MILILANI BEATS AIEA LATE, 21-14

Bob Hogue Digital Sports Hawaii Senior Correspondent

	Wayne Coito also contributed to this story. >READ: #1 Defeats #2: St. Louis 28- Punahou 14 >READ: Reaiders come from behind Defeat Pac-Five 27-12! >VIDEO: Football Sports Central for awesome Videos! Special teams and Homecoming. Those were the difference factors Friday night as the Mililani Trojans used two huge special teams plays on Homecoming night to outlast Aiea, 21-14.
Sept. 21st, 2007

Mililani, ranked in the top
five in the state in all the local high school football rankings,
didn’t earn their third straight victory until the final quarter.
A 40-yard punt return by senior defensive back Cody Kilthau set up a
one-yard touchdown from sophomore sensation Taz Stevenson to give the
Trojans the lead for good. Earlier, a punt block by senior Kawika
Ornellas set up Mililani’s second touchdown in a game in which the
Trojans needed all the encouragement they could get from a large and
enthusiastic Homecoming crowd.

This is the Red West, Mililani Head
Coach Darnell Arceneaux said afterwards. These guys are
battle-tested. Everyone knows their roles, their jobs.
These guys sacrifice for their team. I feel privileged.

It was a win that almost didn’t happen for the
Trojans, who improved to 5-1 overall and 3-1 in the extremely tough Red
West. Aiea dropped to 3-3 overall and 2-2 in the conference.

We made more mistakes and that cost us, said
Aiea coach Wendell Say, who explained that breakdowns on special teams
were especially costly, but he added, they’re just kids, we can’t really
blame them.

For awhile, it looked like Na Alii, led by one
of the top passing quarterbacks in the state in Keenan Naeole, might
come through with a big upset. In Colt Brennan-like fashion,
Naeole carved up the Mililani secondary for 85 yards on Aiea’s first
offensive possession. The 5-foot 7-inch senior completed five of
his first seven passes, capping it off with a 55-yard touchdown strike
to James Buchanan, as Na Alii took an early 7-0 lead with 9:45 left in
the first quarter.

Naeole finished the night 23 of 40 passing for
285 yards. Buchanan caught four passes for 108 yards.

	Mililani answered right back. Senior quarterback Rustin Funakoshi marched his team down the field with a few short passes to Stevenson and then finished the drive himself with a 32-yard touchdown run to get the Trojans back into the game and tie the score at 7-all. Funakoshi was 10 of 15 passing for 127 yards and also added 60 more yards rushing. The pendulum then swung Mililani’s way again at the beginning of the second quarter. That’s when Ornellas stormed through the Aiea offensive line to block a Na Alii punt that gave Mililani the ball on Aiea’s 31-yard line. On the very next play, Michael Among-Serrao took the Funakoshi handoff and raced 31 yards to paydirt and a 14-7 halftime lead.

After a halftime filled with Homecoming
festivities, Aiea seized the momentum right back. Na Alii drove
73 yards down the field capped off by a 3-yard run by junior fullback
Christian Kupau. The extra point tied the game at 14-all with
2:21 left in the third quarter.

That’s when the game turned extremely tense
and the difference became special teams for both teams.

With just over nine minutes to play in the
game, a Mililani punt turned the tide. Instead of taking a
touchback, Na Alii tried to field the punt and ended up pinned near
their own endzone at the three-yard line. A few plays later, Aiea
punted from its own 24-yard line.

Kilthau took advantage of the great field
position and made it better. The speedy Senior blazed his way for
a 40-yard return to put the Trojans in business.

Michael Among-Serrao, who finished the night
with 100 yards rushing on 20 carries, made a couple of key runs and put
the ball at the doorstep at the Aiea one-yard line. That’s when
Stevenson came into the backfield. The 6-foot 2-inch 185-pound
wide receiver/tailback, who finished with four receptions on the night
including a 14-yard key reception on the final drive, powered in the
final yard and Mililani had a tenuous 21-14 lead.

I give credit to our O-Line, said
Among-Serrao. We had a great week of practice for Homecoming.

But the game still had over four minutes left
and a controversial non-call on a Special Teams play almost gave Aiea a
huge chance. With only 3:14 left to play, Coach Say sent his punt team
out of getting the ball back again. Aiea was then able to use its
timeouts to force the Trojans to punt with 57.4 seconds left in the
game. That’s when the controversy happened as Mililani punter
Colin Lund was hit hard almost as soon as the ball left his foot.
The referees would not let their flags dictate the game’s final outcome
and did not bite on the roughing penalty.

That left 48.6 seconds left for the Na Alii
offense. Naeole tried to get his team jump-started for a final
touchdown drive, but the Mililani defense stepped up to prevent that
from happening. Four straight incompletions meant Mililani had
held on for a hard-fought 21-14 victory.

	I just didn’t come through, Naeole said afterwards. Coach Say then lamented that it would not get any easier as Aiea had both Waianae and Leilehua coming up. For Mililani, they get a well-earned rest with a bye-week next weekend, then its back to the conference wars against Campbell and Radford. As Coach Arceneaux said, no wins come easy for anybody this season. After all, this is the Red West.