Nevada high school football: Arbor View comeback falls short against Mililani

Arbor View’s football team had plenty of opportunities for a second-half comeback Friday night.

Ultimately, the Aggies weren’t able to take advantage of those chances, turning the ball over twice inside the 10-yard line, as Mililani (Hawaii) came away with a 28-20 road victory.

“We’ve got to be able to finish drives,” first-year Arbor View coach Sam Norris said. “Take care of the ball and finish drives. I take that on me. A couple calls, we second-guessed ourselves and things like that. We’ll learn from that. We’ll all learn from that. Adversity reveals who we really are.

“So right now it’s an opportunity for us to look in the mirror as men and as young men and be able to bounce back from this and get back at it on Monday.”

Aggies junior quarterback Thaddeus Thatcher already has made plenty of big plays in his career, and he had a hand in three touchdowns Friday. But he also turned it over three times, and two of those came inside the 10 as the second-ranked Aggies (0-1) were driving to try to come from behind.

Arbor View trailed 21-20 late in the third quarter when Thatcher hit Kai Cypher with a 40-yard pass, and a roughing the passer flag on the play moved the ball to the Mililani 4-yard-line.

But on second-and-goal from the 7, Thatcher tried to force a pass into coverage and was picked off by LJ Jelf, who returned the interception 21 yards to the Arbor View 29.

That set up a five-play, 71-yard drive capped by a 19-yard TD pass from Kekoa Koong to Luke VanAntwerp that pushed the lead to 28-20 with 10:09 to play.

After that score, the Aggies drove from their own 5 to the Mililani 7. On first-and-goal, Thatcher tried to scramble for his third rushing touchdown, but fumbled inside the 5, and a Trojans player pounced on the ball at the 1-yard line.

Thatcher, who has committed to play at Utah, completed 17 of 27 passes for 276 yards, including a 9-yard scoring strike to Cypher. He also had TD runs of 11 and 26 yards. But Norris said it was the two interceptions and the fumble that were on his signal caller’s mind after the game.

“He’s taking it tough,” Norris said. “We’ve just got to let him know, ‘Hey, we’re still here for you. You’re still our guy as our quarterback.’ And we’re always going to be behind him, supporting him. We’ve just got to continue to stay behind him and rally behind him, motivate him and allow him to continue to get better, because that’s what this is all about.”

Damen Nakagawa had six catches for 137 yards, including a 68-yard scoring pass from Koong, for the Trojans (2-0).

Kamareion Bell rushed for 59 yards on eight carries, and Zac Fares had four catches for 83 yards for Arbor View. Norris said the team is still hoping to make a return to a state championship game after losing to Bishop Gorman in the Class 5A Division I title game last season.

“At the end of the day, you can’t rely on just one play here or one play there,” Norris said. “You’ve got to be consistent in how you execute. Once you go down the field driving and taking care of the ball, executing down there is essential. And we didn’t take care of the ball, and we didn’t execute down there. So we gave them opportunities to make big plays defensively.

“We’ve got to fight through this, get back at it and allow the process to continue for what our normal goal is, which is playing in Allegiant (Stadium). So it’s still the same goal.”