Monday Morning MIL: Kamehameha Maui, King Kekaulike ride strong ground games to victory to open league play

The last time Zedekaiah Campbell played in a football game he was leading Kamehameha Schools Maui to its first state football championship on Nov. 30, 2024, with 239 yards and a rushing touchdown in a 37-14 win over Kaiser.

Saturday night at Kana‘iaupuni Stadium, Campbell made his return to the football field feel like he never left. 

Campbell, a 5-foot-11, 175-pound senior running back, became Kamehameha Maui’s all-time leading rusher on Saturday night after he sat out the Warriors’ two non-league preseason games due to personal reasons.

He rushed for 159 yards and three touchdowns on 25 carries in the Warriors’ 28-21 win over Baldwin in the Maui Interscholastic League opener for both teams.

Campbell’s final touch was a 12-yard scoring run with 17 seconds left in the game as the defending Division II state champions took their first lead after trailing by a touchdown three different times earlier in the game.

Campbell said he and his teammates never lost faith that they could win the game, although it was in doubt for most of the night.

“You’ve got to play until the game is over,” Campbell said.

Campbell needed just 7 yards to overtake Damon Martin, the previous Kamehameha Maui all-time rushing leader who had 1,366 yards on the ground from 2014-17. Campbell got the yards he needed to break the record on his first carry, a 16-yarder on the Warriors’ second offensive play of the game. 

Campbell broke Martin’s record in 174 carries, 90 fewer than Martin had in his career. Last season, Campbell rushed for a school single-season record 991 yards.

Campbell now has 1,519 rushing yards on 198 carries in his career, an impressive average of 7.7 yards per rush.

“Honestly, it’s just a great accomplishment, and I have got to thank all my coaches and teammates, because I wouldn’t have done it without them and my family,” Campbell said.

The Bears took a 7-0 lead on a 1-yard run by Max Kushi with just over 2 minutes left in the first quarter. 

Kushi had a big night himself, running for 183 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries. Kushi was running behind the Baldwin offensive line led by tackles Kaholi Krau on the left and Caden Dellafave on the right and pulling guard Faanu Ma‘o.

Dellafave also played some defensive line and tipped two Kamehameha Maui passes that both turned into interceptions, one by Jackson Sebastian and another by Ethan Bacos.

Kamehameha Maui tied the score 7-7 on Campbell’s 8-yard scoring run with 10:44 left in the third quarter. Baldwin took the lead again on a 62-yard strike thrown by quarterback Jordan Carbonell to Caleb Koko with 9:02 left in the third quarter. 

Campbell’s 1-yard scoring plunge tied it again at 14-14 with 3:03 left in the third quarter before Baldwin took its final lead on a 66-yard jaunt by Kushi with 1:18 left in the third quarter.

Kamehameha Maui tied the game for the final time on a 16-yard scoring pass from Kanoa Keau-Davis to Kamalei Bullock with 3:07 left in the game. 

After Baldwin went three-and-out on its next possession — two long incomplete passes and a 12-yard quarterback sack by Kamehameha Maui’s Eli Mossman — the Bears’ punt from their own end zone went only 10 yards and left the ball in the hands of the Warriors on the Baldwin 14-yard line with 1:53 to play.

Campbell scored the final touchdown four plays later.

“It felt great to just know that we actually sealed the game. It was really stressful, honestly, up until that last touchdown,” Campbell said. “It was just a great experience.”

Warriors coach Ulima Afoa said falling behind three times “is part of what you have to experience if you want to be good. You could easily say, ‘Hey, you’re supposed to beat everybody,’ but it doesn’t work that way. You need to learn how to win tight games where you have probably given up a lot. Give them credit, they took advantage of the things we had breakdown with.”

Baldwin rolled up 309 yards of offense, 214 on the ground. Kamehameha Maui had 313 yards of offense, 157 on the ground and 156 through the air.

Baldwin coach Cody Nakamura said: “Good three quarters and then we kind of gave it away at the end. That’s on us coaches to get the boys in a better position to win.”

Nakamura said he takes “a little bit” of solace from playing so well until the final minutes.

“We haven’t played that well in a long time, so they battled until the very end and then we just couldn’t finish, so the better team won tonight and hopefully we can come around and be a little better for next game,” he said.

The Bears will have their first-round bye this week before playing at King Kekaulike on Sept. 5. Kamehameha Maui will play Maui High on Saturday, Aug. 30, at King Kekaulike Stadium. Lahainaluna opens league play when it takes on King Kekaulike on Friday, Aug. 29.

In Friday night’s game on opening weekend of MIL play, King Kekaulike’s offense kept rolling in a 41-20 win over Maui High. One week earlier, Na Ali‘i set a school record with 68 points in a 27-point win over Morro Bay (Calif.) High School.

King Kekaulike’s Wayne Kahula, a 6-0, 170-pound junior running back, led the way with 127 yards rushing and a touchdown on 13 carries. Junior wide receiver Cason Brooke caught four passes for 159 yards, including the first two scores of the game, a 50- and 34-yard pass from quarterback Kingston Goliday. 

Na Ali‘i rolled up 406 yards of offense in the game, while limiting Maui High to 162. Junior Kanoa Kuailani played quarterback for some of the time in the second half and he finished with 64 yards rushing and a touchdown on seven carries, running out of a wildcat formation.

“We do have dual quarterbacks, so we wanted to see what (Kuailani) had tonight and he ran it perfectly,” King Kekaulike coach Tyson Valle said. “Can’t complain, adds another arsenal to our offense.”

Maui High coach Pohai Lee said the league will have to deal with King Kekaulike all season. Na Ali‘i were the only MIL team to beat Kamehameha Maui last season.

Lee was proud of his team’s effort — one large highlight for the Sabers was Jonah Cariaga’s 94-yard kickoff return.

“We told them from day one we want to see that fight in them, no matter what the score is,” Lee said. “King K is a good team, no doubt about it. And (MIL opponents) don’t get any easier, with KSM, Lahainaluna (Sept. 6) and then Baldwin (Sept. 12).” 

“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.