtz said of Abilla. “He’s smart, he’s dialed in. I love the kid. He plays with so much heart, he leaves it all on the field.”

Waialua hosts Castle (3-5, 3-2) on Thursday before ending the regular season against Kaimuki (0-6, 0-5)

The Tigers take on Kalani (3-5, 1-4) and Roosevelt (6-1, 5-0) to close out the year.