Monday Morning MIL: Bears beat Lunas in football; closer to state berth

The Baldwin High School football team pulled out a gritty 7-3 home victory over Lahainaluna on Friday at War Memorial Stadium to take a large step towards qualifying for the Division I state tournament for the first time in five years.

Senior wide receiver Antone Sanches, who filled in at quarterback for Jordan Carbonell who was out with a shoulder injury, scored on a 1-yard dive into the end zone with 10:22 left in the second quarter.

Sanches’ touchdown proved to be all that was needed offensively in the hard-hitting, defensive struggle. Lahainaluna’s only points came on a 19-yard field goal by Joseph Arcangel with 19 seconds left in the first half. 

Sanches chuckled when asked how old he was on Oct. 15, 2016, the last time the Bears beat the Lunas.

“I was 10 years old,” he said. “This felt amazing, I’ve been waiting here for this for so long.”

The victory came in front of a large crowd for senior night, with the Bears honoring 21 members on the football team, 26 in the band and 11 from the cheerleading squad. 

Baldwin improved to 5-2 overall this season, and most importantly, 1-0 in the Maui Interscholastic League Division I second round. 

If Baldwin beats Maui High in its next game on Friday night at War Memorial Stadium, the Bears would wrap up the D-I second-round crown and set up a championship game on Nov. 1 or Nov. 2 against the first-round champion Lunas. The winner of the championship playoff game would earn the division’s lone state berth.

The Bears have turned their fortunes around this season after going an abysmal 1-27 the past three years. The poor streak included going winless in 2022 and 2023, the first two years under new head coach Cody Nakamura. Before that, Baldwin had not failed to win at least one game in a season dating to 1954.

On Friday, the Bears broke a 12-game losing streak to the Lunas, which included a 24-7 loss on Sept. 20.

“For ‘Tone to step in and play quarterback just shows what kind of young man he is — it’s always ‘Yes, coach’ with him, no questions asked,” Nakamura said.

But the victory wasn’t easy.

“It was smash-mouth football tonight,” Nakamura said. “Defense played incredible … Offensively, we did what we had to do. And if we clean up a couple things, we hopefully can put a few more points on the board.” 

The game came down to a final drive by the Lunas, who reached the Baldwin 6-yard line. But on third-and-2, an errant snap from center sailed over quarterback Kahi Magno’s head with 1:33 to play for an 18-yard loss. The Lunas’ fourth down pass was incomplete.

“I just prayed at that moment and I’m just thankful,” said Sanches, who has been a member of the school’s varsity football team since he was a freshman. 

A few minutes after the game ended, the youngest Sanches was hugging his 81-year-old grandfather, Gary Sanches, who has seen the Bears dominate Maui Interscholastic League football for a couple decades before the Lunas took over that mantle about 15 years ago.

Nakamura said it was special for Antone Sanches to help break the losing streak to the Lunas — and help guide a bounce-back season as a senior — considering the sports legacy of his family at Baldwin. His grandfather has been the guiding light for the Bears’ track and field program for more than three decades and his father Kyle Sanches is a former Baldwin assistant football coach.

Antone said of the first message he got from his grandfather: “You gotta run harder; you didn’t run hard enough.”

Gary Sanches smiled nearby and said, “I told him ‘play hard, play hard, that’s all you can do. And play smart.'”

In other football news, Molokaʻi canceled its final two games, including Saturday’s matchup against Kamehameha Maui in Hoolehua and Oct. 19 at King Kekaulike. Kūlanihākoʻi also canceled its Thursday eight-player game against Lānaʻi.

Molokai and Kūlanihākoʻi did not have enough available players to field teams because of academics, injuries and family trips during the fall break.

Kamehameha Maui can wrap up a Division II state berth with a victory over King Kekaulike on Oct. 25. If King Kekaulike wins that game, it would force a winner-take-all game for the MIL D-II state berth Nov. 1 or 2. 

———

VOLLEYBALL: Seabury Hall graduate inducted into Whitworth University Hall of Fame

———

Whitworth University inducted Kaima Rocha, a Seabury Hall graduate, into its Heritage Gallery Hall of Fame on Saturday in Spokane, Wash.

Rocha started all 106 matches of her Whitworth volleyball career (2008-11) and was a two-time Northwest Conference Player of the Year as a junior and senior in 2010 and 2011 after leading the Pirates to a pair of league titles. Whitworth played in the NCAA Division III tournament each season.  

Over the course of her career, she compiled 1,190 kills and averaged 3.17 kills per set. Rocha added 1,137 digs, becoming a rare 1,000-1,000 player in a four-year college career. She averaged 3.03 digs per set. 

Rocha was a three-time first team All-Northwest Conference honoree and a two-time first team AVCA All-Region selection. As a senior in 2011, Rocha earned second team All-America status from the AVCA.

HJI’s “Monday Morning MIL” columns appear weekly on Monday mornings with updates on local sports in the Maui Interscholastic League and elsewhere around Maui County. Please send column ideas — anything having to do with sports in Maui County — as well as results and photos to rob@hjinow.org.