WAIMEA — After being held scoreless in two preseason games, the Hilo offense came to life in its BIIF opener, knocking off Hawaii Preparatory Academy 33-16 in Waimea on Saturday.
WAIMEA — After being held scoreless in two preseason games, the Hilo offense came to life in its BIIF opener, knocking off Hawaii Preparatory Academy 33-16 in Waimea on Saturday.
In his BIIF debut as Hilo’s starting quarterback, Ka’ale Tiogangco was 12 of 18 passing for 278 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. He also accounted for 94 yards and a score on the ground. His lone mistake came on a tipped pass in the fourth quarter.
Hilo senior wide receiver Keaho Kaawa caught five passes for 171 yards and two scores. His touchdown receptions came on plays of 80 and 64 yards.
Justin Perry, who is expected to be a key cog in the Hawaii Prep offense but missed the preseason with an injury, was the only Ka Makani player to find the end zone. He played under center for part of the afternoon, but scored on a three-yard run and 21-yard reception from sophomore quarterback Kekoa LeBlanc.
The Viking’s first play from scrimmage was a 40-yard connection from Tiogangco to Lukas Kuipers. But on the next play roving linebacker Anthony Palleschi jarred the ball loose after a screen pass and Hawaii Prep recovered.
Palleschi finished the afternoon with 12 tackles, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. He also contributed on offense with 66 hard-earned yards.
Three different players would touch the ball on Ka Makani’s first possesion — Alex Brost, Perry and Palleschi — but they would go three and out.
The Vikings were not discouraged by the results of the first drive and chipped away with a series of effective, quick screens. Hawaii Prep started keying on the play, and Tiogangco capitalized when he faked the screen and hit Kaleihalia Tolentino-Perry for a 31-yard score on a deep route to cap the 80-yard drive. The kick after from Tolentino-Perry gave Hilo a 7-0 lead five minutes in.
Hawaii Prep got its first pass completion of the season on its next possession — a quick dump off from Brost to Palleschi and the big back carried the pile for 19 yards. However, Ka Makani would punt a few plays later.
On the first play after the punt, Tiogangco found Kaawa down the sideline, and he jogged 80 yards into the end zone for six.
Still trying to find its identity on offense, Hawaii Prep was not helped by the early deficit. For every solid gain, there seemed to be a play that went for negative yardage. Eight out of the first 18 run plays lost yards.
Meanwhile, Tiogangco was orchestrating the Viks offense nearly to perfection early. He put Hilo in the red zone with a 56-yard run late in the first quarter, but a bad snap and long loss would force the Vikings to settle for a 28-yard Tolentino-Perry field goal.
Hilo had another chance from the red zone after an interception run back to Hawaii Prep’s 10-yard line, but the Viks would be turned away on a fourth down try.
Hawaii Prep would get its first sign of life late. Perry engineered a 73-yard drive that ended with a 34-yard Brost field goal with no time left. The teams entered the break with Hilo up 17-3.
Ka Makani’s Kevin Durkin built on the momentum from the late scoring drive to start the second half, returning the opening kickoff to the Hilo 34-yard line. But on offense, Ka Makani could not get the ball moving in the right direction and did not take advantage of the long return.
Tiogangco and Kaawa built on their connection early. In a similar fashion to his first score, Kaawa got behind the Hawaii Prep defensive back and ran untouched into the end zone on a 64-yard play. A two-point pass from Tolentino-Perry to Pono Landford made it 25-3.
Tiogangco padded Hilo’s lead with a nifty 34-yard scramble and sprint late in the third quarter and a two-point run made it 33-3.
Outside of a few plays that moved the sticks, Hawaii Prep’s option run attack couldn’t find its footing. Big backs Palleschi and Kanai Gaughen delivered some hard-nosed runs, but first down were few and far between.
Down big, Hawaii Prep cracked open its passing playbook — just a little — but lurking defensive lineman Tracen Calicdan picked off Perry. As a team, Hawaii Prep threw the ball 12 times for 53 yards.
The Calicdan interception set up the Vikings inside the Hawaii Prep 20-yard line, but two fumbles in four plays stymied the Hilo offense. For a third time the squad had to settle for no points on a red zone trip.
LeBlanc entered the game at quarterback in the fourth quarter. After Perry scored on a short three-yard scamper on a handoff from the slot, LeBlanc found him on a 21-yard pass in the corner of the end zone to finish the game on a high note.
Hilo 14 3 16 — 33
Hawaii Prep 0 3 0 13 — 16