WAILUKU — The Kamehameha Schools Maui football team has been close to winning games all season, but had come up short every time until Friday night.

The Warriors emphatically ended their 0-4 overall start to the season with a never-in-doubt 55-19 win over Baldwin on Friday at War Memorial Stadium.

The win lifted Kamehameha Maui, last season’s Division II state runner-up, to 1-3 in the Maui Interscholastic League. They finished the first round with the victory and now have a bye before hosting first-round MIL D-II champ King Kekaulike on Sept. 30 in a game with huge ramifications.

“It’s good that our kids did some good things and obviously the victory is the result of that,” Kamehameha Maui coach Ulima Afoa said. “And I know that the other side is struggling a little bit, but we don’t control that. We just control what we can do and I felt good for a moment there, but we just have to continue to learn how to finish.”

Kamehameha Maui rolled to a 55-0 lead before Baldwin scored the final three touchdowns. The Bears (0-4 MIL, 0-5 overall) had scored just two touchdowns in four previous games this season.

The theme of this game was set early, when Kanekoa Maielua-Kekiwi scooped up a fumble and scored from 21 yards out on the third play from scrimmage. The fumble was forced by a resounding sack by Kaulaula Ako-Nataniela of Baldwin quarterback Antone Sanches.

After the Warriors forced a three-and-out possession, they needed just two plays to score again when Makana Kamaka-Brayce hit a wide-open Frank Abreu to make it 14-0 with 7:26 left in the first quarter.

Abreu finished the night with four catches for 144 yards and three TDs.

The Warriors scored on their next possession as well when they went 43 yards in five plays, pushing the lead to 21-0 on a 2-yard run by Teiva Kauha’a-Po.

After a 31-yard punt return by Keegan Gantala, the Warriors made it 28-0 in one play from scrimmage, when Joshua Kerr caught an 8-yard scoring pass from Kamaka-Brayce while the first quarter was still going on.

The Bears defense stopped the Warriors on downs on KSM’s next possession, but could not take advantage.

Kamehameha Maui pushed the lead to 35-0 after going 50 yards in six plays, scoring on Abreu’s second TD catch of the night, an 8-yarder.

On the next play from scrimmage, Pa’ani Yap stepped in front of a Sanches pass, intercepted it and retuned it 18 yards for the final touchdown of the first half.

Baldwin did not record a first down until James Jardine’s 1-yard run late in the second quarter moved the ball to the Bears’ 46-yard line.

Baldwin finished with 35 yards and one first down in the first 24 minutes of play, while the Warriors rolled up 208 yards and 10 first downs.

The Bears finished with 198 yards — they had 177 yards of offense in three MIL games prior to Friday night.

With the running clock on, Kamehameha Maui’s Kaonohi Casco returned the second-half kickoff 78 yards and Kauha’a-Po scored on a 5-yard run with 9:59 to go in the second half to make it 48-0.

Baldwin gained its second and third first downs on the ensuing possession — on a 15-yard run by Joseph Randolph and 11-yard run by Jardine, on back-to-back plays.

The Bears were forced to punt three plays later.

“If you look back to our first four games, they really were coming back — we could be up and then we don’t know how to finish,” Afoa said. “So, we’re getting closer, but we’re not quite there yet. It’s a good way to end the first round, it’s a good way to start going into a bye week and get ’em healed up, get ’em a little stronger and start the run for the second round.”

After the Warriors made it 55-0 on a 51-yard pass from Kamaka-Brayce to Abreu, Baldwin scored for the first time in three games when Randolph — the 2022 state 100-meter champion — broke free for a 75-yard touchdown run.

The Bears’ first score of any kind since Aug. 19 showed something to the coaches and sparked something in the team.

Omaha Sa’u recovered a fumble on the next play by Kamehameha Maui and the Bears took immediate advantage when Sanches hit Randolph with a 33-yard scoring pass to make it 55-13.

Sa’u recovered another fumble on the Warriors’ next play when a bad snap went awry with Kamehameha backups in the game.

Jardine rumbled 32 yards to the Kamehameha 8-yard line and Sanches scored on an 11-yard run two plays later.

“Again, a little slow on the start,” Baldwin coach Cody Nakamura said. “It definitely opened their eyes a little bit — this Kamehameha team is fast, they start fast, and they’ve got a lot of weapons. So, we weren’t quite prepared for that and that’s on us coaches.

“That’s all we can ask from the kids, just keep fighting to the end, fight until that last horn goes off. We’ll onside kick it 1,000 times if we have to. We just keep fighting.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com

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KS Maui 28 14 13 0–55

Baldwin 0 0 0 19–19

First Quarter

KSM–Kanekoa Maielua-Kekiwi 21 fumble return (Makaha Pang kick), 10:37.

KSM–Frank Abreu 63 pass from Makana Kamaka-Brayce (Pang kick), 7:26.

KSM–Teiva Kauha’a-Po 2 run (Pang kick), 5:18.

KSM–Joshua Kerr 8 pass from Kamaka-Brayce (Pang kick), no time available (scoreboard malfunction)

Second Quarter

KSM–Abreu 8 pass from Kamaka-Brayce (Pang kick), NT

KSM–Pa’ani Yap 18 interception return (Pang kick), NT

Third Quarter

KSM–Kauha’a-Po 5 run (kick blocked), 9:59.

KSM–Abreu 51 pass from Kamaka-Brayce (Pang kick), 0:26.

Fourth Quarter

B–Joseph Randolph 75 run (Brock Toma kick), NT

B–Randolph 33 pass from Antone Sanches (kick failed), NT

B–Sanches 11 run (kick failed), NT

Junior varsity–Kamehameha Maui 24, Baldwin 0.

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MIL FOOTBALL

DIVISION I STANDINGS

W L Pct PF PA

x-Lahainaluna 3 0 1.000 80 24

Maui High 3 1 .750 88 20

Baldwin 0 4 .000 25 168

DIVISION II STANDINGS

W L Pct PF PA

x-King Kekaulike 2 1 .667 51 46

KS Maui 1 3 .250 88 74

x-clinched first-round championship

Friday’s Result

Kamehameha Maui 55, Baldwin 19

Today’s Game

King Kekaulike at Lahainaluna, 7 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 23

Baldwin vs. King Kekaulike at War Memorial Stadium, 7 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 24

Maui High vs. Lahainaluna at War Memorial Stadium, 7 p.m.