HONOLULU — Amid driving rain and a storm of scores, the floodgates burst open for the first state football championship for the island of Kauai.
Kapaa High School was turned back in the HHSAA Division II championship game four of the past five editions of the tournament, but no longer on Thursday night in a 61-7 rout of Kamehameha-Maui at Farrington’s Skippa Diaz Stadium.
Kapaa two-way standout Solomone Malafu was a man among boys in front of a drenched, pro-Kapaa crowd of 644. He carried the ball four times and scored a touchdown each time, from 98, 43, 10 and 1 yards. He also was 6-for-6 on 2-point conversion attempts.
“It’s great. We’ve been here so (many) times, so bringing it home is going to be one to remember,” said Malafu, a 6-foot-1, 225-pound junior. “We made history.”
It was the first state football title at any classification level for the Kauai Interscholastic Federation. The 54-point margin of victory was also the largest in state tournament history, at any level.
Kapaa went 8-0 in coach Mike Tresler’s first year at the helm. When Thursday's final score was read off, he received a sideline water jug bath from his team — somewhat redundant after getting soaked all game long from the steady rain.
“It means everything. We’ll have a great New Year’s celebration when we get back home,” Tresler said. “We got one, Kauai. This is for everybody. Everybody who’s been part of the past games, losses when we came here. This is big. This is for our island, and I’m very proud to be the representative.”
Kapaa had lost the state final by a margin of two scores or fewer in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019. The last three were to Lahainaluna, which moved up to Division I this year.
“I got to play (in 2019), as a freshman,” Malafu said of that 21-10 loss. “It helped me come out of my shell and, you know, it showed today. (We) just dominated.” He thanked the Warriors’ hulking offensive line — which included 6-foot-6, 300-pound Kawika Rogers — for opening up holes for him.
Malafu, a linebacker on defense, also had a pick of KS-Maui quarterback Makana Kamaka-Brayce, and three tackles for loss among his team-high five tackles.
“That guy is a stud. He can play at all levels,” Tresler said.
Quarterback Kapono Na-o added 99 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries (he passed just four times), and Kaikea Tandal had 87 yards and a score on nine attempts.
Kapaa only was taken to third down six times, converting four, as they gained an average of 10.2 yards per play. The outcome became apparent early in the second quarter, if not sooner.
The rain, which came in from the Diamond Head side of the Kalihi field — a different angle than the Open and Division I championship last week — had little effect on the Kauai team’s ground game.
“It kind of rained every game that we played, a little at least,” Tresler said. “We’ve had a lot of wet weather on Kauai. We’re a little bit used to it. When it called for rain, I can’t say we were like, ‘yeah … bring on the thunderstorms, but our kids did fabulous taking care of the football.”
After KS-Maui (5-3) pinned the ball nicely at the Kapaa 2 on a punt on the Maui Interscholastic League champs’ opening drive, Malafu took the handoff on Kapaa’s first play from scrimmage, burst through a hole up the middle and outran the KSM secondary the whole way.
The die was cast, and the Garden Isle Warriors’ massive line set the tone the rest of the way. Kapaa rolled up a tournament-record 477 yards on the ground among its 553 yards of total offense, compared to 164 yards of total offense for Kamehameha.
“That was always the thing we said we had to contend with,” KSM coach Ulima Afoa said of the opposing O-line.
The Warriors from the Valley Isle were short a handful of players due to COVID health and safety protocols in their inaugural appearance in a state tournament final. Afoa did not make excuses about that, or the weather affecting their spread offense. KSM got on the board in the third quarter on a 20-yard pass from Po‘okela Aiu to Keegan Gantala to make it 46-7, but that would be all those Warriors could muster.
“Nothing can take away the good that we did this year,” Afoa said.
Tresler, who was named Kapaa’s head coach in 2020 before football was canceled state-wide that year due to the pandemic, said he considered the team fortunate to come into the game without any positive COVID tests.
“Just so proud of them for the hard work and how committed they were to each other and our football family,” Tresler said.