BIIF Saturday Football preview

Kamehameha at Waiakea, 7:30 p.m. Friday

Last season, Ina Teofilo looked like a wide receiver, fitting less than 200 pounds on his slender 6-foot frame, but he was a running back for Kamehameha, and played with the hard-nosed mentality of a bulldozer.

He was the typical north-south runner, relying on toughness to power through the tackle gaps rather than speed to race around the perimeter. As a first-year starter, his style worked and the Warriors were in position to win the Big Island Interscholastic Federation Division II championship.

In a memorable thriller, Konawaena edged Kamehameha 32-28, but Teofilo finished his junior season on a high note with 122 yards on 23 carries.

Then he got additional motivation to work hard for his senior season. Teofilo was snubbed in the All-BIIF Division II voting. There were four available running back spots, but he didn’t make the first or second teams. (There was no honorable mention.)

Maybe no one knew who he was. As a sophomore in 2011 at Waiakea, Teofilo didn’t play in any BIIF sport. Instead, he played Hawaii Youth Rugby.

However, he did announce his arrival last year in Kamehameha’s 35-12 preseason win over Keaau. Teofilo turned into a bowling ball, and rushed for 189 yards, including a pair of touchdowns.

He no longer looks like a wiry wide receiver. Teofilo is now 6-1 and 205 pounds of solid muscle, resembling a weakside linebacker responsible for providing toughness on tackles, and speed while chasing down plays on the backside.

However, he doesn’t play defense. He’s used on special teams and saved for carrying Kamehameha’s offense, especially when the aerial attack isn’t working and the game plan is: give Teofilo the ball and go block somebody, even when there are eight defenders in the box.

That was pretty much the offensive philosophy in a 37-3 loss to old nemesis Konawaena last Friday at Paie‘a Stadium. Teofilo was a workhorse in the first half, rushing for 157 yards on 19 attempts. He finished with 181 yards on 32 carries.

His production slowed in second half — 29 yards on 13 carries — because he couldn’t break a long scamper to soften run blitzes, and the Wildcats played with a high-energy tempo and attacked running lanes with far

more aggressiveness.

But for the first 24 minutes, Teofilo put on a show, busting loose for long gains of 38, 29, and 27 yards, showing the speed to turn the corner on the outside, and beat the second-level tacklers before they could close the angle on him.

He’s got a light but mobile offensive line, led by senior Paka Davis (6-1, 210), also Kamehameha’s first baseman on the baseball team, and sophomore Joyden Madriaga (5-9, 240). The O-line raced to the outside on stretch plays, and often won the battle at the point of attack.

Behind lineman Makoa Chapa’s 18 tackles, often created when he conveniently leveraged someone out of the way, and a lockdown secondary, Kona’s defense won the war.

“The line did a good job. I saw the outside open,” Teofilo said about the first half. “I saw holes and everybody was doing their job.”

During the summer, Teofilo attended the Nike camp at Oregon, where he received valuable advice from the staff of the No. 2-ranked Ducks.

“Don’t get hit, give the hit,” recalled Teofilo, who also spent his summer working out at Paie‘a Stadium, focusing on his agility, with on-the-ground foot ladder drills, and running up stairs every day. “Last year, I was a north-south runner. This year, I want to be east-west, too, to be a double threat.”

He wants to land a college scholarship, and he’s doing his part, not only on the field. In the class room, Teofilo is holding a 3.2 grade-point average.

Much like the All-BIIF voting, he’s hoping someone will take notice.

Waiakea senior running back Devin Preston demonstrated why he landed on the All-BIIF Division I first team last season in the Warriors’ 15-0 win over Honokaa on Saturday on the road.

Most coaches would prefer an opposing running back be productive in the first half rather than the second. That’s simply because if there’s a lead in place, the ticking clock with running plays, also serves as an enemy.

Preston rushed for 116 of his 143 yards, including touchdown runs of 60 and 40 runs, in the second half, when the Dragons likely put a heavy emphasis on stopping him. They couldn’t and he made game-changing plays.

Waiakea led only 2-0 at halftime, when it was time for Preston to step up and shine.

It’ll be an interesting running back matchup: Teofilo vs. Preston. The latter Warrior is also a linebacker, so he could be facing and tackling Teofilo, who doesn’t play defense.

If Kamehameha puts the ball in the air, beware of Waiakea junior Zac Correa. Counting the preseason, he snagged his third interception of the season against Honokaa.

Honokaa at Konawaena, 7:30 p.m. Friday

Bubba Ellis-Noa is turning into a big-play, two-way threat for the Wildcats. Against Kamehameha, the running back scored on an 88-yard swing pass from quarterback Brandon Howes, and a 59-yard run.

He finished with two catches for 91 yards, and ran for 81 yards on six carries. Ellis-Noa is a junior, so he’ll be back to torment teams for another year.

On par as a weapon is Howes, who rushed for 101 yards, including a 53-yard TD run, on just nine attempts. The senior QB went 9 of 24 for 235 yards with two touchdown strikes.

Sophomore wideout Lucca Vartic is developing into a deep threat. He caught two balls, one for 24 yards and the other for 12 yards. Kona’s top receiving threat is senior Chase Takaki, who had one reception for 26 yards.

The Dragons displayed a good ground presence against Waiakea, gathering 236 yards. Sione Epenesa rushed for 148 yards on 21 carries, and Wayne Vaoga contributed 70 yards.

Honokaa ran out of the wishbone, after using the double wing-T a year ago, two ground-and-pound attacks designed to chew up the clock and, hopefully, prevent big plays from the other team, making for a matchup of clock management vs. Kona’s big-play quick strikes.

Hawaii Prep at Kealakehe, 7 p.m. Saturday

Champions find a way to win, even if they haven’t exactly figured themselves out yet. That’s one small reason the Kealakehe gridiron powerhouse, usually blessed with the most size, speed and depth, has officially captured seven of the last nine league titles.

There coach Sam Papalii stood, soaking in the scene, at Keaau High’s football field on Saturday evening after his Waveriders prevailed over the Cougars 21-12 in a hotly contested Big Island Interscholastic Federation Division I showdown. Fortunately for the visitors, the game turned right-side up in the second half.

Keaau led 12-6 at halftime, poised to upset Kealakehe for the first time since 2007. The home team carried momentum into the locker room, after quarterback George Lucas-Tadeo threw a 58-yard touchdown pass to Justin Quesada with just 28.6 seconds on the clock.

“We’ve got a long way to go, especially on offense,” Papalii said in the aftermath. “We still have to find our personality. We fought hard like we always do. Defensively, we’ve got a lot of young personnel and we missed a ton of tackles in the first half. Keaau came to play, but we shut them down in the second half.”

To clarify the smaller point first, the Waveriders saw Lucas-Tadeo slip through four or five potential sacks with his pocket savvy and mobility. Too often, Kealakehe tacklers made a beeline for the Keaau senior QB, instead of targeting his outside shoulder to force him to scramble inside where traffic waited.

The larger issue is the direction of the offense. Is Kealakehe a passing team with its spread offense? Or a running team? Is the jumbo I-formation package with three runners in the backfield the best plan to find the end zone?

New quarterback Kaimi Wilson was 6 of 12 for 26 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Daniel Webber rushed for 63 yards on 16 carries, a 3.7 yard per attempt average. The other rushers struggled: 57 yards on 23 carries, a 2.5 yard per attempt average.

It’s a small sample size, but no one stretched the field. Webber had the longest run, a pair of 15-yard gains. Wilson’s longest pass was for 10 yards, a touchdown strike to Kaeho Kaakimaka in the third quarter, set up by a fumble recovery.

The growing pains are to be expected after Kealakehe graduated 22 seniors, including 17 who went off to play college ball, taking with them not only talent and depth off the roster, but also big-game experience and the all-important speed element on both sides of the ball.

When the ’Riders put a slotback in motion and ran their toss sweeps, the Cougars, even with a three-man front, contained the perimeter and bottled up ballcarriers before they could turn the corner. When it was smash-mouth time, Keaau brought numbers and crashed down to cause all sorts of congestion at the line of scrimmage.

One trait of a gridiron champion is imposing its will on the opposition. For one short burst, the Waveriders did just that. They ran their jumbo I-formation, which looks like an inverted wishbone, to set up their first touchdown.

On their opening drive, the ’Riders started at their 28-yard line, crossed midfield on a Keaau late hit penalty, and got into the red zone with their jumbo attack. Then Wilson faked a handoff, and raced in for a 13-yard score.

“We went to the jumbo, power I, because our other stuff was not working,” Papalii said. “We haven’t practiced it enough. We had to go away from the jumbo because they were finding creases.”

Sooner or later, Papalii is hoping to get his best blocker back. Feke Sopoaga-Kioa, a 6-foot-3, 310-pound senior, was an All-BIIF first team pick on the offensive line last season. He’s been out with a knee injury.

There Papalii stood on Saturday, watching the Waveriders sing the school’s alma mater, and thinking about the long road ahead. He knows the regular season is for seeding purposes in the BIIF Division I four-team playoffs. The two most important games are the last two — the league semifinals and the championship.

“We want to peak at the playoffs,” he said. “We’re a long way to being the kind of team we want to be. But we did what we had to do tonight to win.”

The question for this game is: Who’s the better mechanic?

The Waveriders had their struggles on the offensive side of the ball, but nothing that can’t be fixed in Papalii’s mind. Plus, it always helps to have a few big guys on both sides of the ball — the team’s double-edged sword strength — to inflict damage.

Tui Eli, a 6-4, 250-pound junior, landed on the All-BIIF first team at offensive line last year while Travis Lualemaga, a 6-1, 317-pound senior, was on the first team at defensive line.

They’ll be the numbers — Eli No. 65 and Lualemaga No. 55 — to watch when chasing HPA running back Bobby Lum and quarterback Koa Ellis.

Lum and Ellis had uneven performances in an 18-10 loss to Hilo. Lum was held to 62 yards on 22 carries, a 2.8 yard-per-attempt average. Ellis went 7 of 16 for 84 yards and was sacked six times.

That’s more a reflection of the offensive line in both disciplines: run blocking to open holes and pass blocking to provide a clean pocket. That, too, can be fixed with film study and sharpened technique.

But for those fans interested in who’s the better mechanic, tune in to that battle: Kealakehe’s defensive line vs. HPA’s O-line.

Keaau at Hilo, 7:30 p.m. Saturday

The question for this game is: Who will find a balanced offense first?

Vikings running back Tristin Spikes zipped around Ka Makani for 157 yards on 22 carries. Sione Atuekaho took over at quarterback in the third quarter and went 4 of 8 for 65 yards.

Cougars quarterback George Lucas-Tadeo completed 21 of 42 passes for 233 yards with two touchdowns in the loss to Kealakehe. It would have been 27 of 42 (64 percent), if not for six drops. Keaau’s ground game produced 70 yards on 19 carries.

That’s a fairly productive 3.7 yard-per-rush average. But at a closer glance, it drops to 2.9 yards, if a Lucas-Tadeo scramble for 18 yards is tossed out. The senior QB avoided a handful of sacks, either getting back to the line of scrimmage or throwing the ball.

And if anyone is green around the collar, it’s the Cougars, who went 0-7 in the BIIF last season and played zero preseason games. They have four returning starters on offense (all on the line), and two on defense in nose tackle Zeph Pavao, who plugged holes, and secondary ace Tristan Haskell, who had a fumble recovery against Kealakehe.

The Keaau-Hilo contestants will be jacked up for this Division I matchup because nobody wants to be the No. 4 seed in the playoffs and travel to likely No. 1 seed Kealakehe’s home turf, where noisy Waverider Stadium is usually a death sentence for visitors.

That’s one more reason the Waveriders have officially won seven of the last nine league titles.