So far, Aiea is making good on its season-opening four-game homestand.
Under clear skies, Na Alii dispatched Pac-Five 33-8 on Friday night, their second straight win on their own field to open the season following last week’s 35-0 pasting of Kailua. As there was no JV game (Pac-Five doesn’t have a JV team) the elevated terrain really shined in daylight during tipoff with Pearl Harbor as the backdrop.
Aiea’s next two outings at home, though, figure not to be so clean.
Waianae and Campbell, Na Alii’s opponents to close out August, also dispatched their nonleague opponents and are 2-0 entering Red West play.
Aiea senior linebacker and backup quarterback Mana Kaahanui might have an expanded role in those games. He sure did on Friday, carrying Na Alii with his arm and legs with first-stringer Jordan Liilii out first for team reasons, then because of a foot injury. Coach Wendell Say wasn’t sure when he’d have Liilii back.
“We feel good, but we still gotta work,” Kaahanui said after Friday’s game. “We get one big game next week against Waianae. Tough game. So yeah, we gotta work on that this week. Every week from now on is going to be hard.”
Aiea will have to up its discipline to have success. It rolled up nearly 200 yards of penalties to Pac-Five’s 100.
Say was confident he’d have reinforcements starting Monday, when academic casualties of the first two weeks can participate again.
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