PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii — Iolani’s Taniela Taliauli took the contact from Damien’s Wyatt Ho-Williams at the 3, leaped, stretched and extended the football toward the goal line.
A high-stakes finish to the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I football playoff between Iolani and Damien was imbued with controversy on Friday night as the Raiders’ two-way star was ruled down at the 1, resulting in a turnover on downs with a second left at Radford’s Velasco Stadium.
The Monarchs took a knee in the end zone for a safety and a 42-37 win, a rare championship and state berth. The last time Damien advanced to the First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA Division I field was in 2017; Iolani had been an annual ILH representative to states virtually every year, and won it all in 2021.
“Coach K (former Damien coach/athletic director Eddie Klaneski) gave me the keys and … I just wanted to make him proud,” said Damien coach Anthony Tuitele, who was a receivers coach on the 2017 team that lost to Hilo in the D-I state final.
“It feels great. It’s been a long time. It’s been a journey since we tasted the state tournament.”
Damien (8-3), a two-time state runner-up, was assigned the No. 3 seed and will play OIA runner-up Farrington in an all-Kalihi showdown at Kaiser at 7 p.m. Saturday. The winner will advance to face No. 2 Waipahu on Nov. 18.
Iolani’s season is over–an almost unheard of development prior to states for Wendell Look’s program.
Taliauli, a versatile 5-foot-11 defensive standout who had the game-winning interception against Damien in a 63-56 shootout on Sept. 22, lined up in the slot with the game on the line, Iolani trailing 42-35 and facing fourth and goal from the 1 with 8.4 seconds left. Iolani had already been stuffed on a run and quarterback CJ Villanueva had gone incomplete twice on passes in the end zone.
After a timeout, Villanueva swung the ball to Taliauli, who’d just been inserted in the game and caught it cleanly at about the 5.
Video showed that after making contact with Ho-Williams, Taliauli might’ve broken the plane while he was still airborne going for the game-tying score. The referee crew signaled that he was down at the 1. The game was not televised and replay challenges are not available to coaches until the state tournament.
Look also thought Villanueva’s pass to receiver Kekama Kane on second down—it was ruled to be out of the back of the end zone—could’ve been a catch.
“(Taliauli) stuck the ball out and broke the plane. You hate for it to come down (to that), but even the back one looked pretty good to me too,” Look said. He then paused. “You know, that’s the game, man. They were the better team, the better team today.”
Tuitele, when asked about the play, said he thought Ho-Williams came up huge.
“I put my best player on their best player and it was mano-a-mano, and we all knew the ball was going to him,” Tuitele said. “Our future Damien Monarch came up big for us. But shout out to Nela (Taliauli) too, that kid is tough, that kid grinded it out. Much respect to him, much respect to Coach Wendell and the program. … Proud of my boys and we made that stand.”
Ho-Williams was all smiles afterward, despite a pronounced limp as he made his way off the field.
“Once I saw (Taliauli) coming in, I was like, ‘OK, this ball’s going to him. I’m going to watch out for him.’ The ball went straight to him and I did my job,” the freshman said.
“It’s big. Our team never won the ILH division in a long time, but I feel like we brought this one home,” Ho-Williams added.
The game had a similar shootout feel to the two regular-season meetings between the schools. After dropping the closely played first game at Iolani, the Monarchs won by 34 in the second at Farrington.
Nalu Chinen-Zablan had the go-ahead 48-yard touchdown with 4:25 left in Friday’s winner-take-all playoff. It came on fourth and 3 with a simple Tuitele swing pass.
He somehow escaped several white jerseys and burst down the right sideline, past dismayed Iolani coaches and fans, for his second score of the night. He also had a 17-yarder in the second quarter as Damien led 35-28 at halftime.
“I just gotta (put) trust into Nalu and my receivers for blocking,” the sophomore Tuifua said. “I know Nela, he’s a good guy, he’s a dog. That guy, he’s always been the one for Iolani whenever I played. He would be batting down the balls. But I just gotta get (it) over Nela and then trust it to Nalu doing this thing.”
Villanueva, also a sophomore, was 32-for-56 for 369 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions for Iolani. Kane, another second-year player, came up huge with 14 grabs for 192 yards and two scores.
Look said the outlook is bright for his young group, which loses only 11 seniors.
“Obviously we’re proud of them and how they performed today,” Look said. “You can learn in any circumstance. Hopefully, they’re going to learn some things about themselves through this week. They need to grow up a little bit and get better, but yeah, I’m proud of them.”
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.
