HILO — The sun shined brightly on the new football field Saturday at Hilo High, as the Big Island Interscholastic Federation (BIIF) girls flag football season got underway with four pre-season games. In addition to the hosts in Hilo, Kamehameha Schools-Hawai‘i, Ka‘u, Kealakehe, Kohala, Konawaena, Pahoa and Parker all participated in the inaugural season-opening event.
While the new field at Hilo High was ready to go for competition, the bleachers had yet to be installed, leaving the field lined with curious spectators. With little intel, most of the fans were interested in evaluating the skill level of the players and seeing how competitive the games would ultimately be.
The first game featured Kealakehe taking on KSH, and any questions about skill level and competition were quickly answered. The athletes on both teams were gifted, and had clearly put in the work to be ready for this moment in Big Island sports history.
The Lady Warriors got on the board when quarterback Bailey Nauka found Hiilani Perreria-Gaspar in the endzone for the first score of the day. When asked how it felt to be on the receiving end of the first touchdown in her school’s history, Hiilani explained that it was, “a sense of accomplishment, and the best feeling I have felt in a very long time.”
Extra-point attempts after touchdowns are handled differently in flag football, as a two-point conversion attempt starts from the six-yard line while one-point conversions from the three. KSH went for two and was successful — leading 8-0 in the first quarter.
The Waveriders were quick to answer with a long drive culminating in a touchdown pass from Peyton Kahiamoe to Tahnea Wagner. The extra point was no good and the score still favored KSH, 8-6. Kealakehe’s defense got the ball back quickly, leading to a rushing score and one-point conversion from Joy Halualani to get out to a 13-8 ;ead.
Kealakehe’s offense continued to pressure KSH’s defense late in the first half until the Warriors came up with a big fourth-down stop on the goal line. Unfortunately, for the Lady Warriors, they were working out of their own endzone and got caught for a safety — giving the Lady Waveriders a 15-8 halftime lead.
The second half featured a lot of defense from Kealakehe and one big play by KSH. After an interception by Lady Waverider Leila Brackett, the Warriors defense got the ball back and Nauka got loose for a 57-yard touchdown run. The extra point was no good, leading to a 15-14 score still in favor of the Waveriders.
When asked if the run was planned or a scramble off a pass play, Nauka said, “I didn’t see anybody open, so I just ran.”
The Waveriders continued to play good defense to close out the game, with Abigail Cabezon finding a tipped pass for another interception and preserving a hard-fought, one-point victory.
When asked about his team’s performance, Kealakehe head coach Gabriel Valentin gave props to his defense and talked about the work the girls put in prior to the start of the season.
“Some of these girls have played in 7-on-7 clubs,” he said. “So they kind of came into this knowing a little bit of it, but the girls wanted to play and we know that these girls are gonna play hard.”
The Ka‘u Lady Trojans and Parker Lady Bulls were the next teams to take the field, and while competitive, their approach was much more conservative. Both teams focused on the run game and short passes. The Lady Trojans struck first with Tenielle Blanco scoring from 10 yards out on a misdirection play. The extra point was good, giving Ka‘u the early 7-0 lead.
The Lady Bulls woke up after the initial Ka‘u score, with quarterback Kennedi Grace-Magaoay finding Georgia Goldsmith on a short pass at midfield. Goldfield, working on her yards after the catch stats, weaved her way through Lady Trojan defenders into the end zone for a touchdown. The extra point failed, and Ka‘u held onto a slim 7-6 halftime lead.
Parker opened the second half with an interception by Goldsmith after which Grace-Magaoay found Danica Castaneda-Petrowski in the end zone for a two-yard touchdown pass. The extra point was no good, giving Parker a 13-7 lead.
The Lady Bulls closed out the scoring with a Grace-Magaoay four-yard touchdown pass to Anuhea Kriss. Kau’s Megan Peirpoint intercepted the extra-point try and Parker prevailed 19-7.
The third game of the day saw Konawaena take on Pahoa. The Lady Wildcats ran a sophisticated offense for this early in the preseason and the Lady Daggers had difficulty adapting to the shifts and overloads on defense, and the score quickly got away from them.
Kona running back Natelia Rivera got the scoring started with a two-yard run and the following extra point to jolt the Lady Wildcats to a 7-0 lead. Quarterback Ki‘ilei Leleiwi found wide receiver Kalei Blas for a touchdown reception to lead 13-0. Leleiwi then scored on a two-yard run, and the extra point was successful — putting Konawaena up 20-0.
The Lady Wildcat defense was busy as well, with Iolani Campbell hauling in an interception that was quickly turned into another rushing touchdown by Rivera. With the extra point, the score was 27-0 Kona.
The Lady Wildcats closed out the half with Leleiwi finding Kayzia James for a 20-yard touchdown pass and an interception by Kylie Denis to tally a 33-0 halftime score. In the second half, the Wildcats got another touchdown on a long run from Blas, followed by Leleiwi passing to Briley Hao for another score — giving the Wildcats the 46-0 victory.
The hosts, the Hilo Lady Vikings, faced off against the Kohala Cowgirls in the final game of the day. Based on roster size alone, it seemed like it might be a long afternoon for the Cowgirls. However, in football, if you have a quarterback, you have a chance, and Kohala had star Kaleilani Ancheta-DeMello under center. Ancheta-DeMello opened up the scoring with a 20-yard touchdown run, giving the Kohala the early 6-0 lead.
The rest of the half saw both teams moving the ball downfield only to fall short once they reached the redzone. The teams went into the five-minute halftime with the Cowgirls still leading 6-0.
In the second half, Hilo’s defense showed up with Carly Akaka picking off a pass to stop a Kohala drive. Following a muffed punt snap, the Lady Vikings took over on downs and quickly converted the turnover into points when Hilo quarterback Ka’iulani Kahanu found Makanalani Takasawa over the middle with a touchdown pass. The extra point failed, and the game was tied 6-6.
Hilo was threatening to score with six minutes left in the fourth when Kohala quarterback-turned-defensive back Ancheta-DeMello picked off Kahanu, giving the Cowgirls the ball. Kohala failed to capitalize on the turnover, giving the Lady Vikings one more chance to win the game. With nine seconds left, Kahanu had a receiver wide open in the end zone but she was unable to make the catch, ending the game in a 6-6 tie.
Typically, in preseason, teams will elect to not play overtime. However, with flag football being a new HHSAA sport and the officials wanting to get in some practice, each team received the opportunity to score from the 10-yard line.
Hilo got the ball first and Kahanu, who last played flag football when she was 10, found Kepeka Boisey in the back of the endzone for the go-ahead touchdown. Kahanu then added the two-point conversion to make the score 14-6 in favor of the Lady Vikings.
Kohala had an opportunity to tie the game again and force a second overtime, but the Cowgirls running back was penalized for not having a flag during their scoring attempt, and Hilo was declared winner.
This past weekend gave players and coaches an opportunity to learn about their strengths and weaknesses while competing. BIIF schools are giving their girls another opportunity to chase excellence, and as we saw at Hilo, Big Island sports fans should be entertained for years to come.
See Page 2B for pictures from the Hawaii Preparatory Academy preseason tournament from last weekend.
