WAILUKU, Hawaii — A lopsided win for the Lahainaluna High School football team on Saturday night doubled as a festive and emotional reunion for the recovering community of Lahaina.
A sea of red-clad fans made up the majority of the 5,000-plus fans packed into the War Memorial Stadium and they loudly cheered for every touchdown in the Lunas 42-0 shutout of the host Baldwin Bears.
The game was essentially a no-contest after the first few minutes between the defending Maui Interscholastic League champions and the winless Bears, but it was a welcome opportunity for many members of the community to greet and share thoughts for the first time since Aug. 8 wildfires devastated much of historic Lahaina town.
When the score went final, fireworks lit up the sky behind the stadium scoreboard and flags still lowered to half mast.
The rest of the MIL has been in action for a month while Lahaina recovered, but after a slow start in their first official action, the Lunas returned to form with a well-rounded game on the ground and in the air.
Lahainaluna practiced the last few weeks with most of its players enrolled at Kulanihako‘i High in Kihei.
“We’re here playing for our town, and the town represented well,” Lahainaluna co-head coach Dean Rickard said. “They were here for West Maui in full force.”
At halftime, the Baldwin band presented their Lahainaluna counterparts with a $10,000 check for band supplies. Band members from the schools sprinted to midfield and hugged each other.
Fans were clad in “Luna Strong” and “Lahaina Strong” T-shirts. The line to get in snaked around the stadium hours in advance and parking in the area filled up quickly.
“First of all, it was great to see,” Rickard said. “We told the kids, soak it in. Right up until that first kickoff. After that, it’s focus in on the game.”
More than half of the players on the team lost their home in the fires. Some lost family members.
Lunas quarterback Lyrik Kahula, who threw three touchdown passes in the win, felt he had to “lock in” for the game and deliver for the many community members cheering behind the team bench.
He said the toughest part for the team in the aftermath of the destruction was starting up school again in Kihei, and arranging for transportation to get around the island and practice.
But it was well worth it, he said; all but a handful of the Lunas who enrolled at other schools or moved to the mainland right after the fire came back to play for Lahaina.
“During that whole thing, we didn’t want to go and play for any other school except Lahaina. Especially us seniors,” Kahula said. “We didn’t want to wear any other uniform but the red.”
“Leading up to tonight, we just all felt the love and we all just was ready to do it for Lahaina. That’s pretty much what kept us driving, you know what I mean.”
Running back Kaulana Tihada, who caught a touchdown pass from Kahula in the second quarter and ran in the 2-point conversion himself, said that beyond a Division I state playoff loss to Aiea last year, the community tragedy added weight to the team’s purpose.
“Heartbreaking with the fire, devastating,” Tihada said. “But when we got to come together with our teammates, it just made us closer as a family, and we know we had to work extra hard.”
Tihada said the team would enjoy the win until Monday, when it would start preparing for this week’s opponent, Maui High. The Lunas are scheduled to play their first home game Oct. 21 against Baldwin, a week after the Lahainaluna campus is set to reopen.
Baldwin coach Cody Nakamura was hoping for a better outcome for his group but was fine with ceding the spotlight to the Lunas for this one.
“Lahaina’s first game – football wasn’t the main thing tonight,” Nakamura said. “It was about getting them back here, getting the community together and watching the kids have some fun.”
It was the most fans to watch his players play a game. Some Maui media members said the crowd was the most people to attend a game at War Memorial Stadium since about 12,000 showed up for the University of Hawaii’s 2001 game against Montana.
“I think it was awesome,” Nakamura said. “I think the community all came together as we have been since the wildfires. Everybody’s come together. It’s great to see that everybody was here cheering on the Lahainaluna Lunas, and also we had some good cheers too. But it was all about them tonight and it was good to see them out there.”
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.