Aperamo Sulu activated warp speed.
The Damien running back rushed for 217 yards and scored all three of his touchdowns in the first half as the Monarchs rolled past host Nanakuli 34-0 in a Division I OIA-ILH crossover game on Saturday night.
The 5-foot-9, 175-pound sophomore broke the plane from 7, 47 and 45 yards in helping stake Damien to a 27-0 advantage at intermission. That more than held up as the Monarchs improved to 2-0 overall (2-0 ILH D-I).
“It was all up to my linemen. My linemen did all the work, and I just had to find all the holes, and I did,” Sulu said. “I’m thankful for my teammates, because they keep pushing me every day.”
He and backup quarterback Duke Ho‘ohuli kept their offense churning when starting quarterback Jake Holtz left the game with a tweaked ankle on Damien’s first drive. Ho‘ohuli took a sack, then found Lindon Sevilleja on a 12-yard fade route for the score.
“I basically said if (Holtz) couldn’t run out full speed, we weren’t going to put him back in,” Damien coach Eddie Klaneski said. “Luckily, we have Duke, who’s our backup quarterback. He’s gotten a lot of reps over the preseason and stuff like that, so we were pretty confident with him. No big deal, we move it on. Our up-front guys, they blocked well, we were able to run the ball, establish that. We didn’t really have to throw it too much. We were happy with the outcome.”
As a bonus: Ho‘ohuli is from Nanakuli.
But it was Sulu who stole the show, especially on his 47- and 45-yard scoring bursts. He had 16 carries for the night.
“A good breakout game for him. We knew he had it in him,” Klaneski said. “For us, we just gotta keep him healthy. He gets banged up. He likes to run guys over when he should be running around them. So we have to watch him. He kind of got horsecollar tackled and he kind of tweaked his groin or something. So after that, I just told him we’re going to keep him out for the rest of the game. We have such a long season, and we want to be as healthy as possible.”
Nanakuli dropped to 0-3 overall, although this was the Golden Hawks’ first blowout defeat after one-score losses to Roosevelt and Aiea.
The Golden Hawks also had to go to their backup quarterback, in this case before kickoff. The starter of the first two games, Charles Hauhio, was unavailable, so they turned to junior linebacker Sedric Crawford to lead the offense.
Crawford completed nine passes in 29 attempts for 68 yards and a pick. Rylen Yap had 50 of the receiving yards, and nearly connected with Crawford for a second-half score on fourth down, but Yap couldn’t hold onto the ball in the end zone.
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GAME SUMMARY
Damien 34, Nanakuli 0
At Nanakuli
>> Damien (2-0, 1-0) 14 13 7 0 — 34
>> Nanakuli (0-3, 0-1) 0 0 0 0 — 0
Damien — Lindon Sevilleja 12 pass from Duke Ho‘ohuli (Christian Souza kick)
Damien — Aperamo Sulu 7 run (Souza kick)
Damien — Sulu 47 run (Souza kick)
Damien — Sulu 45 run (kick blocked)
Damien — River Iaea 1 run (Souza kick)
RUSHING — Damien: Sulu 16-217; Kama Maghinay-Santos 12-67; Logan Lauti 7-43; Iaea 3-6; Jake Holtz 1-4; Alohi Arecchi 1-4; Ho‘ohuli 6-(minus 9); Team1-(minus 14). Nanakuli: A‘alona Aleka 11-33; Team 1-0; Sedric Crawford 12-(minus 10).
PASSING — Damien: Ho‘ohuli 6-20-1-83; Holtz 3-3-0-67. Nanakuli: Crawford 9-29-1-68.
RECEIVING — Damien: Sevilleja 3-49; Jarvis Natividad 2-23; Lauti 1-24; Sulu 1-21; Iaea 1-17; Arecchi 1-16. Nanakuli: Rylen Yap 4-50; Lexsen Kunukau 3-4;Gavin Vea-Flint 2-14.
