LAHAINA — The Thanksgiving holiday weekend was a special one for Lahainaluna High School, as both the Luna cheerleading team and the Red Tide gridiron team won Maui Interscholastic League championships on Saturday evening.

On their home court at the Jimmie H. Greig Gymnasium on the Lahainaluna campus, the upstart Luna cheer team upset perennial power and defending state titlist Baldwin by a score of 292.5 to 286 to capture the program’s first-ever championship.

Guided by coaches Mary Ann Corpuz, Marilyn Valencia, Stacey Vironay, and Ronalyn Cabida, the Lahainaluna team now looks forward to the Hawaii High School Athletic Association State Championships to be held on Dec. 18 at the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu.

The Luna lineup includes Michelle Arzaga, Christine Kimberly Chung, Samara Cook, Harry Flores, Hanna Hongo, Yelani Jacob, Keolani Faye Kahaleauki, Tatum Perreira Aquino and Kayla Marie Salmon.

Over on the gridiron, after ten consecutive MIL Division II championships and four straight HHSAA state titles, the Luna football team moved up to Division I this season and two weeks ago clinched the title with a methodical 26-9 win over upstart Maui High.

After shutting out the Sabers 24-0 in the first round, the Lunas struggled in the second round rematch, fell behind early but rallied in the second half for the championship win.

The Maui High defense thoroughly throttled the vaunted Lahainaluna running attack to hold the Lunas’ league-leading rushing game to its lowest output of the season.

The Lunas went to their passing game to move the ball in the fourth quarter to score three touchdowns to put the game away, as the defense held fast to hold the Sabers to one score.

Lahainaluna thus advances to the HHSAA Division I State Championship Semi-finals this Friday night on Oahu.

Luna Co-head Coach Dean Rickard said, “We were fortunate to come away with the win, as this was definitely our toughest game of the season and a defensive battle for both teams. Of course it feels great to secure the MIL D-I title and the berth to the state playoffs, but we still have a lot of work to do as we certainly need to minimize our mistakes and improve in all three phases of the game.”