HONOLULU — The more Willis Lilly bumped heads with Raymond Sayers, the more Lilly came to believe that the Farrington defensive backs coach believed in him.
That belief was rewarded on Friday night as Lilly came down with the game-sealing interception in the Governors’ heart-pounding 13-10 win over Kailua in an Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I semifinal at Skippa Diaz Stadium.
“We went at it. But (Sayers) really believed in me, and I see why he believed in me because he knows I can play,” said Lilly, a senior cornerback who had both his team’s picks of Surfriders quarterback Romeo Ortiz. “He knows I can play better than I was previously.
“I have a lot of happiness in me and I want to thank all my team, especially my defense for having my back and not giving up on me.”
In the other semifinal, Waipahu reached its third D-I title game in the last five OIA playoffs with a 37-21 home win over Leilehua. Farrington and Waipahu will meet at Mililani on Nov. 3 with the Govs going for their first league title since 1990. Farrington also qualified for the state tournament for the first time since 2016.
“I’ve been here through the great years, the thin years,” head coach Daniel Sanchez said. “Hopefully, we’re getting back on track with Farrington football. … Waipahu is fricken’ great team. We got our work cut out for us.”
Kailua, which similarly beat Aiea last week on a game-saving pick, appeared poised to steal the game with a fourth-quarter drive that included two fourth-down conversions plus a personal foul on the Govs that advanced the ball inside the Farrington 30 with about two minutes left.
Ortiz, who’d tormented the Govs all night with his explosive keepers, this time dialed up a throw to Stoney Pocock near the front left pylon. But Lilly was all over it and he elevated to haul in the ball in the end zone as teammates came over to mob him.
“Coach Sayers, he kept telling me they were going to throw. Just let it develop,” Lilly said.
Workhorse running back Sitani Mikaele, who was held in check at some key points, gained the first down necessary to run out the clock and Farrington reached its first OIA championship game since 2016.
“I want to be nice to them as much as I can in practice every single day now,” Mikaele, who hurt an ankle early in the game, said of his defense. “I love them so much.”
Farrington (6-2) has lost only to Open Division powers Kahuku and Campbell this season. But the Govs, who came in averaging more than 30 points a game, were stymied by Kailua’s stack-the-box tactics. Mikaele persevered to compile 149 yards on 30 carries with two touchdowns, the latter of which gave the Govs a 10-point lead with 2:45 left in the third quarter.
Ortiz broke through the secondary on a 34-yard keeper to get Kailua back into it with 17 seconds left in the period.
And the Surfriders got a key stop of the Govs at midfield midway through the fourth, one of the few times this season a team has been able to stop Mikaele.
“We like ground and pound. It fell into what we do,” Kailua coach Hauoli Wong said. “We’re physical too and it showed out there today. It was a tough game all the way down to the wire. Wish we would’ve had a better shot in the end.”
It was the second pick of the game for Lilly, a senior cornerback who moved up the depth chart when starter Daniel Suyat broke his forearm during a practice in the Govs’ bye week.
Lilly was born in California, moved to Hawaii when he was 3 and has lived at the hardscrabble Kuhio Park Terrace since.
“Oh, it’s been a journey with him,” Sanchez said with a chuckle. “He had a solid week of practice and Coach Sayers does a hell of a job and was on him all week.
“He proved through today.”
Kailua’s season came to an end at 5-5.
The Govs’ only OIA title to date came in 1990, though that doesn’t include the “Day the Govs Won It All” ILH title victory over Kamehameha in 1965.
Farrington last qualified for states in 2016, the first year of the HHSAA Open Division playoffs. In 2014, it reached the Division I semifinals before losing to Mililani.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.
