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HALAWA - Nephi Stevens threw a touchdown pass and ran in another score to lead Kamehameha to a 21-7 win over Saint Louis in an Interscholastic League of Honolulu game at Aloha Stadium Friday night.

The Warriors, ranked fifth in the ScoringLive/OC16 Football Power Rankings, won their third straight to improve to 7-3 overall and are in first place at 6-1 in the ILH's Division I race. The seventh-ranked Crusaders fell to 6-3 and 3-3 and are mathematically eliminated from postseason contention.

"We were very lucky tonight, so that's good and I give credit to our guys for doing what they were supposed to do," Kamehameha head coach David Stant said.

Kamehameha, which rallied from a touchdown deficit in the second quarter, must await the result of Thursday's ILH regular-season finale between Saint Louis and Punahou. If the Crusaders win, the Buffanblu will finish with a 5-2 league record and Kamehameha would be crowned ILH champion and receive the league's lone state tournament berth.

"It's all still up in the air, but we're in a good spot for now," Stant said. "Hopefully we don't have to play Punahou, but if we have to, at least we have some time to recover."

The Warriors got 165 yards through the air from Stevens, who finished 11-of-22 passing with no interceptions. The 5-foot-10, 185-pound junior played the entire game, after splitting time with Makoa Camanse-Stevens all season.

"Nephi had a very good game and it was good to see him find a rhythm, especially in that second half," Stant said.

Bronson Barretto tallied 94 yards on 10 carries to lead the ground game for Kamehameha, which notched 138 total rushing yards. The Warriors picked up 21 first downs, committed just four penalties for 25 yards and most importantly, did not let turnovers hurt them against the Saints, the defending Division I state champion.

"Our defense played great again, but both sides - offense and defense - really came around in the second half," Stant said. The Crusaders had 181 rushing yards by halftime, but Kamehameha held them to minus-2 in the second half.

After a scoreless first quarter, Saint Louis got on the board first midway through the second. The Crusaders manufactured a 10-play, 80-yard drive that culminated in Adam Noga's 38-yard touchdown run. On the scoring play, Noga took the handoff from quarterback Kawai Mook-Garcia, began to his left, before cutting back to the right side of the field and went untouched to paydirt. The extra point was good by Andrew Baltazar with five minutes and 44 seconds left in the second quarter.

Kamehameha answered on its ensuing drive, marching 69 yards on seven plays, capped by Stevens' 1-yard sneak with 3:48 until the half. The play was set-up by a 42-yard pass completion from Stevens to Alika McGuire two plays earlier. Kanekoa Pawn-White's PAT was good to tie it at 7 at the intermission.

Following a three-and-out by Saint Louis on its first drive of the second half, Kamehameha's Alii Pedrina returned Aaron Goo's punt 48 yards to give the Warriors' offense possession at the Crusaders' 36-yard line.

"Our special teams ... that punt return by Alii was huge, it put us in great position," Stant said. "You never know where he's going to run, because he's so fast and he's got great vision. He can see the holes and because he has confidence, he knows that he can out-run some guys and when you pick up a couple blocks, he can make a big play."

Two plays later, Stevens threw a 23-yard completion to McGuire, who broke three tackles on the play. Later in the drive, Stevens faked a handoff to the right to running back Tyler Meditz and rolled back to his left before finding tight end Keoni Bush-Loo for an 11-yard pick-up to set-up first-and-goal from the 7. Two plays later, Tristan Peterson hauled in a 5-yard touchdown pass from Stevens to put Kamehameha ahead for good with 6:10 left in the third.

On the scoring play, Peterson - working from the right slot position - ran upfield about five yards before cutting to the outside, separating from his defender and turned mid-air to pull in the pass. Pawn-White kicked the extra point to make the score 14-7.

Bush-Loo, a 6-foot-4, 240-pound senior, also played nose guard on defense.

"He's a star athlete", Stevens said of Bush-Loo, who finsihed with four receptions for 49 yards on offense and was in on a sack defensively. "He's awesome and came up with some big plays for us tonight."

Stevens credited former Crusaders head coach and current Warriors' quarterbacks coach John Hao for his maturation.

"He really has helped me with my timing and with the other quarterbacks as well in practice," Stevens said. "Our running game also helped open the passing up, too. The running backs continued to do what they've been doing for us all season."

Kamehameha's only miscue offensively came late in the third when Stevens was sacked by Saint Louis' Kalei Auelua, who forced a fumble on the play, recovered by teammate Kaena Paikai at the Warriors' 25-yard line. However, Kamehameha's defense stood tough, forcing losses on three consecutive plays, including a sack by Zen Ikehara on fourth-and-18.

"That was huge - they gambled there when they went for it - but our defense stopped them there," Stant said. "You see the team getting better every week, so I think we're going in the right direction."

Kamehameha recorded four sacks in the game, including two of them by linebacker Kory Rassmussen.

The Warriors recycled the turnover on downs into a 2-yard Tyler Meditz touchdown run to highlight a 12-play, 64-yard drive midway through the fourth quarter. After the Pawn-White PAT, Kamehameha extended its lead to 21-7 with 6:37 left in the game.

Saint Louis drove to the Warriors' 21 on its ensuing drive, but Mook-Garcia's pass fell incomplete on fourth-and-9 and Kamehameha ran out the clock.

The Crusaders were held to one completion for 12 yards until the six-minute mark in the fourth quarter. Noga finished with a game-high 115 yards on 13 rushes for Saint Louis, which was just 3-of-11 on third downs and flagged 10 times for 84 yards. 

"We had some key opportunities in the second half that we didn't take advantage of and we had penalties at the wrong time, which has hurt us all season long," Crusaders' head coach Darnell Arceneaux said. "We just weren't able to get things going in that second half."

Pawn-White missed a 24-yard field goal wide right early in the second quarter.

Kamehameha swept the season series against Saint Louis. The Warriors won the previous meeting between the teams, 28-21, back on Sept. 21.