KEALAKEKUA – While the Konawaena High School football season may have come to an end at the hands of Radford in the semifinal round of the HHSAA Division II state football playoffs on Saturday, football continued to be played at Julian Yates Field as the Kona Marlins and Leeward Steelers met in the Big Island Pop Warner Peewee championship game Sunday afternoon.
The game had all of the excitement of a high school event with both teams battling it out until the final seconds. The Steelers escaped with the title, blocking a PAT and holding on to a 22-20 advantage. PATs count as 2-points at the Pop Warner level.
“The kids played their hearts out and left everything on the line,” said Leeward head coach Heze Anahu-Ambrosio. “It was a nerve racking ending but it is part of the game. It is a game of inches.”
The Peewee championship opened with defense. The only first down of the first quarter came on Leeward’s opening drive. However, as the second quarter started, the Steelers running game began to move the chains.
The rushing attack was led by Hezekiah “Kiah” Anahu-Ambrosio. Anahu-Ambrosio took the ball at the start of the second quarter and penetrated the middle of the field for back-to-back first downs. A screen pass from quarterback Akela Kaniho to Elijah Kahele went for a nine yard gain to move the ball to the Kona 12 yard line.
Anahu-Ambrosio picked up the first down following the pass play and added another six yard run. Kaniho ended the drive by finding a wide open Mitchell Garcia-Monroy in the end zone for the first points of the game. Kaden Baptista connected on the PAT for an 8-0 advantage with 6:40 to play in the half.
Though they had been ineffective at moving the ball in their first two possessions, the score seemed to awaken Kona’s offense. After getting the ball at the Leeward 46 yard line, Marlins quarterback Nathaniel Crivello found James Kapela on a third down, 28 yard pass play to move the chains for the first time in the game. The two hooked up one more time for a third down conversion to move the ball to the 21 yard line.
On the next play, Kapela took the snap from center and lateraled to Crivello. Crivello completed a halfback pass to Mikey Habib for a touchdown. The kick was no good and Kona still trailed 8-6.
Leeward was stopped on a fourth down try on the ensuing possession but they quickly got the ball back when Sammie Rosa intercepted a Crivello pass meant for Kapela with 10 seconds remaining in the second quarter.
Two plays later, the Steelers surprised the Marlins with their own halfback pass with three seconds on the clock. Kaniho lateraled back to Kahale, who then found a wide open Baptista down field for a 54-yard score. Baptista capped the play with a kick and Leeward led 16-6 at halftime.
Kona received the kick after the break and turned the momentum of the game around quickly when Crivello broke lose on the first play of the second half for a 47-yard touchdown. He hit the PAT and the Marlins once again cut the deficit down to two points.
Both defenses stepped up their game for the remainder of the third quarter. In the fourth, Leeward got the ball at their own 40 after a punt. On the first play of the drive, Kaniho found Maui Ellis-Noa for a 20-yard gain.
Kahele took the second snap of the drive and ran to his right but quickly found his path blocked. He cut back across the field, finding room down the left sideline before being pushed out at the one yard line after a 42-yard play. He would score on the following handoff. However, A delay of game penalty forced a tougher kick by Baptista and the attempt was no good, allowing Kona to stay within one possession at 22-14.
The Marlins received the kick with three minutes to play and worked their way down field on two carries by Crivello for almost 40 yards. A Crivello pass to Habib went for 15 yards and the QB took the ball in himself from 5 yards out with 1:49 on the clock.
Despite the score, the Marlins were still down by two and needed the PAT by Crivello to tie the game. The snap was a good one but the Leeward front five burst through the offensive line and blocked the attempt.
“When the defense needed to step up they did,” Anahu-Ambrosio said. “They gave up some big plays, but they came away with that big block so it is all good.”
After recovering an onside kick, the Steelers managed to run most of the time off the clock. Kona would get the ball back in their own territory but could not do anything with the one play they had time for as the final 10 seconds ticked away.
By winning the Big Island Peewee title, Leeward won the right to advance to the national tournament in Las Vegas. However, the Steelers coaches wanted to make sure their team played in a postseason tournament regardless of the outcome of the regular season and have already committed to playing on Oahu. They decided to forfeit their position in the tourney to Kona, who will now have a trip to the mainland to look forward to despite the heartbreaking loss.
“We didn’t want to put all our eggs in one basket so we went ahead and committed to playing in Honolulu,” Anahu-Ambrosio said. “This is something we decided to do at the beginning of the season. We as coaches wanted to show our kids that win or lose, we were going to have a chance to go somewhere and travel.”
Leeward 0 16 0 6 – 22
Kona 0 6 8 6 – 20
Other Scores: Keaukaha def. Wailoa 31-8 (third place, Peewee); Keaukaha def. Panaewa 16-6 (championship, Junior Midget); Wailoa def. Westside 16-8 (Junior Midget, third place)
