Honolulu, HI — HAWAII KAI—Noa Uchida found the end zone three times in the second quarter and Kalani's defense held Nanakuli in check to win, 34-21, in a pivotal Oahu Interscholastic Association Division II contest at Kaiser Stadium Friday. The Falcons bounced back from a 28-13 loss to Radford (5-1) nearly two weeks ago to improve to 4-2 in the league standings and keep their playoff hopes alive. Kalani will need to win the rest of the way with two games remaining and hope that the Rams lose to Kalaheo and Nanakuli in order to lock up second place. The Golden Hawks dropped their second-straight game in a row to fall to 3-3 on the season and the loss dashed their hopes of reaching the OIA title game. "Nanakuli is a good team. They play with a lot of heart. Last week they almost came up with a win. This week we were preparing for them and trying to take away as much as we can. We have to keep our heads even so we don't hurt ourselves," Kalani coach Scott Melemai said. Uchida caught four passes for 86 yards and two touchdowns from Logan Lim, who went for 156 yards on 12-of-24 passing and no picks, and rushed for 20 yards and another score. "It was a great team win. Defense and offense got it done. I can't take the cake for all the work. The o-line did their job and everyone was executing on the field today," Uchida said. "We try to get the mismatches and move him around and try and get him the ball anyway we can. Him, (Noah) Ah Sam, whatever they were giving us, we tried to take the mismatches," Melemai said. Josh Oh, who is averaging 5.0 yards per carry and has 591 yards on the season, rushed for 118 yards on 26 attempts and scored on a 1-yard run in the fourth quarter. "He's a workhorse, works hard and he runs hard in practice, he's what you want in a senior running back," Melemai said. Nanakuli's opening scoring drive was set up on the Kalani 42 following a personal foul penalty and the Golden Hawks took four plays to get onto the scoreboard following Christian Asinsin's 4-yard touchdown. After the Golden Hawks went for it on fourth-and-4 on their own 31 and failed to convert, the Falcons took advantage of the short field. Lim completed a 16-yard pass to Mikala Nishimoto on a fourth-and-5 and three plays later, Lim connected with Uchida for a 14-yard touchdown, but the kick failed to trail, 7-6. Nanakuli put up 504 yards of total offense against division-leader Kaiser in their 38-32 loss, but were held in check only posting 209 yards of total offense. "We had a five man blitz in to get pressure and not giving them time to throw the ball," Melemai said. Kai Webster intercepted Keahi Ah Sui and Kalani redeemed the pick into points with a five-play, 39-yard scoring drive capped by Uchida's 17-yard touchdown run, but the two-point run failed as the Falcons led, 12-7. "I won't take any credit for that, I give that to the o-line. They did everything for me," Uchida said. Ah Sui threw for 178 yards on 14-of-31 passing and his only touchdown pass went to Hansen Salausa-Kaawa for 14 yards to reclaim the lead momentarily. Lim completed a 18-yard pass to Nishimoto, who finished with 55 receiving yards on five catches, that set up a 40-yard touchdown pass to an open Uchida and Josh Oh punched in the run with 55.9 seconds to go before the half to lead, 20-13. Kalani was 10 of 16 on third down conversions and rushed for 13 of their 18 first downs. Following a Nanakuli punt, Kalani went on a 14-play, 80 yard drive and was 2 for 2 on third downs to pad the lead on Oh's 1-yard touchdown run to make it, 28-13. "We started to wear them out and control the ball and take what we could control," Melemai said. Oh had another 1-yard run, but left the game due to injury, but Devin Nguyen jumped in to add 54 yards on six carries, all in the fourth quarter. After Kahikina Iaea picked off Ah Sui, the Falcons converted three third downs and added their final score on Viggo Tafao's 4-yard run. That drive covered 81 yards, 11 plays and took 4 minutes and 9 seconds off the clock. Golden Hawks' leading receiver David Kalili (30 receptions for 443 yards, four TDs) caught his only pass of the night with a 30-yard reception that set up Ah Sui's 1-yard keeper run three plays later for the final score of the game. Nanakuli caps their season with two home games against Waialua (2-4) on Dec. 3 and Radford on Dec. 10. Kalani hopes to finish the season on a high note as it travels on the road to Kailua to take on Kalaheo on Dec. 4 and at Pearl City (4-3 overall, 4-2 OIA). Brandon Ching