In his first career start, quarterback Marcus Faufata-Pedrina's two touchdowns helped lead Damien past Aiea, 14-13, in a preseason game at Aiea on Friday night. CJ Caraang | SL

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Fri, Aug 7, 2015 @ Aiea [ 6:00 pm ]

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Damien

14

Aiea

13

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Damien (6-2-0)	0	7	0	7	14
Aiea (1-7-0)	0	6	7	0	13

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Zelius Maae-Liupaono 93 yd 1 TD

Marcus Faufata-Pedrina 92 yd 1 TD

Zelius Maae-Liupaono 44 yd

Marcus Faufata-Pedrina 92 yd 1 TD

Jayden Chaviera 60 yd 1 TD

Shaun Apiki 19 yd 1 TD

AIEA-- In his first career start, Marcus Faufata-Pedrina's 1-yard touchdown with 8:05 to go in the fourth lifted Damien (1-0) past Aiea (0-1), 14-13 in a non-league game at Aiea High School on Friday night. The Monarchs come in ranked sixth in the Hawaiian Electric Division II Power Rankings.

The sophomore accounted for both Monarch touchdowns -- one passing and one rushing. He threw for 92 yards on 11-of-19 passing and rushed for 92 yards on 21 attempts.

"My teammates kept me going and they kept my head up high. I had to lead them into the end zone and we won the game," said Faufata-Pedrina.

"He's a sophomore, we expect him to make mistakes here and there, but he managed the game and we have to correct the fumbles we had on offense and secure the ball. We have to make better decisions, but for the most part he did a good job for us and stepped up to the plate," said Damien coach Eddie Klaneski, on Faufata-Pedrina.

Aiea took a 6-0 lead as Zelius Maae-Liupaono hooked up with Jayden Chaviera for a 41-yard touchdown, but the pass failed.

The Na Alii used two quarterbacks for the game rotating Maae-Liupaono and Kobe Kato. They combined for 141 yards on 15-of-30 passing.

"We have to work the kinks out but we're fortunate we have those kids," said Aiea coach Wendell Say.

Following an Aiea three-and-out, Damien marched 61 yards on nine plays after Faufata-Pedrina threw a fade to Shaun Apiki for a 19-yard touchdown with 1:45 remaining in the second quarter. Kaimana Cameron's PAT gave the Monarchs the first lead, 7-6 heading into halftime.

Four plays into the third quarter, the Na Alii scored after Isaiah Ripley rushed into the end zone from 5-yards out for the lead, 13-7.  

Damien overcame miscues and turnovers after losing two fumbles. However the Monarch secondary came up huge as they picked off Kato twice. Jarin Manuel intercepted a pass and returned it to the Aiea 4-yard line to set up the winning score and Cameron's interception with over 53 seconds remaining sealed the game.

"We got fatigued a little bit during the middle of the game and they fought hard. Our defense made some plays toward the end and our offense scored one more time in a crucial situation. On defense, that's what we want to do, get after the guys and make them make mistakes. We thought once we could get them in a passing situation, we thought we had an advantage. Early on in the game, we couldn't stop the run game up the middle and good thing they got away from it," said Klaneski.

"Our defense is our strength and base and they were on their A-game, our offense we have to clean it up, but the defense is our strength," added Faufata-Pedrina.

Aiea had a little over 30 players suited up for the game.

"I told the kids not to hang their heads, we saw a lot of good things and stuff we need to correct. We had a lot of guys out in the first week, but we'll be back but it's a good indication of what we can do. We had to see what we could do with this group, some guys had to go both ways and didn't complain," said Say.

The Monarchs will play Kauai at Aiea on Aug. 15 and the Na Alii will play Kaiser on Aug. 14.