Bronson Louis-Merry rushed for two touchdowns in Na Menehune's playoff win over Castle. Peter Caldwell | SL

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Fri, Oct 7, 2016 @ Moanalua [ 7:30 pm ]

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Castle

7

Moanalua

49

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Castle (4-5-0)	0	0	0	7	7
Moanalua (5-7-0)	7	7	21	14	49

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Alakai Yuen 193 yd 1 TD

Jaylen Uyemura-Lee 109 yd 1 TD

Bronson Louis-Merry 37 yd 2 TD

Israel Pakele 96 yd

Ryan Ramones 106 yd 1 TD

Jeremy McGoldrick 65 yd

SALT LAKE — Moanalua scored five rushing touchdowns and the defense forced turnovers to thump Castle, 49-7, in the first round of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I playoffs at Moanalua High School on Friday night.

"It was all Moanalua tonight. It was their night, they played well and deserved to win," said Castle coach Nelson Maeda.

The Na Menehune advance to play at the Blue Division's top seed, Kapolei (7-1 overall, 6-1 league) and clinches a state tournament berth. Moanalua will make its first-ever Division I state tournament appearance. They went to the state tournament as a Division II team back in 2009.

"We have to," said Moanalua coach Savaii Eselu, on playing a perfect game against Kapolei. "Offensively they can fire at any moment. We have to play clean football and assignment football."

"We're going to see what we can do whether it's Open or D1, as long as we're playing in November. I think they are treating the Kapolei game as another game. I don't think they understand the magnitude just yet. I think this is the first state berth in Division I."

Castle, who had a two-game winning streak heading into the playoffs end their season at 4-5 overall, 3-4 league.

"We had the potential to go further and do better, but didn't quite gel as a team," said Maeda.

The Knights couldn't bring the momentum from knocking off Kailua, 24-21 last week coming into the game.

"It was an emotional game and it had some part. We did not have a good week of practice and it showed tonight," said Maeda.

Alakai Yuen scored on a rushing and passing touchdown to finish with 193 passing yards. Brandon Bender and Bronson Louis-Merry each added two rushing TDs.

Moanalua got on the scoreboard first 6 seconds before the end of the first quarter after Yuen's 7-yard TD.

Moanalua's defense made it difficult for the Knights to move the ball. The Na Menehune forced turnovers and capitalized on Castle's mistakes—three turnovers led to Na Menehune scores.

"We had some turnovers and blunders and it ballooned after that," said Maeda.

"It worked out well, we had some breakdowns, but the same time we did well in more areas," said Eselu.

Isaiah Jackson intercepted Jeremy McGoldrick and it set up Louis-Merry's 2-yard score with 3:43 remaining in the first half.

The Na Menehune forced the Knights to turn it over on downs twice and Yuen found Ryan Ramones for a 23-yard TD and Bender would add a 1-yard run to make it, 28-0. Ramones led all receivers with 11 receptions for 106 yards.

"Castle came in with a great game plan. They were confusing the heck out of us and couldn't figure out what was going on. After a while we got in a groove and things started clicking on the ground and air," said Eselu.

Jaylen Uyemura-Lee came in the second half at quarterback and threw an interception to Jacob Ramelb, who returned it 81 yards to make it, 35-0 to initiate running clock.

Castle's only score of the game came at 9:56 in the fourth quarter after Uyemura-Lee threw a 4-yard TD to Keola Lewis. The Knights were 0-for-5 on fourth down conversions. McGoldrick was held in check, but Israel Pakele was able to gain 97 rushing yards.

Louis-Merry broke loose for a 32-yard score and Nainoa Chun rushed off the edge untouched, popped the ball out of Uyemura-Lee's hand and Damien Agao-Casabar rumbled all the way down to the Castle 2, which set up Bender's second rushing TD of the night.