It wasn’t easy, but Saint Louis showed why it’s the No. 1 high school football team in Hawaii with a 21-14 victory over No. 2 Punahou in the ILH championship game at Aloha Stadium on Friday night.
The Crusaders (10-0) hadn’t played in 20 days, and — after taking a 14-0 halftime lead — the rust began to show. The Buffanblu roared back for a 14-all tie before Saint Louis dug deep and found a way to get it done.
By pulling it out, the boys from Kalaepohaku won for the 36th straight time and qualified for the First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA Football State Championships for the fifth straight year. They will go for their fourth consecutive Open Division title.
>> Click here to see photos of the game between Saint Louis and Punahou.
“We just had to keep doing our thing,” said Crusaders receiver Roman Wilson, who finished with seven catches for 147 yards. “Keep making plays. The coaches, the linemen and everyone did a great job. Overall, it’s a team game and we did as best as we can.”
After Punahou owned most of the third quarter for that 14-14 deadlock, Saint Louis succeeded in stealing the momentum back with a 54-yard drive capped by dual-threat quarterback Jayden de Laura’s 12-yard TD run on the last play of the third quarter to make it 21-14. That’s what the scoreboard showed at the end, but holding off the hard-charging Buffanblu was no picnic.
Punahou got as far as the Crusaders’ 25, but got pushed back and punted it away with 5:06 to go — plenty of time to possibly get a stop and turn it around. But Saint Louis kept the chains moving, and all but put the game away by succeeding on a gutsy call by coach Cal Lee on a fourth-and-5 from the Buffanblu 41 with 2:12 to go. De Laura hit Matt Sykes with a slant pass that picked up 27 yards.
The Buffanblu didn’t cave there, either. They held Saint Louis out of the end zone, got the ball back with 12 ticks left and ran two plays to no avail.
“It went to the wire and that’s all we can ask,” said Buffanblu coach Kale Ane, whose team finished its season 10-2. “We had chances, but were hurt by key penalties. Saint Louis is a great team. We had to be near-perfect to beat them. Our kids played great, a little bumpy. … Saint Louis made it bumpy.”
In the first half, de Laura got things rolling with a 22-yard TD run up the middle for a 7-0 first-quarter lead. Koali Nishigaya boosted the lead to 14-0 in the second quarter with a 4-yard TD run. But the Crusaders failed to increase the lead when Lason Napuunoa missed a 21-yard field goal just before halftime.
Punahou turned the tables big-time in the third quarter. Thanks in part to the punt returning of Vincent Terrell, the Buffanblu got right back in it at 14-14 on short John Keawe Sagapolutele TD passes to Raydan Kiaaina-Caires and Koa Eldredge.
All told, de Laura completed 22 of his 33 passes for 358 yards. He spread it around, too, leading to big nights for Wilson, Sykes (five receptions, 109 yards) and Nishigaya (seven catches, 69 yards).
“These kids know what it takes to win a game,” Lee said. “It’s four quarters and all that stuff. You can be up … and then things don’t go right. Nonetheless, our boys hung in there and we’re fortunate to be where we’re at.”
With Lawai‘alani Brown, Sonny Masaniai and Stanley McKenzie leading the way with a heavy front-line rush, the Crusaders’ front seven hounded Punahou quarterback Sagapolutele in the first half.
But Sagapolutele got things moving for Punahou after the break. He wound up completing 25 of 38 passes. The Crusaders’ defense bottled up Terrell, who gained just 5 rushing yards on runs from scrimmage even though he had a pile of punt-return yardage.
“It’s hard to see the clock hit zero and knowing you didn’t come out with the victory,” Terrell said. “We left it all out there. Saint Louis was the better team today. It just sucks.”
Saint Louis will meet OIA runner-up Mililani in the state semifinals Nov. 23.
