HALAWA — Damien endured some stress fractures but did not break to hang on to edge Saint Francis, 13-12, Friday night to capture its third consecutive Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division II football crown before a wild crowd of about 4,000 at Hawaiian Tel FCU Field at Aloha Stadium.

The Monarchs (9-3) will be the ILH's lone representative in the First Hawaiian Bank Division I State Football Tournament. They will play Kauai Interscholastic Federation champion Kauai next Saturday at Vidinha Stadium.

JT White's third interception of the game with 26 seconds left preserved the game for Damien, which has four ILH D2 titles.

"It feels awesome," White said of his three-pick night.

"We bend but we didn't break so much," Damien coach Eddlie Klaneski said. "We got lucky on a few things. Same thing with the big pass plays; we made mistakes so there are things we have to correct. We have to make sure we don't give up those deep balls. We were in a prevent defense and they still completed it. Bubba Akana is a great quarterback; he's going to be a handful next year. Our defense, they bend, but we hung in there."

White also led the game with eight tackles. Matthew Faufata-Pedrina had 6.5 tackles, as did Kaeo.

It was a heart-breaker for the Saints (8-4), who forced a playoff by beating Damien, the first-round champion, in last week's second-round championship. 

"Great game," Saint Francis coach Kip Akana said. "Two championship teams. It came down to the last play like Eddie (Klaneski, Damien's coach) and I kind of predicted. Hat's off to Damien. Good luck to them in the states."

Down by 1, the Saints took over from their 31 with three minutes left in the game. They converted a fourth-and-7 from their 34 with a 41-yard pass from Bubba Akana to Lachmann Atoa to Damien's 25. But a hands-to-the-face penalty against Saint Francis moved it back to the 40. Then an ineligible receiver downfield moved the Saints back to the 45. On first-and-30, Akana hit Scott McLeod at the 20; McLeod then pushed his way forHe five more yards to the 15 for a first down. The Saints tried a gadget play with Akana firing a backward lateral to Wembley Mailei, who fired toward the end zone for McLeod, but White saw the ball was going to be short and came up with the interception at the Damien 2, where the Monarchs ran out the clock with two plays.

Quarterback Marcus Faufata-Pedrina bought time with his scrambling ability to pass for 185 yards and two TDs for the Monarchs.

Running back Jonan Aina-Chaves led the Saints with 125 rushing yards and two TDs.

But the difference came in PATs. Damien's Shiloh Kaeo made 1 of 2 but he did have an interception off Akana on a 2-point conversion try. 

The Saints, though, tied the game at 13 after their second TD on Makana Poole's PAT. But an illegal formation penalty nullified the point. Backed up five yards, his next try missed to keep the Saints trailing.

"We felt we could run the ball on them; that's been our M.O. and that's what we do," Coach Akana said of the decision to go for 2. "We just didn't execute (on the missed PAT to tie)."

But the night belonged to White, a 5-foot-10, 150-pound senior. He missed the preseason with a stomach ailement. Though he made it for the ILH season opener, his comeback was kind of slow. But Friday night, he seemed to have shaken off the ill effects.

"He almost wasn't going to play this year," Klaneski said of White. "He struggled to get back into shape, fix his health. Tonight, he showed up, man. He was a huge, huge lift for us."

Saint Francis struck first, taking advantage of a failed onside kickoff that gave the Saints the ball at their own 49. Ten plays later, Chaves-Aina scored from 2 yards.  Kaeo intercepted Bubba Akana's pass in the end zone on the 2-point conversion try to keep it 6-0 with 7:34 in the first period.

Damien scored on its second series, moving 53 yards in seven plays, with Marcus Faufata-Pedrina passing 5 yards to Pomai Kim on a naked bootleg. Kaeo's PAT gave Damien a 7-6 lead with 58 seconds left in the first.

The Monarchs padded their lead before the half when Faufata-Pedrina scrambled out of pressure and found a wide-open Lindon Sevilleja in the back of the end zone to complete a 10-yard scoring pass. This time Kaeo missed the PAT, but Damien opened its lead to 13-7 with 1:17 left in the half.

Saint Francis tried to even the game up, but its drive died at the Damien 20 as time ran out for the half.

Damien took the second-half kickoff, but Faufata-Pedrina fumbled after a 10-yard gain and the loose ball rolled up the Saints' 27, where they recovered. The Saints then converted two fourth-down plays in their 10-play, 73-yard drive that ended with Aina-Chaves scoring from 9 yards on fourth-and-1. But Saints failed to convert the PAT to tie the game.

"This win feels amazing," Damien QB Faufata-Pedrina said. "We started off at the top, we had a little bit of struggles, but now we're back at the top. It just feels amazing to know that our boys pulled it out, especially our seniors. This is a good way to go out but we're not done yet. We still got the state tournament and we want to bring that (championship) home."