KEAAU – Kamehameha’s opening drive was simple: Kaeo Batacan to the right, Kaeo Batacan up the middle, Kaeo Batacan to the left.
From there, the Warriors mixed in some screen passes and swarmed to the ball on defense.
“That’s who we are,” coach Dan Lyons said.
And he hopes they’re here to stay.
Kamehameha hasn’t always looked the part, but Friday night the Warriors put on a first-quarter clinic in Getting Back on Track 101, defeating Keaau 55-12 at Paiea Stadium, pocketing the Kipimana Cup for the fifth time in five tries.
“I loved our energy and the way we played the entire game,” Lyons said. “It wasn’t about the score. We looked like the team that we were in the beginning of the season.”
Coming off a rare mercy-rule home loss, defending league champion Kamehameha (2-2 BIIF Division II, 5-2) also looked like a team that was trying to get a foul taste out of its mouth. Batacan, carrying the ball exclusively on the first drive, and the senior and Elijah Campbell each ran for two scores as the Warriors used good field position to record six touchdowns in the first 11 minutes.
Kamehameha, which turned the ball over seven times in a 41-6 loss to Hilo on Sept. 12, took advantage of two Cougars fumbles, got a 40-yard punt return from David Kalili to set up another score and held Keaau to seven yards in the first quarter while amassing 220.
“Intensity, intensity, intensity,” said junior defensive lineman/linebacker Sedrick Mahi, who finished with three sacks. “Our pursuit was crazy, and that was a huge focus in practice.”
Dallas J Duarte threw two touchdown passes to Kainalu Whitney, finishing 6 of 6 for 69 yards, and Israel Bowden scampered 34 yards for a score and caught a 38-yard pass to up another touchdown.
Kamehameha’s first-quarter domination gave way to second-quarter sloppiness, but Lyons said he saw no letdown in effort, just younger players getting snaps.
Heading into a Division II showdown against undefeated Konawaena, the Warriors took a much-needed step forward. To get there, Mahi said Kamehameha first had to take a step back.
“We looked back at our first preseason game against Kalaheo,” Mahi said. “We looked at how we were then and how we were now, and we saw how different it was and wanted to get back to that.”
Harassed all night long, Dilan Santos tossed two touchdown passes in the second quarter for the Cougars (0-4 BIIF Division I, 0-5). Kaina Vierra won a jump ball and turned it into a 68-yard play, and Charles Caldwell-Kaai made a nifty catch in the end zone off a deflection.
Keaau yielded seven sacks, finishing with negative yardage on the ground.
Batacan surpassed 100 yards on the ground with his first carry of the third quarter, finishing with 118 yards on 11 carries.
Seven of those carries came on the opening drive as the Warriors attempted to put their midseason lull behind them.
“We get to a point, I don’t know what it is, but it happened last year,” Lyons said. “We need to refocus.
“We reviewed our commitment and what we wanted to be and how to get there.”