Monday Morning MIL: Kamehameha Maui dominates Lahainaluna, again; Two first-round division titles to be decided this week

After winning just one of the first 36 games between the two teams dating back to 2005, the Kamehameha Schools Maui football team has now beaten Lahainaluna two times in a row. 

The last two Warrior wins have been been dominant. Kamehameha Maui snapped Lahainaluna’s record 46-game Maui Interscholastic League winning streak on Sept. 19, 2024, with an overwhelming performance on its way to the 2024 Division II state championship. 

And Saturday, 359 days later, Kamehameha Maui did it again, in similar fashion in a 36-0 win. Both of the victories were at Sue Cooley Stadium on Lahainaluna’s campus.

Saturday, the Warriors simply forced their will on the Lunas, who have been to 17 straight Hawai’i High School Athletic Association state tournaments.

Kamehameha Maui out-gained Lahainaluna 375 yards to 83 and had a 22-7 advantage in first downs. The domination started from the get-go as the Warriors had 139 yards in the first quarter while limiting Lahainaluna to minus-9 yards total in building a 14-0 lead after 12 minutes of play.

The Warriors followed a game plan that is usually used by the Lunas — run the ball and then run it some more. Zedekaiah Campbell led five different Kamehameha Maui rushers with 85 yards on 10 carries, including touchdown runs of 7 and 8 yards. All five ballcarriers had at least 38 yards for the Warriors.

“I didn’t expect us to dominate but when our team does everything we need to do and everyone’s on the same page we’re a pretty dangerous team,” Campbell said. “We came into the game expecting Lahaina to just play their game, too. So we were prepared for a dog fight, but we’ll take this outcome.”

Kamehameha Maui head coach Ulima Afoa has seen enough of the Lunas to know that playing hard against them is a must. In the last two games between the two teams, the Warriors have outscored the Lunas 59-0 and out-gained them 699 yards to 150.

“We tell our guys every week, ‘you control what you can control, and that is what you go out and play,’ ” Kamehameha Maui coach Ulima Afoa said. “How the other team performs, that’s on them. Our kids understand that that’s how we approach things, and we kind of take away the name from our opponent.”

In the other MIL game this week, Baldwin beat Maui High 35-14 on Friday.

The weekend results mean that first-round MIL titles will go to the winners of this week’s games. 

In a Division II matchup, Kamehameha Maui (3-0 MIL) visits King Kekaulike (2-1) on Friday. 

In a Division I matchup Baldwin (1-2) goes to Lahainaluna (2-1) on Saturday. Maui High (0-4) is idle this week. 

Head-to-head results are the tiebreaker, meaning that each game this week will give the winner their division first-round crown. The second round starts Sept. 26-27. 

Each team plays the other four in the MIL in each round, every game counts, and if there are different round winners in either division, those two round winners will play for the division’s single state tournament spot on the weekend of Nov. 7-8.

Lahainaluna will have to regroup after being crushed in a game in which it could have clinched the MIL Division I first round with a win.

“Basically, we got beat in every aspect of the game,” Lahainaluna coach Dean Rickard said. “That’s a testament to Kamehameha Maui. They’re state champions for a reason. And they’re a force to be reckoned with, no doubt.”

The game was the first time the Lunas have been beaten by an MIL team at Sue Cooley Stadium via the mercy rule, which turns on a running clock when the point margin reaches 35 points or more in the second half. The stadium officially opened in 2015.

The Lunas won four straight Division II state titles before going to Division I in 2021 (there was no season in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

“I can’t remember the last time, so whether if it was first or not, it doesn’t matter,” Rickard said when asked if he could remember the last MIL team to mercy rule the Lunas. “We got a lot of work to do, and, yeah, they came to play. We were physically outmatched.”

Baldwin gave itself a chance to play for the MIL Division I first-round crown with a dominant running attack on Friday agains the Sabers. The Bears ran for 412 yards, led by 5-foot-5, 125-pound junior Brayden Viloria, who finished with 158 rushing yards on 12 carries.

Baldwin’s first MIL win came after a 28-21 loss to Kamehameha Maui in which the Bears led on three different occasions and then saw the Warriors score the game-winner with 17 seconds to play; then the Bears lost 34-28 in overtime to King Kekaulike.

“It felt super good,” Viloria said. “I couldn’t have done it without my teammates, though. My (offensive) line is doing their job. My wide receivers doing their job. Everybody was doing their job.”

Viloria admitted that he was a bit worried after the Bears’ 0-2 start to league play.

“I was just really stressed out that this team was falling apart, but we came back together this game,” Viloria said. 

Baldwin coach Cody Nakamura said his team hung tough through the two close losses. Running the ball was a return to the seasonal game plan for the Bears, who ran behind their gargantuan offensive line.

“That’s been our plan,” Nakamura said. ”The O-line pulled it off. The double teams were great and the communication was great. All that yardage goes credit to the O-line. … We just wanted to keep it simple tonight.”

Maui High coach Pohai Lee was coaching against the Bears for the first time since stepping down from the Baldwin head coaching position after the 2021 season. Lee guided the Bears to three MIL Division I titles, in 2015, 2016 and 2019 and his MIL record as the head coach for the Bears was 29-19.

The Sabers’ Jonah Cariaga had 114 yards receiving on five catches, including a 45-yard touchdown reception, and sophomore quarterback Reno Vaka had 157 yards and two touchdowns passing.

“We continue to kind of preach that week in, week out, that we need to keep getting better,” Lee said. “But again, another good team. I mean, it’s going to be tougher every week. Everyone’s going to get better and we know what to expect. … We’re close and we see it, but it’s got to translate to game day.”

“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.