OLINDA — The new team on the block hosted the established king of the hill in Maui Interscholastic League eight-player football on Saturday.

Well into the second quarter, Seabury Hall was hanging tough with the five-time defending MIL champions from Molokai.

The game was tied 14-14 before the Farmers turned to a new quarterback, Kynan Cariaga-Abafo, and the junior responded with two straight touchdown passes to start a romp to the finish in Molokai’s convincing 64-20 victory.

The Farmers traveled on Friday and stayed in the Erdman Athletic Center overnight before their 10 a.m. kickoff with the Spartans. A week earlier, Molokai lost a hard-fought 22-14 decision to Waialua in an 11-player game on Oahu.

“I’m really proud of how our boys played in the second half,” Molokai coach Mike Kahale said. “We had a little bit of a slow start, not sure quite what that was. I don’t know if it’s transitioning back from an 11-man (game), staying up late in the gym, or whatever it is, but the boys played well in the second half and towards the end of the first half, too.

“So, I’m proud of them.”

Cariaga-Abafo, usually a center and defensive lineman in football whose primary sport is baseball, threw a 15-yard scoring pass to Kinohi Kaupu to give the Farmers a 20-14 lead that they would not relinquish.

The Farmers got into position for the go-ahead score after John Quintua-Salavea intercepted a pass by Seabury Hall’s Elima Dagan.

Molokai’s Kahiwa Augustiro rumbled 35 yards to the Spartans’ 25-yard line and Kahakoi Lopez caught a 6-yard pass from Cariaga-Abafo on fourth-and-4 to move the ball to the 15.

Minutes after his first TD pass, Cariaga-Abafo lofted a 69-yard scoring pass to a wide-open Lopez to make it 28-14.

Augustiro’s 11-yard scoring run lifted the Farmers to a 34-14 halftime lead. The bulge grew to 48-14 on Augustiro’s 23-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter.

Cariaga-Abafo said the trip was special because of the opportunity to travel on Friday — the Farmers flew to Oahu on the morning of their 10 a.m. kickoff against Waialua.

“I think we handled it good, we executed a lot, the first quarter was kind of rough for us, but my coach had a lot of faith in me,” Cariaga-Abafo said. “That’s not my primary position, quarterback. I’m a hiker, the center, but he had lot of faith in me, so I had to show him.

“It was really fun. I’m a baseball player, so I like to throw the ball.”

Augustiro is a senior who also plays several positions for the Farmers — his main sport is rodeo, a sport he plans to continue pursuing in college. His best rodeo events are bull riding and team roping.

“It felt really good — at the beginning we had a lot of errors,” Augustiro said. “But towards the second quarter, we executed all our plays and our defense was shutting them down. Overall we did good and I’m proud of my team.”

Augustiro smiled widely when asked about the trip.

“Coming on this trip, it was really good fun,” he said. “We never had a trip like this in three years. I do enjoy the over-nighters because I’m with my friends and we’re all having a good time.”

Kahale was impressed with Seabury Hall, which has revived its program after dropping the sport following the 2018 season. Spartans head coach Nathan St. Cyr is being helped on the coaching staff by former MIL Player of the Year Jaxon Stinger.

There are four MIL eight-player teams — Lanai and Hana are also in the mix — this year for the first time since 2018. Seabury Hall won the first three MIL championships in the sport, from 2012-14.

“Big ups to coach Nathan over there and I know he has these guys moving in the right direction and we’re just happy that there’s another team,” Kahale said. “And Seabury is the OG’s, right? It was us, Seabury and St. Anthony, it was the three of us the first year, so it’s great to see them back in the mix.”

St. Cyr was pleased with his team’s efforts against the mighty Farmers.

“We knew that at the end of the day it was going to be a good opportunity for us to see where we’re at,” St. Cyr said. “I think that if you look at Molokai, they’ve set the standard for what a program can look like.

“When we look at what we want to be, we want to be more than just X’s and O’s in football. We want to be a football program and they’ve set the standard for what that looks like. They do an incredible job.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com

*****

MIL 8-PLAYER FOOTBALL

STANDINGS

W L Pct PF PA

Molokai 2 0 1.000 105 26

Lanai 2 1 .667 66 85

Seabury Hall 1 2 .333 106 114

Hana 0 2 .000 26 78

Saturday’s Results

Molokai 64, Seabury Hall 20

Lanai 24, Hana 12

Saturday, Sept. 24

Molokai at Lanai, 10 a.m.

Seabury Hall at Hana, 6 p.m.

*****

Molokai 14 20 14 16–64

Seabury Hall 8 6 0 6–20

First Quarter

M–Nakoa Orlando 29 pass from Heath Lopez (Kinohi Kaupu pass from Lopez)

SH–Leo McKuin 60 pass from Elima Dagan (Dagan run)

M–Kahakoi Lopez 4 pass from Heath Lopez (pass failed)

Second Quarter

SH–Taylor Hammer 3 pass from Dagan (run failed)

M–Kaupu 15 pass from Kynan Cariaga-Abafo (pass failed)

M–Kahakoi Lopez 69 pass from Cariaga-Abafo (Kahakoi Lopez pass from Cariaga-Abafo)

M–Kahiwa Augustiro 10 run (pass failed)

Third Quarter

M–Nakoa Orlando 2 run (Augustiro run)

M–Augustiro 23 pass from Cariaga-Abafo (pass failed)

Fourth Quarter

SH–Dagan 1 run (pass failed)

M–Kestan Tamanaha 11 pass from Heath Lopez (Heath Lopez run)

M–Augustiro 24 run (Chauncey Adolpho pass from Augustiro)