Knights Regroup After ‘Shocking’ Loss To Mililani Trojans
By Jack Danilewicz
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The Castle High football team can take inspiration from the old adage that a football team improves most between Week 1 and Week 2.
“I hope so,” said coach Nelson Maeda, whose team was still recovering last week from a shocking pre-season 43-6 loss to Mililani on Aug. 18.“The mood is pretty somber over here right now. We took a couple of steps backward. Mililani was very disciplined and polished, and we were quite the opposite. It was a good learning experience for us.”
The Knights, who were to play Kamehameha of the ILH over the weekend, open their Oahu Interscholastic Association East Red season this Saturday against McKinley (approximately 6:30 p.m. at Roosevelt) with renewed hope after a trying opening night. Although the Mililani encounter was still heavy in the air, not all of the adjustments made by the Knights had to do with offensive and defensive schemes, according to Maeda, who canceled Tuesday’s practice for “interim disciplinary reasons.”
“They had a couple of days to do some soul searching,” he said. “That left us one practice short for Kamehameha, but we’re looking at the big picture down the road.We’re not a very disciplined team right now, and that’s disappointing. We were not ready mentally to play Mililani.”
Opening the East Red schedule with McKinley should add motivation for the Knights this week. A year ago, the Tigers escaped with a 12-9 win in a game that was a microcosm of Castle’s season - one defined largely by missed opportunities. Twice the Knights were turned away in the red zone in the final quarter of that game.
“They (McKinley) don’t make a lot of mistakes, so you have to cash in on any opportunity that presents itself,” said Maeda, who led Castle to a combined 11-1 record in the Red East in 2004 and 2005. “Last year, we couldn’t capitalize.”
McKinley, which lost its preseason game to Punahou 56-18, graduated quarterback Tilton Kaluna from last season, but figures to be no less dangerous with his successor, Earvin Sione, at the helm. He was one of the bright spots for McKinley in its loss to Punahou Aug. 19, hitting on 14 of 28 passes for 218 yards, while rushing for another 50 on the ground.
“He’s an excellent athlete,“Maeda said. “They present a formidable challenge. They’re very big up front,and they can control the clock. We can’t be a three(plays)-and-out team against them. We have to establish some drives and put points on the board.”
The matchup between Castle’s defense and the Tigers’offense could go a long way in helping to determine the outcome. The Knights’ defensive hopes rest with two-way standouts Solomon Koehler and Tauoli Maae up front, as well as line-backer Kawehi Sablan. Offensively, Castle played a pair of quarterbacks - senior Thomas Ilae and junior Blake Rapozo - against Mililani. Both are likely to take snaps versus McKinley as well.
While Maeda’s staff scouted McKinley recently, the emphasis at Castle’s workouts last week was on the Knights themselves.
“We have to take care of business on our end,“Maeda said.“We’re not going to add to our schemes right now. We’re going to keep it simple. We’ve seen glimpses of how good we can be if all 11 guys play together. Right now, we’re working at doing the things we do better, and we’ll move on from there. We’re hoping to push forward and give McKinley a good game.”
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