No. 6 Punahou shuts out No. 5 Saint Louis, 35-0


Punahou quarterback Larry Tuileta threw for 161 yards and 2 touchdowns with no interceptions, and also ran in another score. Eugene Tanner | SL

HALAWA - Quarterback Larry Tuileta threw two touchdown passes and ran in another score to lead Punahou to a dominating 35-0 win over Saint Louis in an Interscholastic League of Honolulu game at Aloha Stadium Friday night.

The sophomore quarterback threw for 161 yards with no interceptions, running back Steven Lakalaka scored a pair of rushing touchdowns and the Buffanblu defense forced four Crusaders' turnovers as the sixth-ranked team in the ScoringLive/OC16 Football Power Rankings won its third straight and improved to 5-1 overall and 2-0 in the ILH.

Saint Louis, ranked fifth in the state, fell to 4-2 and 1-2 before a crowd of about 5,000 at Aloha Stadium.

"This feels great, we've been working hard everyday and trying to improve with each practice, so this definitely is a nice win for us," said Tuileta, who completed passes to eight different receivers and finished 14-of-21 passing. "Saint Louis is a great team and we knew it would take all we had to beat them."

The Buffanblu defense, which entered the game allowing fewer than 10 points per game, limited the Crusaders to 270 yards from scrimmage and kept the high-powered offense out of the end zone.

"They've been doing that all year for us," Punahou coach Kale Ane said. "Our offense was awesome tonight, but the defense played another great game, too."

Punahou picked off Saint Louis quarterback Kawai Mook-Garcia twice and recovered a pair of Crusader fumbles - the first of which, it recycled into a touchdown.

"That was our achilles' heel again tonight: turnovers," Saint Louis head coach Darnell Arceneaux said. "We can't afford to give the ball away against a solid team like Punahou, but our boys are battling and continuing to work hard everyday."

The Buffanblu got on the board late in the first quarter on a 14-yard touchdown run by Lakalaka. Christian Fairbairn's PAT made it 7-0 with two minutes and 33 seconds left in the opening quarter.

After a Saint Louis' three-and-out, Tuileta found Cody Lee for a 37-yard touchdown pass to make the score, 14-0, after the first. On the scoring play, Tuileta faked the handoff to Lakalaka - who came from left to right across the formation - rolled to his left and hit Lee near the goal line.

The Buffanblu extended their lead on a 13-yard TD pass from Tuileta to Malik Johnson on their next possession. Fairbairn converted the extra point to put Punahou ahead, 21-0, early in the second. The drive covered 41 yards on seven plays in three minutes and 18 seconds.

The Crusaders' best scoring opportunity late in the first half, ended on a Mook-Garcia interception by Punahou's Caden McAfee-Torco at the Buffanblu 4-yard line.

Tuileta capped a 10-play, 45-yard drive with his 1-yard sneak into the end zone to make the score, 28-0, with 2:20 left in the third.

Punahou added a score with 6:44 to play on a 2-yard TD run by Lakalaka. The touchdown was set-up by a 41-yard interception return by linebacker Isaac Savaiinaea.

"We're glad to come away with the win, of course, but we're not done," said Lakalaka, who finished with 73 yards on 21 carries. "We want to keep this going, keep it rolling."

Saint Louis was held to 2-of-10 on third downs and committed eight penalties for 100 yards. Punahou picked up 16 first downs and was 3-of-4 on fourth downs.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].