Another stellar performance by quarterback Marcus Mariota Friday night lifted Saint Louis to its first state football championship since 2002, but it was the Crusaders' defense that shined bright in the second half of their 36-13 win over Wai'anae.

No. 1-ranked Saint Louis led 23-13 at the half and got four takeaways - all in the final 24 minutes - which it turned into 13 points to hold off the Seariders.

"It feels good. It's been a while since we won our last championship and it's been tough for us to get back here since then, but we were prepared," said cornerback Leland Gomez, who had two picks of Wai'anae's Puletua Wilson. "We knew what we had to do against Wai'anae, we had to stop the run and make them start passing."

With the Seariders' driving late in the third, Gomez, a 5-foot-9, 175-pound senior, made a diving interception near the Wai'anae sideline, which gave Saint Louis possession at the Wai'anae 32-yard line.

On the Crusaders' ensuing drive, Kala McShane punched in a 4-yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter and Aaron Goo tacked on the extra point to make it 30-13.

"It was just from our everyday drills," Gomez said. "We have 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills in practice and we knew (the pass) was coming when our offense started putting points on the board, so we were ready for it. We read the quarterback really good, we knew our assignments and our alignments. All those things we learned at the beginning of the season helped us out in the end."

Saint Louis forced another Wai'anae miscue on its next drive. Wilson was intercepted by L.J. Kalawaia midway through the fourth quarter and Mariota made the Seariders pay with a 1-yard scoring strike to tight end Dallas Tu'umalo. The PAT was no good and Saint Louis took a 36-13 lead with 7:34 to play.

"Definitely when (the defense) get us the ball back, it just helps us," said Mariota, who finished 17-of-23 passing for 230 yards and three TDs. "(The offense) likes to be on the field and we like to have the ball in our hands and that's what the defense provided for us tonight. Hats off to them, they played a hell of a game."

Wai'anae coach Dan Matsumoto said the turnovers were untimely.

"It's too bad. We started to get it going - but Pule got hurt on that play - and just so happened he fumbled on that play, so that was hard," Matsumoto said. "I thought we had the momentum going."

Gomez's second pick came on a Wilson pass at the goal line with 5:41 on the clock. It was the third straight Seariders' drive that ended with an interception.

Saint Louis coach Darnell Arceneaux got his team together at the start of the fourth quarter to address them.

"He told us that this was our last quarter for all the seniors, so we've got to go hard and finish it," Kalawaia said. "We just had to put it all out. We had to get that momentum going back on our side, so as a defense, we left it all out on the field"

Arceneaux was pleased with the effort of his team, especially in the final minutes.

"We made some plays tonight, got off to an early start, had to hold on late, got some big turnovers and then we did what we've talked about all year long, we finished," Arceneaux said.