KANEOHE — The Damien Monarchs made an emphatic statement to open the 2017 season.

"The guys fought and played well. We're happy and excited the way we played today," said Damien coach Eddie Klaneski.

Trailing 7-6 in the second quarter, Damien (1-0 overall) scored 36-unanswered points to throttle Castle (0-1 overall), 42-7 in a non-league game at the Knights' field on Saturday afternoon.

The defending Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division II champions and ninth-ranked team in the Hawaiian Electric/ScoringLive Division II Power Rankings gashed the Knights with 216 net rushing yards.

"We wanted to prove we can play among the top teams," said junior running back Keoua Kauhi.

Kauhi finished with 158 rushing yards on 21 carries and accounted for seven of the team's 12 rushing first downs.

"We were rotating guys all summer and he was the frontrunner once we played our first two scrimmages. He did a good job and worked hard. He can go east and west, but once he went north and south, you could see he's a hard runner to tackle," Klaneski said of Kauhi.

The success on the ground helped open up the passing game for Marcus Faufata-Pedrina who threw for 104 yards and two touchdowns.

"I felt like it set up some great play-action plays and power plays and opened up some great touchdowns for us," said Kauhi.

"That was our plan. We did play-action stuff and drop backs, but it will be interesting to see how the rest of the year goes," said Klaneski.

Jarvis Natividad returned the opening kickoff 43 yards and Damien responded with an eight-play drive that resulted in a Marcus Faufata-Pedrina keeper touchdown for eight yards, but the PAT was no good to make it, 6-0.

"We tell our kids to play the whole game and we were lucky things went our way in the second half. We continued to play hard and limited our mistakes — we had a few errors here and there that put us in some bad situations," said Klaneski.

After the Monarchs went three and out, Castle responded late in the second quarter with a 69-yard touchdown pass from Jaylen Uyemura-Lee to Makana Smith, and Cheyden Costa's PAT gave the Knights a 7-6 lead with 3:25 left.

"That was on blown coverage and we should've been there and made that tackle. We harped on our DBs when we played them in pass league and they beat us on long balls. We prided ourselves in not getting beat deep. They got us on one, but it's something we have to work on," said Klaneski.

However, Damien put down the clamps to silence the Knights for the rest of the game.

The Monarchs answered with a nine-play drive that resulted in Logan Lauti's 5-yard score with 30 seconds remaining in the half to take a 12-7 lead after a 2-pt conversion pass attempt was short of the goal line. Uyemura-Lee managed to convert a 41-yard pass to Kawai Naki, but time ran out to end the half. 

"Give credit to our offensive line, they moved the ball. I know they (Castle) were without a few players on their defense so I told the coaches to continue to run the ball," said Klaneski.

Damien blew open the game in the third quarter to put away the Knights for good.

The Monarchs converted an 11-play drive as Marcus Faufata-Pedrina hooked up with Natividad for 19 yards.

Shiloh Kaeo came in untouched and sacked Uyemura-Lee for a 10-yard loss, and Braden Halili had a tackle-for-loss to push Castle back on their own 10. Damien scored on a safety as the punter's knee touched the ground as he tried to handle a low snap. Twelve seconds later, Akila Arecchi took the kickoff for 71 yards to complete a 16-point swing.

"It was huge. We put one in the end zone, then we got the safety on the next one then the kick return. It was bang, bang, bang and that opened it up for us and shut the door on them," said Klaneski.

"It was the momentum. Coach always tells us, ‘It's not how you start, but how you finish.' In the beginning we were slowing down and we had to pick it up and run away with the game," said Kauhi.

Matthew Faufata-Pedrina scooped up a blocked punt for a 32-yard score, and Damien redeemed Kyle Apuya's interception into points as Marcus Faufata-Pedrina connected with Tanner Souza down the seam for a 25-yard score.

Castle looks to rebound against Radford on Aug. 12 in a crossover game to start Oahu Interscholastic Association play. Damien travels to play Kealakehe on the same afternoon and plays Villa Park (California) before starting the ILH season on Sept. 2.