SALT LAKE—Alakai Yuen overcame a poor start to throw six touchdowns, five of them going to Ryan Ramones as Moanalua (1-0) rallied to rout Damien (0-1), 46-24 in a interleague game at Moanalua High School.

"He (Ramones) is a hard worker, he is a team leader. He's someone I can count on, when there things going on in the defense he notices and communicates with me and he makes my job easier," said Yuen, on Ramones.

"We worked hard during the summer. Our coaches set the plays for us to be successful, I was at the right place at the right time," said Ramones. "We had a bad start, but it's not how you start, it's how you finish."

Savaii Eselu, who played at Cal-Berkeley and is a Moanalua alumnus, picked up his first career win as head coach. 

"For the most part it's about the process. Hat's off to Damien, they're tough," said Eselu.

Yuen finished with 356 yards on 17-of-29 passing, while Ramones caught 10 passes for 260 yards. Kea Rodrigues, who was not slated to be a running back according to coach Eselu, contributed on the ground with 67 rushing yards and a touchdown.

Yuen threw two of his three interceptions in the first quarter. Dylan Tapat's intercepted a pass and sprinted 80 yards for the score, but it was nullified by a block in the back penalty. He had two interceptions for the game. The Monarchs came up empty-handed as they turned it over on downs. 

"That's how we are, we are an aggressive defense. We couldn't punch it in. Good thing it's a preseason game and we have to take a look at the film and see the mistakes we made and learn from it," said Damien coach Eddie Klaneski.

"I was overthinking some of the plays and I wasn't reading the defense. I sat on the sideline and said I have to pick it up," said Yuen.

"It was the jitters, first game. Once he was figuring what the guys were trying to do, then he could pick and choose his poisons. He definitely bounced back from adversity tonight," said Eselu, on Yuen.

Damien's Shaun Borges intercepted Yuen's pass and Tapat tacked on a 31-yard field goal to put the Monarchs on the scoreboard first.

Moanalua scored 19-unanswered points in the second quarter to pull away for good. The Na Menehune drove 80 yards on nine plays as Rodrigues scored on a 1-yard touchdown to put Moanalua on the board. Yuen threw a fade to Ramones, who streaked by the Damien sideline for a 88-yard score and found Ramones again, this time from 24 yards out to take a 19-3 lead going into halftime.

"I was seeing plays develop and the line was giving me time to throw, so credit to them. My receivers adjusted and they see me go one way and they made my job easier by finding holes where I can hit them," said Yuen.

In the third quarter, after a 10-yard punt, Moanalua made the Monarchs pay as Yuen wasted little time to throw a 41-yard strike to Ramones, who was wide open. Working with decent field position again after recovering an onsides kick, in five plays Yuen and Ramones hooked up again to make it 33-3. Yuen, who also doubles up as the placekicker went 4-for-5 on PATs. 

"Defensively, we gave up some big plays really easily," said Klaneski.

Marcus Faufata-Pedrina tried to put the offense on his shoulders as he scored a 1-yard touchdown and threw a 43-yard touchdown to Shaun Apiki. Faufata-Pedrina ran it in for a 7-yard score and threw a 2-point conversion pass to brother Matt Faufata-Pedrina. Marcus was intercepted three times and lost a fumble, but finished with 138 passing yards and rushed for 106 yards on 16 attempts.

"We made too many mistakes offensively and defensively. We couldn't really get the offense going, but give them (Moanalua) credit they play fast and physical," said Klaneski.

"They have one of the toughest offenses to defend. Everything was assignment football," said Eselu.

Yuen and Ramones capped the night with a 19-yard touchdown on a 4th-and-goal.

Moanalua had 16 penalties for 150 yards and Eselu needs to drive that point to his team before they start league play.

Damien will travel to play Maui at War Memorial Stadium on Aug. 12. Moanalua will start OIA league play on the road against tenth-ranked Kailua on Aug. 13.