The Pearl City Chargers came away on Friday night with a 14-7 victory over the visiting Kapolei Hurricanes in OIA Pre-Season Varsity Football. The Chargers defense and offense stepped up to fill in for starters on both sides of the ball who sat out the game against the Hurricanes. Kapolei represents the OIA Red West Division.
"Coming out with only 35 again they showed some guts," said Chargers head coach, Kai Kamaka. "Kapolei is a good tough team, physical team but we matched up well. Next week we get the rest of our guys back so we'll be 50 strong. We're missing some key guys on defense that wasn't starting. We're missing on defense Mike Fe'ao, Jayden Zaldo and on the offense a couple slot backs and receivers."
Photo by Barry Villamil | [email protected]
Pearl City Chargers head coach, Kai Kamaka looking over his team during pre-game warm ups.
Photo by Barry Villamil | [email protected]
Pearl City defense pictured during a 3rd quarter timeout on Friday against Kapolei.
_0.JPG)
Photo by Barry Villamil | [email protected]
The Chargers defense swarmed and attacked Kapolei's offense pictured here gang tackling a Hurricane ball carrier.
The Chargers super duo, Cyrus Coen and Ray Cooper returned to action last night sharing duties on both offense and defense. On offense the backfield tandem ran well helping the Chargers execute a powerfull ground game.
"Coen and Cooper is probably the heart of the offense but you know they bring a lot of balance in offsetting guys that play us in a three man front with eight guys in coverage that forces us to run the ball," said Kamaka. "There's no sense in us throwing and going into our read offense when there's eight guys in coverage. We ran the ball well. Every time off the snap they started to peel off of the ball so we just kept smashing the ball and changing up the formations."
_0_0.JPG)
Photo by Barry Villamil | [email protected]
Chargers running back Cyrus Coen gets knocked out of bounds on the Kapolei 1 yard line in the 3rd Quarter. QB Dustin Bataya would sneek the ball into the end zone on the next play to give the Chargers a 14-7 lead.
The offensive line is a veteran core with a mix of seniors and juniors starting for the Chargers. Senior center, Iokepa Alcantra led the Chargers O-Line on Friday night. They were tasked to battle with a very physical Kapolei defensive front.
"The boys did really well. We had some different defensive fronts that we faced. When we saw film against Kapolei, we saw some new things today. The boys adapted and we did really well picking up the blitz." said Chargers O-Line coach, Sean Na'auao.
_0.JPG)
Photo by Barry Villamil | [email protected]
The Chargers O-Line kept #11 QB Dustin Bataya protected against an aggressive Hurricanes defense.
_0_0.JPG)
Photo by Barry Villamil | [email protected]
Chargers O-Line coach Sean Na'auao (right) giving instruction to starting junior left tackle, #72 Paul Perry.
Pearl City got on the scoreboard in the second quarter on a 2 yard run by QB Dustin Bataya. Cyrus Coen took off on a fake extra point attempt scoring a 2 point conversion to put the Chargers up 8-0.
Later in the 2nd quarter, Kapolei had a chance to score with the ball on the Pearl City 2 yard line but coughed the ball up. Pearl City defensive back, Ronson Barrett picked the ball up and returned it to the PC 36 yard line spoiling the Hurricane's drive with 7:10 left in the quarter.
Pearl City would take a 8-0 lead at the half.
Kapolei would come out of the half and strike early in the 3rd quarter scoring from the Pearl City 6 yard line on rushing touchdown around left end. Extra point conversion was successful. Kapolei trailed 8-7 with 11:47 left in quarter.
Pearl City scored the final points of the game on a 2 yard keeper by QB Dustin Bataya with 1:42 left in the 3rd quarter. Extra point conversion was blocked.
_0_0.JPG)
Photo by Barry Villamil | [email protected]
Chargers QB #11Dustin Bataya being congratulated after scoring a TD in 3rd quarter to increase Pearl City's lead over Kapolei 14-7.
Photo by Barry Villamil | [email protected]
Pearl City Chargers coaches bring the players together for a post game talk and congratulations for a well played game and victory over the Kapolei Hurricanes.
The Pearl City Chargers next scheduled opponent will be Anuenue at home on Friday, August 20th, 6:00pm. Come out and support the team.
Go Chargers!