WAILUKU — The Maui High School football team’s 19 seniors have been through a bunch in their careers.

They endured a winless Maui Interscholastic League varsity season as freshmen, have played for three different head coaches and missed the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Sabers seniors played their final home game on Saturday night at War Memorial Stadium and left a big impression with a 43-0 win over Central Maui rival Baldwin.

Maui High got a little bit of the frustration of two hard-fought losses to Lahainaluna out of their system with a statement drive on the their first possession — Maui High opened the game with an 85-yard, 16-play drive that ate up 5 minutes, 43 seconds.

The drive was capped by a 1-yard scoring run by Piercen Evans and was accompanied by a two-point conversion pass from Joe Cariaga to brother Jonah Cariaga after Joe mishandled the conversion snap.

The Sabers are 9-4 overall spanning the last two seasons, with all four losses coming against the Lunas, this season by scores of 17-10 and 17-7.

“We gotta getter better, we still have two more games left, against a tough King K team and Kamehameha (Maui) brings a lot more to the table,” first-year Maui High head coach Aylett Wallwork said. “But Baldwin, they come out here and fight all the time and we respect them for that, but we gotta get better leading up to King K.”

After an interception by Maui High’s Nathan Russell on Baldwin’s second play from scrimmage, Devontae Myrick scored on a 22-yard run on the second play of the ensuing possession, making it 15-0 with 4:45 left in the first quarter. Any drama was eliminated two minutes later when Evans scored on a 5-yard run with 2:32 remaining in the opening quarter.

The win lifted the Sabers to 1-1 in the Maui Interscholastic League Division I second round, 4-2 overall in league play, and kept slim hopes of a playoff game with the Lunas for the league’s D-I state berth alive.

Baldwin fell to 0-2, 0-6.

“It’s a rivalry and they still remember it’s a rivalry, no matter what the record is,” Wallwork said. “If we can show good against them, you know, it’s something that we strive for.”

The Sabers need to win their final two games and hope for the Lunas to lose twice in their final three games for a D-I playoff to occur — Lahainaluna is 1-0, 5-0 in MIL play and have won 36 MIL games in a row dating to 2016.

“Like I said, we need to get better — I’m proud of them, the way they progressed through the season, but we still have a lot of work to do,” Wallwork said of his team.

Joe Cariaga added a 66-yard run and a 17-yard touchdown pass to Keoni James Ihu-Rodrigues in the second quarter to push the lead 36-0 and activate the 35-point mercy-rule, running clock for the entire second half.

Evans, who finished with 106 yards rushing on 17 carries, added a 22-yard scoring run in the third quarter for the final tally of the night.

The young Bears are still looking for their first win of the season, but they played hard until the final seconds ticked off the clock.

With 4:45 left in the first half, junior Xyler Nakamura was hurt on a kickoff return and eventually placed on a backboard and transported via ambulance to Maui Memorial Medical Center for evaluation after a 25-minute delay to the game.

Baldwin coach Cody Nakamura said Xyler Nakamura called to talk to his teammates from the hospital at halftime and is expected to be fine.

“We’re slowly getting there and the one thing we can definitely say about the boys is they never quit and we’re definitely proud of that,” Cody Nakamura said. “We just have to keep getting better every day. We’re going to keep doing that until the season is over, but right now they definitely have got the fight.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.

Baldwin 0 0 0 0– 0

Maui High 22 14 7 0–43

First Quarter

MH–Piercen Evans 1 run (Jonah Cariaga pass from Joe Cariaga), 6:17.

MH–Devontae Myrick 22 run (Sevy Sconfienza kick), 4:45.

MH–Evans 5 run (Sconfienza kick), 2:32.

Second Quarter

MH–Joe Cariaga 66 run (Sconfienza kick), 8:49.

MH–Keoni James Ihu-Rodrigues 17 pass from Joe Cariaga (Sconfienza kick), 4:54.

Third Quarter

MH–Evans 22 run (Sconfienza kick), 8:15.

B MH

First downs 10 17

Rushes-yards 30-51 35-317

Passing yards 59 41

Total offense 110 358

Return yards 62 48

Comp-Att-Int 4-14-3 3-10-0

Fumbles-lost 5-0 1-1

Penalties-yards 2-14 9-66

Punts-avg 3-23.0 1-25.0

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING–Baldwin, James Jardine 4-28, Joseph Randolph 8-26, Antone Sanches 7-15, Josiah Bailey-Lassen 3-14, Brock Toma 1-0, Isaac Kaalakea 2-(minus 4), Kaimana Kahoopii 2-(minus 5), team 3-(minus 23); Maui High, Evans 17-106, Myrick 10-77, Joe Cariaga 1-66, Ihu-Rodrigues 3-29, Evan Tarasenko 2-25, Aizley Lakalaka 2-14.

PASSING–Baldwin, Sanches 3-13-3–45, Kahoopii 1-1-0–14; Maui High, Joe Cariaga 3-7-0–41, Tarasenko 0-3-0–0.

RECEIVING–Baldwin, Landen Ambrocio 1-32, Josiah Kaina 1-14, Kaalakea 1-9, Randolph 1-4; Maui High, Myrick 1-20, Ihu-Rodrigues 1-11, Braden Albrecht 1-10.

MISSED FIELD GOALS–none.

Junior varsity–Maui High 26, Baldwin 14.

*****

Friday’s Result

KS MAUI 30, KING KEKAULIKE 16

King Kekaulike 0 7 6 3–16

Kamehameha Maui 0 16 7 7–30

Second Quarter

KK–Kalelepono Wong 12 run (Kaleo Gallen kick), 10:01.

KSM–Frank Abreu 82 pass from Makana Kamaka-Brayce (Teiva Kauhaa-Po run), 9:27.

KSM–Kamaka-Brayce 1 run (Kauhaa-Po run), 8:05.

Third Quarter

KSM–Kaonohi Casco 88 kickoff return (Makaha Pang kick), 11:49.

KK–Wong 19 run (kick failed), 7:38.

Fourth Quarter

KK–FG Gallen 26, 8:13.

KSM–Po’o Aiu 12 pass from Kamaka-Brayce (Pang kick), 6:22.

KK KSM

First downs 18 11

Rushes-yards 50-278 23-106

Passing yards 35 150

Total offense 313 256

Return yards 59 106

Comp-Att-Int 3-12-2 8-18-1

Fumbles-lost 2-0 3-1

Penalties-yards 2-9 9-72

Punts-avg 4-28.0 4-40.3

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING–King Kekaulike, Wong 18-98, Tysin Zackious 15-83, Kalani Puu 12-68, Oakley Dillon 2-14, Ahe Sumibcay 1-11, Kamakalei Stone 2-4; Kamehameha Maui, Kauhaa-Po 11-66, Joshua Kerr 4-35, Kamaka-Brayce 6-7, Heno Stone-Han 1-3, team 1-(minus 5).

PASSING–King Kekaulike, Wong 3-12-2–35; Kamehameha Maui, Kamaka-Brayce 8-18-1–150.

RECEIVING–King Kekaulike, Puu 2-27, Tobias Vazquez 1-8; Kamehameha Maui, Aiu 4-24, Abreu 2-95, Stone-Han 1-22, Kauhaa-Po 1-9.

MISSED FIELD GOALS–Kamehameha Maui, Trenton Kiesel 45 (SH).

Junior varsity–Kamehameha Maui 33, King Kekaulike 0.

*****

MIL Football, Second Round

(Overall MIL records in parentheses)

DIVISION I STANDINGS

W L Pct PF PA

Lahainaluna (5-0) 1 0 1.000 17 7

Maui High (4-2) 1 1 .500 50 17

Baldwin (0-6) 0 2 .000 13 70

DIVISION II STANDINGS

W L Pct PF PA

KS Maui (2-3) 1 0 1.000 30 16

King Kekaulike (3-3) 1 1 .500 43 43

Friday’s Result

Kamehameha Maui 30, King Kekaulike 16

Saturday’s Result

Maui High 43, Baldwin 0

Friday, Oct. 7

Maui High at King Kekaulike, 7 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 8

Kamehameha Maui at Lahainaluna, 7 p.m.