Damien’s 30-20 victory over Pac-Five on Friday gives the Monarchs an opportunity to play for its second consecutive ILH Division II title. However, Damien coach Eddie Klaneski was not pleased with his team afterward.
A myriad of penalties, missed coverages and miscommunication on both sides of the ball kept the Wolfpack within striking distance all the way until a safety with two minutes left sealed the win for the Monarchs.
“I’m very disappointed. I mean, obviously a win is a win, but at the end of the day, when you plan to do certain things defensively and offensively, it doesn’t come out the way you plan it to be and it’s very frustrating,” Klaneski said.
Pac-Five scored first when Jett Uechi snatched a 30-yard, fourth-down pass from Cade Rapozo in double coverage with 7:48 remaining in the first quarter. The Monarchs responded with three straight touchdowns before Uechi’s second touchdown reception of the half made it a one-possession game heading into intermission.
Keoua Kauhi led Damien with three touchdowns, including a 65-yard rush that gave the Monarchs a 28-13 lead in the third quarter.
“Pac-Five is a tough team, but we just had to play through our downfall in the beginning,” Kauhi said. “We picked it up, we came back and had to play through it.”
Damien faces St. Francis for the ILH D-II title on Oct. 21 at Aloha Stadium. Because the Monarchs are the top seed, they’ll have a second chance to claim the title if the Saints win Saturday’s matchup. The two teams split the season series, but Damien won last year’s title game 20-12.
“We can rely on that, but the way we’ve been playing, we gotta go back to the drawing board, back to the basics,” Klaneski said. “Right now, that doesn’t really matter. We gotta fix things up on our end and hopefully we can take care of our business.”
