Historic backfield duo leads Kamehameha Maui to second-straight Division II state football championship

MILILANI, O‘AHU — Early in the second quarter, Kamehameha Schools Maui’s Zedekaiah Campbell ran up the middle and was swarmed by nearly the entire Waimea High School defense.

But on a play that would show the will of the team, Campbell and his teammates, most of them massive offensive linemen, dragged the pile of defenders for 17 yards down the field. Five plays later, Xander Pagan scored on a 9-yard run to give the Warriors the lead for good.

Kamehameha Schools Maui went on to capture its second straight state football championship with a 48-24 victory over Waimea on Friday night at John Kauinana Stadium on the Mililani High School campus.

“I feel like every play I try to make a statement,” Campbell said after he capped his career with 25 carries for 146 yards and two touchdowns in the First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA Division II state championship game.

The Warriors’ hard-nosed ground game carried them through a knockdown, drag-out dogfight of a game in which Campbell and Pagan made history by becoming the first teammates to each rush for 1,000 yards in a season for a Maui Interscholastic League team.

Pagan, who finished the game with six carries for 59 yards, surpassed the 1,000-yard mark late in the third quarter and ended the season with 1,004 yards rushing.

Campbell was at 999 yards for the season when he scored on a 16-yard touchdown run that made it 48-18 with 1:48 to play.

His 1,015 rushing yards for the year are a school record, topping the previous school record of 991 yards that he set last season. Campbell finishes his Kamehameha Maui career with 2,375 yards on the ground.

Campbell’s team-infused run in the second quarter set the tone for the game, coming just one play after he’d been smacked on the sideline and fell well past the out-of-bounds line, drawing a penalty flag that the referees later picked up to take away any possible penalty for a late hit on Waimea.

“To me, it just proves that all of our hard work paid off,” Kamehameha Maui senior left tackle Pa‘u Spencer said. “That play just shows how resilient our team is, we don’t give up. … We just keep going.”

Spencer, who has NCAA Division I offers from Eastern Washington University and the University of Hawai‘i, said it is an honor to block in front of two running backs like Campbell and Pagan.

“Those two are just dogs — even when the linemen screw up, they stay up and allow the linemen to push the pile really well and just create more yards,” Spencer said.

Campbell said the Kamehameha Maui coaches teach them to play until the whistle on every play.

“It’s just something our coaches teach us to do,” Campbell said. “When we see a pile, push the pile and try to push for every yard you can get. It’s happened a lot throughout the season where there’s just piles and my linemen would just come and help me out. It just came all together this game.”

Campbell said “I’m not holding anything for the next play,” but added that “maybe after the fumble” that he lost early in the game, “I ran a little harder.”

The game started out as a tight contest and was tied 6-6 after one quarter.

After Kamehameha Maui went three-and-out on its first possession, Waimea ran the ball on the first six plays of its possession, totaling 41 yards. On third down and 6 yards to go, Na Menehune took a 6-0 lead on a pretty 24-yard pass from quarterback Kolby Correa to Nash Schaefer with 5:56 to go in the first quarter. Kamehameha Maui’s Frank Abreu blocked the extra-point conversion kick.

On the first play from scrimmage on the next Kamehameha Maui possession, Campbell fumbled on a handoff from quarterback Kekoa Keau-Davis and Na Menehune’s Chance Gomes recovered on the Kamehameha Maui 31-yard line.

Two plays later, Kaikea Miyashiro fumbled and the ball was recovered by Kamehameha Maui’s Aukai Phillips. After the Warriors were forced to punt without a first down, Kamehameha Maui’s Keanu Lanoza recovered another fumble by Na Menehune with 2:43 left in the first quarter at the Waimea 39-yard line.

After another two snuffs of the Kamehameha Maui running game, Keau-Davis dropped back as the rush poured in and dropped a screen pass to Campbell who raced through the defense for a 36-yard touchdown reception to tie the game 6-6 with 1:36 left in the first quarter.

Pagan’s 9-yard touchdown run gave the Warriors a 13-6 lead, but Na Menehune would not quit.

After a helmet-to-helmet penalty was called on Kamehameha Maui to give Na Menehune a first down, Kolby Correa found Nash Schaefer open over the middle on the next play for a 48-yard touchdown pass with 5:08 left in the first half. The kick hit the upright and was no good, leaving Kamehameha Maui ahead 13-12.

Kamehameha Maui struck right back when Pagan split the defense like the Red Sea on the ensuing kickoff, returning it 92 yards for a score to push the lead back to 20-12 just 12 second later.

“I was hoping they would kick it to me,” Pagan said after his third kickoff return for a touchdown this season.

On the opening second-half kickoff, the Warriors’ Kayden Yap sent an onside kick down the left sideline, catching Na Menehune off guard. Three different Warriors had a clear chance to recover the ball down field, but it eventually squirted out of bounds to give the ball to Waimea.

Kamehameha Maui’s Kolt Kaho‘ohanohano intercepted a Kolby Correa pass two plays later at the Warriors’ 27-yard line, but on second down the Warriors had an errant pitch on a trick play and Waimea recovered at the Kamehameha Maui 6-yard line.

The Warriors held tough for two plays, but then on third-and-goal from the 8-yard line Kolby Correa hit Kaulana Makua for a touchdown pass, but the two-point conversion failed to keep the Warriors ahead 20-18 with 8:46 left in the third quarter.

On the ensuing kickoff, Pagan returned the ball 48 yards to the Waimea 48-yard line. On second down, he took a late pitch from Keau-Davis and rambled 27 yards to the Waimea 15-yard line. 

Keau-Davis was forced to leave the field after being banged up on the play, but he returned one play later. Five plays later, Keau-Davis hit Loea Asuega-Stark with a 7-yard touchdown pass to push the lead to 27-18. 

On the kickoff, Yap recovered a Waimea fumble to set up the Warriors on Na Menehune’s 47. Campbell rumbled for 14 and 7 yards. Then Pagan got loose up the middle for 12 yards and scored untouched from 9 yards out to push the lead to 34-18 with 3:33 left in the third quarter.

“Zede, he’s a great running back, I’m happy that he got impact player (of the game by Spectrum television),” Pagan said. “This has all just been a great run and we all worked together as a team.”

Pagan finished with 221 all-purpose yards — 59 rushing, 12 receiving, and 150 on kickoff returns. Campbell finished with 181 all-purpose yards — 146 on the ground and 35 in the air.

The 1,000-yard seasons were on the minds of both running backs and their teammates.

“I was aware of it and it felt really good,” Pagan said. “Once I reached it my total motivation was to get out of the game just to get Zede his 1,000 yards. I’m so glad he did. It’s just sportsmanship.”

Pagan said he has learned a bunch from Campbell that he will use for the final two seasons of his high school career.

“He is a very big leader, he has taught me a lot coming here to Kamehameha Schools as a varsity running back,” Pagan said of Campbell.  “He’s an outstanding running back and I believe he can play at a college level.”

When Campbell scored on a 27-yard run with 2:11 to play to push the lead to 41-18, it appeared that he was finished for the season at 999 rushing yards. 

Kaho‘ohanohano, however, a former junior varsity quarterback for Kamehameha Maui, made his second interception on the first play from scrimmage on the ensuing Na Menehune possession and returned it 39 yards to the Waimea 16-yard line.

Kaho‘ohanohano, who was the leading tackler in the game with nine — seven solo and two assisted — would not say if he ran out of bounds to give Campbell one more chance at the magical mark. He also forced a fumble in the game.

“I never knew that he needed 1 more yard, but I’m not going to disclose if I did or did not,” Kaho‘ohanohano said of stepping out of bounds to give his teammate one more shot. “I will say this, though: I’m proud of him.”

From there, Campbell put the finishing touches on the win and the Warriors’ 11-1 season.

“These last couple drives we were just trying to push for 1,000,” Campbell said. “Then that final run I needed just one more yard, but I ended up scoring a touchdown. It was honestly just an amazing feeling.”

Kamehameha Maui coach Ulima Afoa said that back-to-back state championships is a sweet feeling. They won their first state crown last season with a 37-14 win over Kaiser.

“It really hasn’t sunken in yet. I really try to separate last year from this year,” Afoa said. “Because to me let’s just focus on what we gotta do at this point. In the past, that’s stuff that we put on our memory board.”

Afoa summed up the importance of Pagan and Campbell on the school’s first two state football championships.

“This program has been fortunate to have those two young men — 21 (Pagan) and 22 (Campbell) — as part of it,” Afoa said. “We still get to have 21 for a couple more years, but 22 has set the mark, the number to chase. We’re just blessed and fortunate to have great young men like that.”

Waimea.    6.        6.        6.      6—24

KS Maui.   6.      14.      14.    14—48

First Quarter

W—Nash Schaefer 24 pass from Kolby Correa (kick blocked), 5:56.

KSM—Zedekaiah Campbell 36 pass from Kekoa Keau-Davis (kick failed), 1:36.

Second Quarter

KSM—Xander Pagan 9 run (Kayden Yap kick), 9:20.

W—Nash Schaefer 48 pass from Kolby Correa (kick failed), 5:08.

KSM—Xander Pagan 92 kickoff return (Kayden Yap kick), 4:56.

Third Quarter

W—Kaulana Makua 8 pass from Kolby Correa (pass failed), 8:46.
KSM—Loea Asuega-Stark 7 pass from Kekoa Keau-Davis (Kayden Yap kick), 4:09.

KSM—Xander Pagan 9 run (Kayden Yap kick), 3:33.

Fourth Quarter

KSM—Zedekaiah Campbell 27 run (Kayden Yap kick), 2:11.

KSM—Zedekaiah Campbell 16 run (Kayden Yap kick), 1:48.

W—Kalawaia Martins 38 pass from Kolby Correa (pass failed), 0:46.