Monday Morning MIL: League goes 3-2 on opening football weekend; Kūlanihākoʻi High School prepares to debut 11-player JV team

The Maui Interscholastic League rang up a 3-2 record on the opening weekend of prep football across the state, with non-league wins for King Kekaulike, Baldwin and Maui high schools.

Maui High beat Kealakehe 21-6 on Saturday at King Kekaulike Stadium, Baldwin beat Hilo 17-13 on Friday at Wong Stadium on Hawai‘i island, and King Kekaulike beat Honoka‘a 9-7 at Honoka‘a on Saturday.

The two MIL state tournament representatives from last season — Lahainaluna and Kamehameha Maui — each lost by double-digit margins.

Lahainaluna travelled to Wai‘anae and got beat 41-21 Saturday night, while Damien Memorial School beat Kamehameha Maui 33-17 at Kana‘iaupuni Stadium on Friday.

As the MIL’s varsity teams kick off their season, one school new to the scene is quietly going about its business, practicing under the baking sun in Kīhei in hopes of joining the varsity ranks next year.

Kūlanihākoʻi High School welcomed students on campus in the fall of 2023 after the opening class of freshmen spent the 2022-23 school year at Lokelani Intermediate School. 

Now, one year after playing in the MIL eight-player division, the Manta Rays are playing the traditional 11-player game for the first time, albeit at the junior varsity level.

The Manta Rays were outscored 167-6 last season at the eight-player level in four games, with two games called off, but they have a roster of about 30 players this season and are ready to go under second-year coach Ngalu Fusimalohi.

Fusimalohi’s resume is impressive — he is a former national junior college champion offensive lineman at City College of San Francisco, honorable mention All-Big 12 Conference selection at the University of Kansas in 2013 and assistant coach for the Arlington Renegades of the UFL under head coach Bob Stoops in 2023. 

Fusimalohi and his wife Isabella were on vacation on Maui in May 2024 when he saw a job posting to become the first football coach at the South Maui school. 

“I was told that there is this new high school looking for a head coach,” Fusimalohi said. “And I said, ‘hey, why not check it out?’ Got the interview. And when we went back (to Texas), they called me and told me that I got the job. We were back on Maui a couple months later.”

Now, the Manta Rays are preparing for their first 11-player season in anticipation of joining the MIL varsity ranks in 2026. Fusimalohi is a counselor at Lokelani Intermediate, the feeder school to Kūlanihākoʻi, so he has the chance to meet potential players at his day job.

“Oh, it’s the foundation of everything,” Fusimalohi said of the 10-game JV season coming up. “You want to build off of a class that will pretty much run throughout. This is going to be the first freshman class that will be in Kūlanihākoʻi for all four years. … That’s a great foundation.”

Veteran MIL assistant coaches Nolan Au, a former defensive coordinator at Maui High, is joined by former Sabers coaches Richard Gaskell and Mario Martinez on the coaching staff. Cy Peters, a veteran girls basketball coach at King Kekaulike, is also on the staff.

Tevita Filikitonga, a 6-foot-2, 230-pound sophomore, will be one of the players that the Manta Rays are counting on this season.

“I’m really excited about this,” Filikitonga said at a recent practice. “First time playing 11-man JV for Kūlanihākoʻi High School … making history.”

Filikitonga said playing for Fusimalohi is special.

“He’s actually motivated me to join football and push harder,” Filikitonga said. “He’s just always there for me and I’m always there for him.”

Fellow sophomore Hayden Ralph is also expected to be a leader for this team.

“Oh, it’s a great thing,” Ralph said of the upcoming season. “Should have been sooner, but here we are now, finally making it happen. Kīhei, it’s always been good.”

Ralph played several years of Pop Warner football for the Kihei Dolphins, so he says he is at home with the Manta Rays.

“The school’s super good, super great,” Ralph said. “We get to be with our friends, don’t have to drive 30 minutes into town to go to Maui High.”

The Manta Rays are scheduled to play 10 straight weeks — all of their games are at 3 p.m. on Saturdays, beginning Aug. 23 when they face Lahainaluna at Sue Cooley Stadium.

Four of the five MIL varsity teams return to action next Saturday — Radford visits Kamehameha Maui for a 6 p.m. start, while Maui High goes to O‘ahu to face ‘Iolani at 3 p.m., Lahainaluna goes to O‘ahu to play Kapolei 5 p.m., and King Kekaulike takes on Morro Bay (Calif.) at King Kekaulike Stadium at 7 p.m.

The Sabers put on an impressive performance in their opener. Senior receiver Jonah Cariaga caught three passes for 78 yards and two touchdowns, including a 13-yard pass from Kahlen Boteilho-Dougherty with 5:08 left in the first quarter to give Maui High a 7-0 lead. 

Early in the third quarter, Cariaga took a short pass over the middle and outsprinted the Kealakehe defense to the end zone on a 68-yard pass from Boteilho-Dougherty to make it 14-0.

Late in the game, Cariaga grabbed the first interception of his high school career to seal the win for the Sabers who were 2-6 overall last season.

“Gotta thank my coaches and the players, obviously, for always keeping my head up, just always pushing me to my limits,” Cariaga said. “It felt great. I’ve gotta thank my quarterback for trusting the process. Gotta thank my line, obviously, for giving the quarterback time.”

First-year Maui High head coach Pohai Lee had a smile on his face after his team rolled up 389 yards of offense, 162 on the ground and 227 off the arm of senior Boteilho-Dougherty on 16-for-30 passing. Micah Barut ran for 62 yards on 11 carries and Boteilho-Dougherty had 89 yards on 14 carries for the Sabers. Maui High limited Kealakehe to 258 yards of offense.

“I was really happy with the boys in every aspect and I’m just hoping we get better,” Lee said. “I mean, we got to clean some things up, but overall it was a pretty clean game.”

Lahainaluna trailed Wai‘anae 28-0 before Kyle Thomas returned a kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown to make it 28-6. Lahainaluna’s Joseph Arcangel added touchdown runs of 10 and 28 yards in the second half — he finished with 14 carries for 66 yards. The Lunas were outgained in the game, 481 yards to 172.

For Baldwin, Jordan Carbonell kicked a 31-yard field goal as time expired in the first half and threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Hiilawe Han with 7:44 left in the fourth quarter. In between, Max Kushi ran for an 11-yard touchdown with 2:14 left in the third quarter.

Statistics for the other MIL games were not available.

“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.