Keiaho, Buena Stuck by Hawthorne, 44-20

HAWTHORNE — Buena High was able to break through the Hawthorne defense in the second half, but it was the Bulldog defense that shattered in the Cougars’ 44-20 Southern Section Division III semifinal victory Friday night.

The Cougars gained 316 yards on the ground and scored a touchdown on every possession except their first and last.

Buena (9-4) entered Cougar territory on every possession of the first half, but didn’t get any points until 21 seconds remained in the second quarter. By that time, Hawthorne (12-1) had a 22-0 lead.

The Bulldogs rallied in the third quarter, slicing the margin to 22-20 on touchdown runs of 30 yards by Johnny Chang and eight yards by George Keiaho, who was contained by Hawthorne.

Hawthorne did most of the running, with Kalisi Moala getting 140 yards in 13 carries and scored three touchdowns, and Eric Chaney adding 114 yards in 16 carries and two touchdowns.

“We actually wanted to throw the ball, but that didn’t work in our first possession (when the Cougars threw three incomplete passes),” Chaney said. “The pass wound up setting up the run and they couldn’t stop it.”

Hawthorne keyed on stopping Keiaho, who was held to 103 yards in 26 carries. That allowed quarterback Chris Carr to roll out for big chunks of yardage. Carr led Buena with 125 yards in 11 carries.

Buena had no problems moving the football, but was stopped on two fourth downs deep in Cougar territory, and Hawthorne came off both stops with touchdowns.

“If we just had a couple of breaks we might have stayed with them,” Carr said. “But they just didn’t fall.”

Hawthorne, defending Division III champion, will play Newbury Park next week in the final.

The Cougars ran only eight plays in the first quarter, gaining 152 yards on the next five plays after their futile opening series.

After the first fourth-down stop, Cougar quarterback Kenji Tatum connected with Kelvin Hunter on a 74-yard scoring pass play in the middle of the first quarter.

After Buena was stopped for the second time, long runs by Moala (45 yards) and Sanchez (24 yards), set up a one-yard touchdown run by Moala to put Hawthorne up 14-0 early in the second quarter.

In the Cougars’ next possession, Moala scored again from one yard.