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Like two heavyweight champions, the two teams kept delivering their best shots, only to have their opponent launch a haymaker of his own.
Both Lahainaluna and Kamehameha Maui came into the Oct. 14 Maui Interscholastic League high school football showdown undefeated. Fans screamed themselves hoarse in sold-out War Memorial Stadium. Television viewers watching statewide on OC-16 did the same.
At stake was the Lunas' 41-game MIL winning streak dating back to 2016. And so much more. This was a team playing for a town destroyed by wildfire two months earlier. More than half its coaches and players lost homes to the fires. For a while it looked like there might not even be a team, but here the Lunas were, 3-0, and defending their goal line with the clock ticking down and clinging to a six-point lead.
Kamehameha Maui entered the contest, 5-0, on the wings of an elite passing game and a sure-tackling defense. Head coach Ulima Afoa and his staff have been building this program for years, and now the senior-laden squad was on the brink of crossing a giant box off its career to-do list.
Under the cool leadership of senior quarterback Makana Kamaka-Brayce, the Warriors drove the ball deep into Lahainaluna territory late in the fourth quarter only to be denied by a leaping interception in the end zone by senior standout Kuola Watson.
Kamehameha Maui forced a turnover on downs and drove the ball to the 4-yard line when Lahainaluna senior Kaulana Tihada jumped on a fumbled snap with nine seconds to play to seal a 19-13 win. It was only fitting that Tihada made the big play, for he did everything else in the game but sell popcorn at halftime. Taking over at quarterback in the second half with his team trailing 13-0, he ran the ball out of the wildcat 19 times for 215 yards and all three of his team's touchdowns. Every Lunas' second-half play that wasn't a punt was a run by Tihada.
Of all the memories of that game, our favorite came after the last snap. Though they had to be gutted by their close loss, and though they had been banging heads all game long, the Kamehameha Maui defense immediately stood at the final whistle to embrace and congratulate the gutty team in red. Those kids knew what the Lahainaluna players had been through and they let them know that they respected them and they had their support.
Both teams went on to compete in the First Hawaiian Bank Hawaii High School Athletic Association State Football Championships. The Lunas lost their Division I first-round game at home, 29-28, to Kapaa. Kamehameha Maui advanced to the Division II final before dropping a heartbreaker last weekend to Waimea, 31-28.
Congratulations to all MIL players and coaches. To the seniors, we say thank you and good luck. To the rest, we'll see you next year.