KAPOLEI — Tama Amisone has stormed to the forefront for the Kapolei Hurricanes.
The Hurricanes’ sophomore quarterback submitted his second straight impressive offensive performance to begin the 2022 season as Kapolei routed visiting Farrington 42-0 on Friday night.
Amisone accounted for five touchdowns — three passing and two rushing — as his team blanked a second straight opponent in a non-league game. Last week’s victim was Kealakehe from Hawaii Island, 70-0.
Through two games, Amisone is 28-for-30 passing with 10 touchdowns and no interceptions through the air, and three scores on the ground. He covered 192 aerial yards and 71 on five keepers Friday.
Last year’s primary quarterback, Tuli Tagovailoa-Amosa, is available and healthy, and received some spot snaps and cleanup work Friday. Amisone has so far just been that good on the varsity, combining unerring aim and explosiveness in the backfield.
“He’s been playing quarterback most of his life, since he was 10 or 8 years old. He has a lot of experience,” Kapolei coach Darren Hernandez said. “The football IQ comes into play when he’s out there. He has great awareness, great vision, and that’s been fun to watch.”
Amisone, with a soft-spoken voice as the lights winked out around Kapolei’s stadium, credited his offensive line and said the team had to prevent complacency heading into next week’s game against reigning OIA Division I champion Aiea.
“We have a lot of playmakers, so I’m really happy about that,” he said. “I guess it’s easier on me now, because I have weapons everywhere, and they make it easier for me.”
Malachi Tapaoan, Riley Camarillo and Esaiah Gideon have been his top targets with seven touchdowns between them.
Kapolei jumped out 14-0 in the first quarter Friday with a 13-yard Amisone untouched run to the end zone and a 68-yard bomb on a post route by Tapaoan.
After Caleb Dela Pena-Pihana’s 11-yard TD grab in the second period for a three-score lead, Kapolei elected to try to put the game away early. Hernandez and his staff noticed Farrington’s upmost players on the coverage team were 10 yards further back in the middle of the field, and Hernandez called for an onside kick and the Hurricanes, of the Open Division, pounced on it against the Governors, who moved down to Division I this season after a winless 2021.
In fact, kicker Hurley Kennedy jumped on it himself.
“He’s a self-taught kicker. I’d like to talk about that kid,” Hernandez said. “During the pandemic, he started watching YouTube videos on kicking. And he’s only a junior and has great potential as a kicker. We’re excited about him.”
After leading 28-0 at halftime, Kapolei achieved a 35-point lead and running clock status early in the third on Tapaoan’s second touchdown of the game, a 7-yarder.
Tagovailoa-Amosa played the fourth quarter and found Gideon for a 24-yard TD to complete the scoring.
Defensively, despite the second straight shutout, Hernandez is looking for improvement after several gashes up the middle resulted in extra yards because of tackling technique, he said.
Farrington (1-1) found the going much different from in its season-opening 42-7 win over Division II Waialua.
After some initial effective runs opened up by its offensive line, the Hurricanes knocked running back Zechariah Molitau out of the game.
Coach Daniel Sanchez dismissed the notion that a few hurt players affected the outcome. Quarterback MJ Moreno played the duration and was 7-for-20 passing for 56 yards.
“We learned a lot. We got punched in the mouth, and we’ll see how we come back next week,” Sanchez said. “A lot of things we gotta fix, a lot of things offensively. We’ve got to do a better job as coaches, and get this ship back on track again.”
Farrington will play back-to-back mainland schools; it hosts Newport Harbor (Calif.) next week, has a bye then plays at McMinnville of Oregon on Sept. 2.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.