unpaid D-II football

[unpaid]

Week 14,

1.Kapaa 8-0 DNP. No.6 Lahainaluna next.
2.Radford 11-0 DNP. No.3 Konawaena next
3.Konawaena 11-1 Beat Damien. No.2 Radford next.
4.Kamehameha-Hawaii 9-3.
5.Damien 6-2 Drop one spot .SO
6.Lahainaluna 7-5 Rise three spots after defeating Kaimuki.
7.Kaimuki 7-5 Drop one spot after losing to Lahainaluna.SO
8.Nanakuli 7-3
9.Pac-Five 3-3
10.Waialua 5-5

The first impression is that Radford-Konawaena will be the high scoring game and Kapaa-Lahainaluna will be the defensive slugfest.

[MauiGuy]

Difficult to justify seeding Lahainaluna over Damien.

While I agree with you, I guess the cards played out in the seeding committee's favor.

[University Ave]

Difficult to justify seeding Lahainaluna over Damien.

While I agree with you, I guess the cards played out in the seeding committee's favor.

I disagree. If Damien hosted Kaimuki, I feel the Monarchs would have taken care of business. If Lahainaluna had to travel to Konawaena, it would've been lopsided. Damien got a horrible draw having to travel to Konawaena to play. Lahainaluna got the best draw being a mediocre team hosting a first round game.

[Getreal$]

Difficult to justify seeding Lahainaluna over Damien.

While I agree with you, I guess the cards played out in the seeding committee's favor.

I disagree. If Damien hosted Kaimuki, I feel the Monarchs would have taken care of business. If Lahainaluna had to travel to Konawaena, it would've been lopsided. Damien got a horrible draw having to travel to Konawaena to play. Lahainaluna got the best draw being a mediocre team hosting a first round game.

Konawaena is a very good team that is peaking at the right time on both sides of the ball. Unfortunately Damien came up a little short, but like last year (not the year Kaiser won it, that was some strange seedings), no matter where you are seeded eventually you would meet the consensus top two seeds. This year is no different, the top two DII teams are waiting. Konawaena is the only team in this DII playoff that runs an up-tempo spread offense and can score in bunches and will test Radford's defense. If Konawaena can neutralize the run, I see them scoring points and pulling off an upset. Against Damien they had a mental lapse in the second half after taking a large lead, that can't happen against Radford.

[MauiGuy]

Difficult to justify seeding Lahainaluna over Damien.

While I agree with you, I guess the cards played out in the seeding committee's favor.

I disagree. If Damien hosted Kaimuki, I feel the Monarchs would have taken care of business. If Lahainaluna had to travel to Konawaena, it would've been lopsided. Damien got a horrible draw having to travel to Konawaena to play. Lahainaluna got the best draw being a mediocre team hosting a first round game.

While I agree with the possibility of your assessment, I don't think the seeding committee wanted to see a neighbor island team eliminate another neighbor island team and an Oahu team eliminate another. To save the arguments, it's always better to have Oahu play NI. I think the hosting part could have been different, but they may have been looking at tournament history and seen that Lahainaluna has enjoyed more success (in D2) than Kaimuki, thus granting them home field advantage with the seed. Konawaena proved that they were the better team although Damien really made a great push in the second half. In all, it is what it is. Congratulations to all teams for getting here and to the teams still left to settle it on the field.

[unpaid]

There are four games this week. I will start off with Konawaena-Radford in one D-II semi-final.I think this could be a shoot-out.

To me,there is no question that Austin Ewing will be the best quarterback on the field that night.The Wildcats have been more productive through the air than Radford has. I would say that Radford is a little unusual this year in that they don't have a mainly passing offense. Thomas Reid,Solomon Loggins,and Blaise Manabe,et al,are still around so the air game is still an option. Do the Rams need that option?

Well,Radford has a ground game this year,good enough to get consistently over 200 yards a game. As I have said before,that kind of ground yardage generally will win high school games.They have a lot of senior studs on the line and a few underclassmen who can keep it going next year. Faumui is over 1200 yards so far and Ongory-Mathias is closing in on 800 yds. For Konawaena,there is the 1-2 punch of Algene Kelekolio and Micah Laban who have combined for around 1450 yards so far on the ground. Radford comes out ahead there statistically. Radford has the bigger linemen and bigger backs,so from a purely physical standpoint,Radford should rule the ground.

But,like I said,Ewing is the best passer on the field. Iriarte doesn't come close statistically. For Konawaena to win,they will have to score early and often,and it will probably have to be through the air....the Wildcats can't count on pounding the rock against Radford.

Each team has a player who can make plays on special teams...Cameron Howes for Konawaena,and Thomas Reid for Radford ...I call that a wash.

The thing that keeps coming back to my mind about Radford this year is that they are allowing an average of less than 5 points a game to opponents. Pair that with a good ground game and I have to pick Radford in this game.

[unpaid]

The other D-II semi-final pits Lahainaluna against Kapaa.

Lahainaluna could pull an upset through sheer will.They seem to be that kind of program..but you would still have to be close enough to Kapaa talent-wise to do that. So,how do the Lunas matchup.

Kapaa's Kurt Napoleon has passed for over 900 yards,while Etuati Storer has considerably less passing yardage. Kapaa is a better rushing team.

Lahainaluna is good defensively,but that is also Kapaa's strength. You can say Kauai and Waimea are down and that would be true,but one of Kapaa's eight wins was against the Lunas earlier in the year. 1.5 points a game allowed to opponents this year,to me,gives the edge in this game to Kapaa again. Picking the Warriors to win this one.

[bran7958]

As good and far as Damien has come this season, we still have yet to see what they can do as a complete healthy team. If they show up with that in states, I think they got a shot taking the whole thing! Monarchs!

Are you serious? I know Apao has been out but they haven't really had much injuries all year. They are so hard to judge cause they fizzled a little down the stretch. The really don't have a signature win on their resume that you can really call them a legit contender. Who ever they draw in the state tournament will be a huge test for them.

[bran7958]

When impact players like Apao are out at a school like Damien, those injuries impact the team significantly as opposed to others. Just saying. ...

[bran7958]

Nonetheless. ..great job to the Monarchs this year and congrats to Konawaena

[SRJC]

"Kapaa's Kurt Napoleon has passed for over 900 yards,while Etuati Storer has considerably less passing yardage. Kapaa is a better rushing team." -unpaid

Freshmen Etuati Storer is the not starting QB. A change was made mid season to Senior Dylan Delatori

“He was our No. 3 or 4th quarterback on our depth chart going into the season,” Tihada said of the 5-foot, 9-inch, 155-pound signal-caller. “It came down to ball security for us. And he protects the ball the best.”

http://mauinow.com/2015/09/26/lahainalu ... aui-20-14/

[KidDynamite]

Difficult to justify seeding Lahainaluna over Damien.

While I agree with you, I guess the cards played out in the seeding committee's favor.

I disagree. If Damien hosted Kaimuki, I feel the Monarchs would have taken care of business. If Lahainaluna had to travel to Konawaena, it would've been lopsided. Damien got a horrible draw having to travel to Konawaena to play. Lahainaluna got the best draw being a mediocre team hosting a first round game.

Give credit where credit is due sir.
Thats nine straight HHSAA Division 2 play-off appearances for Lahaina luna.

[KidDynamite]

The other D-II semi-final pits Lahainaluna against Kapaa.

Lahainaluna could pull an upset through sheer will.They seem to be that kind of program..but you would still have to be close enough to Kapaa talent-wise to do that. So,how do the Lunas matchup.

Kapaa's Kurt Napoleon has passed for over 900 yards,while Etuati Storer has considerably less passing yardage. Kapaa is a better rushing team.

Lahainaluna is good defensively,but that is also Kapaa's strength. You can say Kauai and Waimea are down and that would be true,but one of Kapaa's eight wins was against the Lunas earlier in the year. 1.5 points a game allowed to opponents this year,to me,gives the edge in this game to Kapaa again. Picking the Warriors to win this one.

I like kapaa in this game.
kapaa came back to win against lahaina luna in the late fourth quarter tho. cpuld be anybodies game

[University Ave]

While I agree with you, I guess the cards played out in the seeding committee's favor.

I disagree. If Damien hosted Kaimuki, I feel the Monarchs would have taken care of business. If Lahainaluna had to travel to Konawaena, it would've been lopsided. Damien got a horrible draw having to travel to Konawaena to play. Lahainaluna got the best draw being a mediocre team hosting a first round game.

Give credit where credit is due sir.
Thats nine straight HHSAA Division 2 play-off appearances for Lahaina luna.

What they did in 2006 doesn't help them win games...5-4 in the MIL is not worthy of the 4th seed. Especially with the MIL a little down this year. And...9 straight appearances is impressive but really, the rest of the MIL D2 field is nothing to write home about.

[Getreal$]

What they did in 2006 doesn't help them win games...5-4 in the MIL is not worthy of the 4th seed. Especially with the MIL a little down this year. And...9 straight appearances is impressive but really, the rest of the MIL D2 field is nothing to write home about.

Once again, it doesn't matter what your seeding is come playoff time. Lahainaluna won and Konawaena won and they move on to face the top two teams. I do agree that both the BIIF and MIL had a drop off in competition from last year but both won their repective divisions and deservingly move on to the semi's. Luna's benefited from playing tough games all year and that to me was the difference in the first round. Konawaena benefits from the BIIF schedule which pits them against all the DI schools during the season and playing KSH right before Damien gave them an edge too. This week will test all four teams and that how it should be.