Kahuku quarterback Tiger Adolpho (19) throws the football against the Saint Louis Crusaders. Jamm Aquino/jaquino@staradvertiser.com The future starts now for Kahuku. No sense stewing over 45-6 loss to a team ranked No. 6 in the nation. This year is done. The Raiders gave their ever-faithful fans an OIA championship last month and yet another appearance in the Open Division final of the First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA Football State Championships. Anybody watching Friday’s nightcap

Saint Louis’ regular-season dominance over Kahuku has extended to the state tournament in recent years, with the Crusaders adding a big victory Friday night. Saint Louis has won 19 of the 28 meetings all time against the Red Raiders, but was 1-5 against Kahuku in state finals after the Red Raiders’ shocking win to end the 2015 season. Since then, Saint Louis has rolled to four consecutive state titles, with three coming in wins over the Red Raiders, including Friday night’s 4

Kahuku running back Zealand Matagi rushed for 261 yards in a 35-7 victory over Campbell earlier this season. Photo by Jamm Aquino/Star-Advertiser. Could the third time be the charm for the Campbell Sabers when the Open Division semifinals of the First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA Football State Championships take place Friday at Aloha Stadium? Campbell (6-5) went to Kahuku (8-3) and lost 35-7 on Aug. 31, then met the Red Raiders in the OIA Open playoffs and lost again 46-0 at Aloha St

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM Kahuku running back Zealand Matagi ran around Mililani linebacker Micah Kim during the first quarter of the OIA Open Division championship game on Saturday at Aloha Stadium. Big Red is back on top. Kahuku won an OIA championship in the most Kahuku way possible, using a punishing defense and a big play on special teams to knock off Mililani 7-3 on Saturday night in the OIA Open Division title game at Aloha Stadium. The game was scoreles

Kahuku running back Lalio Kaluna (44) helped the Red Raiders' running game grind out a win over Mililani. Photo by Jamm Aquino/Star-Advertiser. The year 2017 may be too recent to evoke feelings of nostalgia, but not if you’re a follower of Kahuku football. On Saturday night at Aloha Stadium, the Red Raiders downed Mililani 7-3 to win the OIA Open Division title, making it just two years since their last league title. To some, that gap felt like an eternity. “We were thinking

Kahuku coach Sterling Carvalho is dunked by a bucket of water after the Red Raiders defeated Mililani for the OIA Open title. CJ Caraang | SL HALAWA — Special teams, defense, and offense in that order came together at the right time as No. 4 Kahuku rallied past No. 3 Mililani, 7-3, to win the Oahu Interscholastic Association Open Division title at Hawaiian Financial FCU Field at Aloha Stadium Saturday. Kahuku (8-3 overall) wins their third-straight game and adds their first O

HALAWA — No. 4 Kahuku gave No. 2 Punahou all it could handle as the Buffanblu eked out a 21-13 win in an interleague Open Division contest at Hawaiian Financial FCU Field at Aloha Stadium Saturday. Vincent Terrell scored two touchdowns: one on the ground and one receiving as he finished with 83 rushing yards and 86 receiving yards to help the Buffanblu improve to 8-1 overall and 5-1 in league play. "Every win feels great, especially when it's a close game. Definitely we see w

Kahuku center Marcus Lombard has been named a Polynesian Bowl All-Star. The 6-foot, 285-pound senior is the 18th Red Raider to be selected to the game in the four years of its existence and the fourth offensive lineman (Vili Fisiiahi, Enokk Vimahi, Micah Soliai Howlett). Lombard is the 23rd player from a Hawaii high school selected to the 2020 game. The other players are Saint Louis linebackers Jordan Botelho and Nick Herbig and defensive tackle Stanley McKenzie, Punahou defe

Kahuku cornerback Kaonohi Kaniho, a 6-foot, 180-pound senior, has been named a 2020 Polynesian Bowl All-Star. Kaniho, who has committed to play for Boise State next year, where he will play with brother Kekaula, is back to form this season after suffering a knee injury that forced him to miss most of his junior season. He was one of only two players to make the Honolulu Star-Advertiser All-State first team two years ago as a sophomore. Kaniho is the 18th player currently enro

Junior RB Zealand Matagi ran for 262 yards and three TDs to lead No. 5 Kahuku past No. 4 Campbell. Brandon Ching | SL KAHUKU — Zealand Matagi rushed for 262 yards and three touchdowns and No. 5 Kahuku bullied its way to a 35-7 win over No. 4 Campbell in an Oahu Interscholastic Association Open Division football game at Carleton E. Weimer Field Saturday night. The Red Raiders (3-1 overall, 2-1 league) rolled to their second straight win behind a punishing ground game that rack

Kahuku running back Zealand Matagi was chased by Campbell defenders all game, finishing with 261 yards on the ground in a dominating win. Photo by Jamm Aquino/Star-Advertiser. It was studsville in Kahuku on Friday night. The fifth-ranked Red Raiders kept it simple at their Carleton E. Weimer Field, running the ball between the tackles most of the night. The result: 440 yards on the ground and a 35-7 smashing of fourth-ranked Campbell. The pack of stun guns on the offensive li

Kahuku running back Zealand Matagi (26) runs the ball past Waianae defensive back Samson Cook (18) on Saturday. Both teams put in a few tricky wrinkles, but after a scoreless first half it was obvious that the team deciding to commit to old-school, hard-charging running was going to prevail. This looked like the 1970s. Waianae at No. 5 Kahuku on the North Shore. Real grass. And then, the avalanche came. It was the Red Raiders who decided to grind it and grind it and grind it

The day Jarrett Kaniho found out he was going to be a grandfather was the very definition of bittersweet. Yes, he was excited, but he also thought it wouldn’t be a phone call he would take for quite a while. Then last summer, his wife Misty told him what their middle child Kaonohi Kaniho had told her. Ahead of his junior year at Kahuku High on Oahu’s North Shore, Kaonohi found out his girlfriend, Raita Laufiso, was pregnant with their child. “The first reaction was a li

JERRY CAMPANY / JCAMPANY@STARADVERTISER.COM Kahuku will have an open competition at QB with, from left, Jason Mariteragi, Robbie Sauvao and Tiger Adolpho vying for the spot. The groundbreaking 2018 prep football season in Hawaii marked the first season of Open Division play, pitting the top nine teams in the state against each other every week. From the outside looking in, a team that finishes in the top half of the Open gauntlet and reaches the state semifinals should feel a

Kahuku's Kaonohi Kaniho had his season cut short last year with a knee injury. Photo by Darryl Oumi/Special to the Star-Advertiser. Kahuku is eager to put the 2018 season behind it. The 7-5 Red Raiders were hit hard by the injury bug, preventing them from playing to their full potential in year one of Open Division play in the OIA-ILH football alliance. This year’s Kahuku squad returns plenty of talent and is ranked No. 5 in the Star-Advertiser preseason poll. The preview sto