Damien's James Roy tackles Saint Francis' Ranan Mamiya. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Saint Francis' Ranan Mamiya attempts to break free from a Damien defender. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Damien's Trevor Caspillo carries the ball against Saint Francis. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Sat, Sep 14, 2013 @ Aloha Stadium [ 2:00 pm ]

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Damien

34

Saint Francis

14

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Damien (4-6-0)	6	14	14	0	34
Saint Francis (1-8-0)	8	0	6	0	14

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Ranan Mamiya 36 yd

Syles Choy 191 yd 2 TD

Ranan Mamiya 128 yd 1 TD

Edwin Aumua 83 yd 3 TD

Keola Kealoha 27 yd

Kealii Kaanapu 77 yd 1 TD

After overcoming an early 8-0 deficit in the first quarter, Damien turned the game around to beat Saint Francis, 34-14, Saturday night at the Aloha Stadium.

"We kind of played the game a little slow but we happened to regroup ourselves in the first part of the game," said Damien head coach Eddie Klaneski. "We just thought that we were in a little bit better condition as the game started to go on. We're just happy for them that they've came back and got the victory for the team."

Running back Edwin Aumua led the way for the Monarchs with 16 rushes for 83 yards and three touchdowns, along with quarterback Syles Choy, who completed 16 of his 30 pass attempts for 191 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.

Wide receiver Kealii Kaanapu and running back Trevor Caspillo also did some damage against the Saints with five receptions for 77 yards and four receptions for 57 yards respectively, with both players each accounting for a score.

"This is like three years in the making for us, with this offensive group, a lot of returnees in that group—the quarterback, the running back—and we just finally started to get things together but we're still not where we wanna be in our offense but we are much more improved now and we're happy for that," said Klaneski.

Saint Francis' quarterback Ranan Mamiya was a workhorse, with 26 rushes for 128 yards with a touchdown, he also completed six passes out of 14 attempts for 26 yards. Mamiya also managed to intercept the ball twice during the game defensively. Taylor Wong-Monette contributed to the Saints with two rushes for 83 yards with a touchdown.

Saint Francis opened up the scoring play in the first quarter with an 86-yard run by Wong-Monette, followed by a two-point conversion by Mamiya.

Damien returned the favor in the second quarter with a two-yard run by Aumua, who followed up with another one-yard run to score his second touchdown of the night. The Monarchs added to the noise with Kaanapu scoring a touchdown on a pass from Choy from the 22-yard line to wrap up the scoring plays in the first half of the game.

In the third quarter, the Saints held to their fighting spirits when Mamiya notched a touchdown on a 13-yard run.

However, Aumua capitalized his opportunity to score another touchdown for Damien, this time with a 17-yard run. The Monarchs continued to march in their offensive dominance in the second half with Choy throwing an 11-yard pass to Caspillo for another touchdown, as the Saints were silenced for the rest of the night.

"Today's victory means a lot to us knowing that we're one step closer to winning the D-II," said Aumua, who is currently Damien's scoring leader with 24 scoring rushes this season. "Our defense is stepping up right now. We're scoring and we're never giving up and working hard."

On the other hand, Saint Francis fought through tonight's game with a number of injuries on the field.

"We just don't have numbers. We need more linemen, we need more skills, we need more body. After the game was done, we were down to 19 kids," said Saint Francis head coach Mike Ulufale. "It can affect anybody. It can affect Saint Louis if they had injuries. It affects everybody. That's the problem we're working through right now."

Klaneski also talked about Damien's "limited numbers" but he credited their victory tonight to the team's heart and effort in playing on the field.

"I just think heart, our guys just played with heart throughout the entire game and our limited numbers. We had, I think, 28 guys today, a little bit more than they (Saint Francis) did. It was our heart, our kids just kept fighting and fighting," said Klaneski. "It was what we told them to do, just play with their hearts tonight and leave it all on the field."

Next week, both teams will be back at the Aloha Stadium as Damien will face Iolani while Saint Francis will play Punahou, currently ranked No. 1 in the ScoringLive/OC16 Division I Power Rankings.