Damien outlasts Pac-Five in 3 OT, 50-49


Damien celebrates after a Shawn Borges-blocked PAT at the end of triple overtime seals a 50-49 victory for the Monarchs. Steve Erler | SL

No. 5 Damien needed three overtime periods to squeeze by No. 9 Pac-Five, 50-49, Friday night in a ridiculously wild finish at HTFCU Field at Aloha Stadium.

The Monarchs improved to 5-2 overall and 3-1 in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division II standings. The Wolfpack fell to 2-3 and 0-3. They close out the season next week against Saint Francis (2-1), which needs to win to tie with Damien for first place.

"We just persevered through some tough times," Damien coach Eddie Klaneski said. "It showed a lot of grit on our side. I kept telling the, ‘Keep battling, keep battling,' Things weren't going our way throughout the game, but our boys are tough. They can play football. They don't put their heads down. It's a credit to those guys."

Shawn Borges, who had two sacks, an interception and a touchdown catch, cut through blockers unscathed and blocked Tyler Fukuroku's potential game-tying PAT to save the game for Damien.

"Hat's off to my boy, Shiloh Kaeo," Borges said. "I said to Shiloh, ‘We're going to win this game right now. If you can blow this guys for me, I'm going to block'em.'"

In the third OT, the Monarchs scored on a 20-yard TD pass from Marcus Faufata-Pedrina and Kaimana Cameron's PAT gave the them a 50-43 lead. But the Wolfpack scored in their bottom-half of the OT period on a 15-yard TD pass from Ryan Johnson to Travis Kaloa. Borges then made the play of the game.

"It's huge," Cameron said of the win. "Team effort. We have to grind more and do better."

With 2:12 left, Damien started from the Pac-Five 48 and moved to the 16 six plays later. On first-and-10 from the 16, the Wolfpack was called for pass interference, moving the ball half the distance to the goal to make first-and-2 from the 8. White rushed for three yards for the first down at the 5. After Akila Arecchi was stopped for a 4-yard loss, Faufata-Pedrina rushed for three yards before spiking the ball on third down to stop the clock with five seconds left. The down was incorrectly stated in the early version of this story.

On fourth-and-goal, Cameron booted a 23-yard game-tying field goal with no time on the clock to force overtime.

The teams were scoreless in the first OT. After Damien missed a 47-yard field goal to change possessions, Cameron intercepted Ryan Johnson to end the first OT.

The teams exchanged field goals in the second OT. Fukuroda hit a 43-yarder in the top half before Cameron tied it with a 41-yarder.

Faufata-Pedrina completed 14 of 34 passes for 245 yards and three TDs and rushed for 125 yards and two TDs.

Pac-Five's Johnson completed 21 of 46 passes for 367 yards and seven TDs, one shy of the state record set by Timmy Chang. But he was intercepted three times, twice by Cameron and once by Borges.

Kaloa caught 10 passes for 120 yards and four TDs for Pac-Five. Matthew Hallastein had three receptions for 148 yards and two TDs.

It wasn't the prettiest of games. Damien was penalized 23 times for 163 yards.

Damien led 22-13 at the half before the Wolfpack came back with three third-quarter TDs to one for the Monarchs to take a 34-30 lead into the final quarter.

Pac-Five scored on an 11-yard TD pass from Johnson to Kaloa early in the fourth, but Fukuroda's PAT was blocked, as the Wolfpack increased their lead to 40-30. But Damien scored on a 15-yard TD pass from Faufata-Pedrina to Arecchi and Cameron made the PAT to pull to 40-37 with 4:28 left in regulation. Pac-Five tried running the ball to milk time off the clock, but ended up punting after three downs to the its own 48 to set up Damien's game-tying field goal.

"We were gassed," Borges said. "But we had to dig down keep. We couldn't let these people down. It feels great."



Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at [email protected].