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Punahou should've known it was going to be a long night after Saint Louis' first series of the game.

The Crusaders, ranked second in the ScoringLive-OC 16 Football Power Rankings, overcame 71 yards in penalties and still scored on officially a 68-yard drive with an 80-yard touchdown pass that ignited the rout of the Buffanblu, 42-7, to win their first Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I football title since 2007 Friday at Aloha Stadium.

The game went into the league's 35-point differential mercy rule - the running clock - with two minutes, 33 second left in the third quarter when QB Marcus Mariota hit Jared Tomaszek on a 38-yard TD pass.

Saint Louis (8-1 overall, 6-0 ILH) is the second team in the state to clinch a Division I state tournament berth. Maui Interscholastic League champion Baldwin clinched last weekend.

"It started off sloppy and there are some things we can control and things that we can't," Saint Louis coach Darnell Arceneaux said. "The guys, they're just trying to make plays. They're playing hard. They're playing to the whistle and that's all I can ask. There are going to be some penalties called, but what we try to do at Saint Louis is try to control that attitude and effort and those young me did a great job tonight."

In last week's win against 'Iolani, Arceneaux wasn't pleased with some of his team's attitude.

"We made some sacrifices as a team and it showed out here on the football field," Arceneaux said. "That's the biggest thing, the sacrifices. It's just some inside things within our family that we did and it paid off. I think it sent the right message to the whole team and what we're trying to accomplish here at Saint Louis."

Whatever the issue, the Crusaders took it out on the Buffanblu.

Mariota passed for a season-high 391 yards on 14-of-20 passing. He had TD passes of 80 and 38 yards and rushed for 63 yards, including TDs of 11 and 32 yards.

But the defense set the tone.

Leland Gomez's interception of Liloa Travis on Punahou's first series of the game set up the Crusaders' first scoring drive that featured six penalties for 71 yards.

Then wide receiver Duke Bukoski, who played defensive back on two plays, returned an interception 64 yards to the Punahou 32 that set up Saint Louis' second TD, Mariota's 11-yard run on an option keeper that made it 14-0 at 5:35 in the first quarter.

"I was shocked," Bukoski said of the pick. "I didn't know what to do. I just kept on running."

Bukoski did not bad on offense either, catching three passes for a game-high 134 yards.

Arceneaux said he used the 6-foot-2 Bukoski in the secondary to defend some of the taller Buffanblu receivers, such as 6-7 DeForest Buckner and 6-4 Noah Willey.

An interception by Bronson Yim on Punahou's next series then set the stage for RB Keanu Mook-Garcia's 25-yard TD run up the middle with 2:00 left in the first quarter to make it 21-0. So distracted by Mariota's keeper the previous series, the Buffanblu left a gaping hole for Mook-Garcia's run.

The Buffanblu got over the shock late in the second quarter when Dean Matsuo connected with Willey on a 32-yard TD pass with 1:58 left in the half.

But Saint Louis returned the volley three plays and 36 seconds later when RB Derek Nakasato scored on a 15-yard run to make it 28-7.

Saint Louis added two more scores in the third, first on Mariota's 32-yard run and later on his 38-yard TD pass to Tomaszek.