Stephen Barber passed for two touchdowns and accounted for 338 yards of total offense as No. 3 Punahou pulled away for a 23-7 win over Torrey Pines (Calif.) on Friday night at Aloha Stadium.
Barber completed 20 of his 25 pass attempts for 244 yards and rushed for 94 yards against a persistent Falcons defense. Punahou (2-0 overall) had not played in three weeks; Torrey Pines was playing its season opener. The Buffanblu outgunned the visitors in total offense 446-298, but it was a one-touchdown margin into the fourth quarter.
“We had A-plus effort. Playing an offense like that, we did real well,” Punahou coach Kale Ane said. “That was a good team, champions of their league.”
Torrey Pines is ranked No. 8 by San Diego Prep Insider.
FOLLOW ALONG
A game of interest not on the radio or TV? Then follow our live blogs on HawaiiPrepWorld.com. Here are the bloggers for today’s games:
>> Kaimuki at ‘Iolani, 3 p.m. — Jason Kaneshiro
>> Kalani vs. McKinley at Roosevelt, 5:30 p.m. — Christian Shimabuku
>> Kapolei at Farrington, 6:30 p.m. — Nick Abamo
>> Mililani at Castle, 6:30 p.m. — Billy Hull
>> Nanakuli at Kailua, 6:30 p.m. — Brian McInnis
* Hawaii high school football scoreboard, Aug. 25
“Punahou is a great football team. They’ve got multiple scholarship kids,” Falcons coach Ron Gladnick said. “We just didn’t have enough in the tank at the end to do what we like to do, which is turn the tide physically, but I’m very proud of the way our kids played. We’re in a good place.”
The visitors from Del Mar, who won the CIF’s Avocado League last year, had a simple game plan: slow the tempo, grind out the clock with a wing-T attack, and stay close. The plan nearly worked. The Falcons rushed for 233 yards on 45 carries and were down just 7-0 at intermission.
Punahou stopped Torrey Pines’ opening drive of the second half. The Buffanblu then drove 74 yards in 11 plays, getting a 21-yard rush by Vincent Terrell before Barber found Koa Eldredge, who made a diving catch in the end zone for a 12-yard TD.
That gave Punahou breathing room at 14-0 with 4:37 left in the third quarter.
Torrey Pines answered right away with a six-play, 80-yard scoring march. Jason Heine’s 32-yard pass to Luke Mikolajewski set up a 5-yard TD run by Sully O’Brien, cutting the margin back to 7 points with 2:22 to go in the third.
Punahou turned up the tempo in its no-huddle offense and drove 74 yards in 10 plays. Barber found Eldredge on a 35-yard pass, then connected with Hunter Hosoda on a 24-yard strike to set up a 1-yard TD plunge by Antonio Cortez Feria. Punahou led 21-7 with 11:07 remaining.
The teams exchanged interceptions after that. Then Punahou linebacker Trent Shiraki tackled Beau Morgans on a reverse lateral in the end zone for a safety with 9:28 left.
“In the end, we needed to hold the ball longer,” Gladnick said. “We needed to convert more of our third and short, fourth and short, mid-range. We needed more first downs. If we could’ve possessed the ball for another four or five minutes, it would’ve allowed us to hang on.”
Click here to see more photos of the game between Punahou and Torrey Pines.
