Punahou joins the party

There seems to be one sure thing in the state football tournament: An ILH team will reach the Division I final.

For the ninth straight year — spanning the existence of classified brackets — the Interscholastic League of Honolulu’s representative will play for the D-I championship.

For the third time, that team will be Punahou, which got four touchdown passes from Larry Tuileta in a 35-0 win over Baldwin on Friday night in the semifinals of the First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA Division I State Football Championships at Aloha Stadium.

Running back Steven Lakalaka added 75 yards and a touchdown and DeForest Buckner led the Buffanblu defense with 412 of his 11 tackles going for a loss as Punahou (11-2) will try to claim its second state championship in four years.

The Buffanblu will face Kahuku, which is the only team to beat Punahou in the state tournament, next Friday at Aloha Stadium. The Red Raiders won the 2005 state title game, 28-21.

“It’s a blessing is all I can say,” Buckner said. “We dreamed about this day and it’s finally here. We’ve (achieved) our primary goal and we need to come on top.”

The second-seeded ILH champions dominated every phase against a Baldwin team looking to advance to its first state title game.

The Bears (9-2), who are 5-10 in the state tournament but 0-5 in the semifinals, couldn’t capitalize on the momentum gained from last Friday’s stunning victory over Farrington on Maui.

Baldwin suffered its third-worst loss in the state tournament and was shut out for the first time.

“We couldn’t move the ball on offense and left our defense out there too long,” Bears coach AJ Roloos said. “Eventually our defense got tired and Punahou jumped on that.”

Once Punahou broke the game open with two second-quarter touchdowns, Baldwin was left with few options. Junior quarterback Keelan Ewaliko, the reigning Maui Interscholastic League player of the year, was held to 61 total yards and just 16 on the ground on 18 carries.

Baldwin managed only 85 total yards, averaging 1.3 per carry. The Bears were 2-for-12 on third-down conversions and failed on a fake-punt try late in the second quarter, allowing Punahou to take a 21-0 lead into the break.

“We had some breaks and our defense played outstanding,” Punahou coach Kale Ane said. “We were worried about (Ewaliko) and he made things happen, but we did a nice job.”

Punahou’s defense got a huge boost from 6-foot-8 defensive end Luke Kaumatule, who played for the first time since suffering a knee injury against Campbell in late August.

Kaumatule had two of his four tackles for loss and forced two fumbles.

“We tried to keep it a secret so it would be a big surprise … and I really did miss that guy for most of the season,” Buckner said. “Now that he’s back I got my partner in crime and it opened up things a lot because I wasn’t being triple-teamed.”

As much as Punahou’s defense controlled the game, its offense wasn’t bad either, totaling 370 yards, with most of it coming through the air.

Tuileta tossed a 3-yard touchdown pass to KJ Sekona in the first quarter and ended the half with a 10-yard touchdown on a shovel pass to Ryan Tuiasoa for a 21-0 lead.

Baldwin punter Pasoni Tasini tried to run for a first down on fourth and 5 from his own 40 less than 2 minutes into the half, but came up woefully short. Three plays later, Tuileta hit Tuiasoa for the touchdown and the rout was on.

“Actually, it wasn’t even called a fake punt,” Roloos said. “I don’t know what happened exactly, but it wasn’t a called fake punt.”

Cody Lee’s diving touchdown catch in the third quarter put the Buffanblu up 28-0 and Malik Johnson caught Tuileta’s fourth score on a 27-yard pass in the fourth quarter to enable a running clock due to the 35-point mercy rule.