OIA Football
Castle rallies to stun Aiea


Brandon Ching | ScoringLive
September 30, 2018, 12:17am

  


Sat, Sep 29, 2018 @ Aiea [ 6:30 pm ]

Castle

30

Aiea

27

Final 1 2 3 4 T
Castle (5-7-0) 7 0 0 2330
Aiea (2-6-1) 13 8 6 027
Kayson Castillo 257 yd 3 TD
Samuel Judd 69 yd
LJ Vongsy 77 yd 1 TD
Senituli Punivai 129 yd 3 TD

AIEA — Castle controlled its own destiny to clinch a playoff berth.

The Knights needed a defensive stand and a game-winning field goal in their 23-point fourth quarter comeback to beat Aiea, 30-27, in a pivotal Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I contest at Na Alii's field Saturday.

After dropping their first four games of the season, the Knights won four-straight to improve to 4-4 overall, 4-3 in the OIA, and in the process, clinch a spot in the four-team OIA Division I playoffs. The Knights finish their season against Interscholastic League of Honolulu opponents Iolani and Damien on Oct. 5 and 12, but the results of those games do not count toward their league record.

"It feels fantastic. It was all about emotions. Stakes were high. It did not go our way the first half. Second half, we were about talking about it. It's not about how many times you get put to the ground, but it's how many times you get back up fighting. These guys came to play today in the second half," Castle coach John Hao said of his team's resliency.

Aiea lost their third-straight game to fall to 2-4 in the OIA standings, 2-4-1 overall. Na Alii plays at Kailua and Iolani to close out their season on Oct. 5 and 12 as well.

Senituli Punivai rushed for 129 yards and three touchdowns and his running mate Bruce Pakele added 53 rushing yards and a score. Cheyden Costa made two PATs and the game-winning field goal from 21 yards out.

"Just seeing our defense and offense going through stuff and keeping our heads down. Once we were started getting back into it in the second half, I was getting pumped up and happy for the boys. I'm glad we got this win because of them," Costa said.

After Punivai tied the game at 27, Aiea took over on their own 21. Kayson Castillo's 15-yard pass to Babu Capanang converted a first down to the 35 on a third-and-11. LJ Vongsy gained nine yards on the first play and Castillo threw two-straight incompletions. Aiea went for it on fourth-and-1, but Vongsy was stopped for a 1-yard loss by Braven Aipia-Drummundo to turn it over on downs.

"It was great lessons learned for us to take home and work for the next few weeks. This helped us get into the playoffs and it was key about keeping these guys under control," Hao said.

Castle took over on Na Alii 43. Two plays into the drive, Punivai converted a first down on an 18-yard run and carried the ball four times to set-up the field goal attempt with 4.2 seconds left. Following the timeout, Costa kicked it through as time expired for the win.

"I just think of it as the same kick as practice every single time and nothing to be nervous about," Costa said of the winning field goal.

Cheyden Costa (right) hit a 21 yarder through the uprights as time expired to give Castle the win and a spot in the OIA Division I Playoffs. R-Sam Joseph | Special to SL    Purchase image

Castillo threw for 257 yards on 22-of-35 passing and three touchdowns, all to Zacharia Kalahiki-Basque who had five catches for 70 yards.

Capanang hauled in six passes for 112 yards and on defense registered a tackle for loss, an interception and pass breakup. He also had a punt return for about 65 yards to set Aiea up deep in Castle territory.

Aiea scored on its opening drive as Castillo went 4 of 6 for 31 yards and threw a 10-yard touchdown to Kalahiki-Basque.

Following Nicholas Saragosa's fumble recovery, the Knights tied the game up at 7 with six of their seven plays going to Punivai who finished the drive with a 23-yard run.

Castillo connected with Kalahiki-Basque for a 6-yard touchdown, but the PAT attempt failed before the first quarter ended.

Na Alii scored after the Knights went three and out as Vongsy rushed for a 2-yard touchdown and Castillo's two-point conversion pass to Fabian Bautista put Aiea up 21-7 at halftime.

The Knights had to overcome their emotions and the penalties that accompanied it in the first half.

"We did have a lot of undisciplined moves. It was penalty after penalty and emotions got high. It was a matter of us coaches about getting into the thought process of controlling their minds and bodies," Hao said.

Castillo dissected Castle with 29 and 24 yard passes to Bautista and Capanang to drive Na Alii downfield. Bautista's 28-yard touchdown run was called back, but two plays after, Castillo found Kalahiki-Basque near the back of the end zone for a 27-7 lead going into the fourth.

The first three quarters looked bleak, but Castle went on to score 23-unanswered points in the fourth quarter.

"After the first half, our coaches and players were telling ourselves, 'We're going to make it and we're going to win this game.' Here we are, we're going to the playoffs," Costa said.

The Knights started on their own 25 and drove the length of the field in seven plays resulting in Punivai's 1-yard run to chip away at the deficit.

Saragosa recovered the onside kick and Castle went on another seven-play scoring drive, this time it was Pakele who plowed through for six yards as the Knights trailed by a touchdown, 27-20.

The Castle defense forced Aiea to punt, and on their 10-play drive, the Knights took advantage of two personal foul penalties against Na Alii that put them in the red zone. Four plays later, Punivai rushed for his third touchdown of the night and Costa's PAT kick tied the game at 27 to set-up their crucial defensive stand.


Reach Brandon Ching at [email protected].




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