Raiders Fall To Mustangs In Pre-season, 28-25
by Al Linsky
I was warned that the weather might be iffy. No, it was beautiful. Great day for football! The cheerleaders were cheering, the crowd was excited and extensive for a pre-season game.
I was really looking forward to this game. Football has quite a few photographic challenges. My goal is always to get a clear shot of the player doing something spectacular. Night games with tough lighting conditions make those challenges harder. Today we had bright sun.
After a nice job by junior Rachelle Nilo on the Star Spangled Banner, the Raiders took the field against (maybe) an underrated Kalaheo Mustang team. Maybe it was just me that underrated them, but after reading a few articles, I was expecting another strong showing for the Raiders and a tough day for the Mustangs.
It didn't turn out that way.
The quarterback for the Mustangs is Cody vonAppen. I had seen Cody play basketball at States. He is a very good all-around athlete.
Cody gave our defense fits.
Yes, he threw three interceptions, but his running (97 yards for 3 touchdowns) was too much for our Raiders on this day.
Raider's quarterback, Wyllie Marciel, had his moments hitting receivers Lionel Fujioka (7-115) and Reid Furukawa (6-160) with some beautiful passes for long gains. Marciel, though, also absorbed quite a beating especially on a very hard tackle along the sidelines near the end of the first half.
It was hard to remember that this was only a pre-season game as the intensity was certainly there.
At 6:45 of the second quarter it was 21-7, Mustangs. The Raiders mounted an excellent comeback under Marciel, closing to 17-28 with 7:07 to go in the game. Sophomore Jarrett Arakawa kept the momentum going getting a score with 2:42 to go. The Mustangs, though, were able to recover the onside kick and run out the clock.
Next game is Friday night at Waianae.
