Herriman HS Hawaiian champion Kahuku HS this past week in the opener for Kahuku's tour of Utah.

This matchup has been discussed for several years, and both teams were happy they were finally able to make the contest happen.  There are plenty of Utah connections for Kahuku, as head coach Nusi Tukuafu grew in in Salt Lake City.  Kahuku’s national power football program has made several trips to the beehive state for games, most recently against Utah champion Bingham this past fall – with many of the same athletes playing rugby in the spring.  Utah posts a significant population of Kahuku alumni, many of whom were on hand for the game as part of a raucous and electric crowd numbering in the thousands.  Finally, Kahuku captain and USA Junior Olympic player Sione Mahe began his career playing with Herriman before moving to Hawaii midway through his junior year, and still keeps in touch with his former teammates and coaches.

Tonia McPeak photos. Herriman in stripes. Kahuku in solid red.

Before kickoff, Herriman honored their 24 senior players and their parents, as it was the last home game of the year for them.  After this took place, and with much hype and anticipation, the match began.  Kahuku took control early with a deep kick that Herriman foolishly decided not to clear and ended up turning the ball over.  The teams traded penalties back and forth for a bit, and then Kahuku got a nice break from their outside center off of a scrum.  He was tackled, but found Mahe on a nice offload and the former Mustang touched down against his old team, and added the conversion as well for a 7-0 lead.

The next 20 minutes belonged to Herriman, with a dynamic pace and control of territory and possession.  Smothering defense met Kahuku behind the gain line through several phases and resulted in a penalty to Herriman, which the kicked to touch for a 5m lineout.  The ball was stolen by Kahuku, but the Herriman defense came up quickly again and forced a bad pass that outside center Kyle Farmer pounced on for the score to tie things up. 

Kahuku would regain the ball deep in Herriman territory, but the Heriman defense held strong against the massive Kahuku pack, and eventually Jake Anderson made a huge hit followed by a strip 2 meters away.  Maea Lekehe flipped the field with a booming kick and forced a not releasing penalty by tackling Kahuku’s fullback in isolation.  Leakehe kicked to 5m again, but this time Herriman won the lineout and, despite being the smaller team, drove the ball over for a score.

The teams traded kicks off of the restart, but Kahuku’s was out on the full in front of the 22, which gave Herriman an attacking lineout.  Several phases had them on the front foot, and, seeing an overlap, the ball was spun wide to wing Tyson Herrera, who used a great combination of speed and strength to first run around his opposite number, then over the cover defense near the goal line without breaking stride.

The next sequence of events was perhaps the prettiest rugby of the night.  Gavin Flint put the Kahuku defense under pressure with a box kick that was mishandled and gathered up by a hard charging Herriman chase.  The ball went wide to inserting fullback Conner Hyde, who made a weaving run from midfield down inside the 22m line. Prop Mariano Delgado then hit a gap in space from the ensuing ruck, and Maea Leakehe cut through the defense down to the goal line, where he offloaded to Carson Connors in support for the hooker’s second try of the night.

At 26-7, Kahuku needed to make something happen before halftime to keep the game from getting out of hand, and they rose to the challenge.  Herriman got a little sloppy and was punished with successive penalties that allowed Kahuku to get close.  The visitors decided to use their size advantage to pound away, and after several phases were rewarded for their efforts right at the halftime whistle, 26-12.

The second half began like the first half ended.  Penalties kept Herriman from mounting any kind of sustained attack, and Kahuku constantly feeding its big pack both tight and in space.  Kahuku was able to keep the pressure up, and touch down two tries from its pack and set the stage for a great finish, coming within 2 at 26-24.  Having had enough of their mid-game lull, Herriman righted the ship and cut down the mistakes to finally go back on attack.  Smothering defense from Hammer and Alec Perschon made way for a physical run from Ngana Leakehe, and when Kahuku committed a penalty 15 meters away from the try line, Maea Leakehe deftly quick tapped and hit a streaking Sterling Burr for a corner try to regain some breathing room at 31-24.  

The Leakehe brothers would stop Kahuku’s only promising venture with a nice tackle and poach, and Herriman patiently worked the ball down the field with some nice play from fresh reserves and timely execution.  A dropped ball from a maul attempt thwarted one scoring attempt, but Herriman would get the ball right back.  Some nice go forward from the forwards set a good platform at the ruck, and the ball spun out to Maea Leakehe, who found Hammer on full burst through a gap.  The speedy Hammer showed he has a physical side as well, putting a shoulder down and running over the defender on his way in to score the try to put a punctuation on a very hard fought, intense match 38-24.  

After the game, the teams got together and made presentations to each other, with captains and coaches adding some words on the fantastic match of rugby and the great show of sportsmanship from both sides.

Kahuku concluded their tour with victories over Highland (36-24), United (34-19), and Brighton and also visited the University of Utah for a campus tour and some time with the football staff.  Herriman finished off league play on Saturday with a 54-14 drubbing of Olympus led by Viliami Tonga, Tui Kefu, and McClane Morris among others to secure an undefeated regular season and the #1 seed in the Utah state playoffs.