MANOA — Of the approximately 2,500 people in attendance at Les Murakami Stadium for Saint Louis' 10-0 win over Mililani Saturday, no one appreciated the moment more than Vince Passas.

Forty years after Passas was a member of the 1974 state-champion Crusaders' team, things came full circle for the longtime assistant Saturday night.

"It's amazing," Passas said. "It's about time we pass the torch on to the class of 2014. These young guys really represented our school the right way and I'm happy for all of them."

It was the second state title in Saint Louis school history and the first since the '74 Crusaders beat Aiea, 4-2, in the championship game.

"We talked about that," Passas said. "We told them that our classmates — the class of '74 — we're getting old, we're almost 100 years old — and the torch is getting heavy. We're getting tired and we wanted to pass it off to someone else, so I'm happy that they took control of it."

Saint Louis was making its fifth appearance in a state final, but had lost in its last two times there — both times to Punahou (9-8 in 10 innings in 1989 and 4-0 in 2008). The Crusaders are now 2-3 all-time in state title games.

"We've been talking about it all year and we figured this is going to be the year for us," said pitcher/outfielder Jordan Yamamoto, who was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. "Coach Vinny was on that team and he's one of our good coaches, he was there every day and helped us, so we give all this to him."

Passas said that many of his former classmates and former players he had coached were in attendance Saturday to support their alma mater.

"The brotherhood at Saint Louis is impeccable — unbreakable — and it's amazing, because you don't get it anywhere else in the world," said Passas. "We're so proud that we come from the greatest school on the face of this Earth and you know, we are just so happy to be part of Saint Louis."

Mopas, the Crusaders' first baseman, was appreciative of the support.

"That motivated us a lot," said Mopas, who batted .636 and was named to the All-Tournament Team. "I mean, seeing all these fans just gets us pumped up even more for the game and it's a confidence-booster for us that we have this much support and everyone confident in us winning."

Devan Stubblefield, who, like Yamamoto and Mopas is a senior and was named to the All-Tournament Team, said it was the perfect way to go out.

"Forty years is way too long to go without winning it and we did it for everybody and the fans," Stubblefield said. "There were a lot of alumni and a lot of people that supported us — that's pretty much who we did it for."