The Lunas line up with four receivers stacked to one side of the field, a much different look than their traditional Wing-T offense. Glen Pascual | Special to SL

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Like any champion worth their weight, the Lahainaluna football team was ready for the unexpected Saturday night.

When the seventh-ranked Lunas' usually-prolific rush offense was largely held in check by visiting Roosevelt, the reigning two-time Division II state champions took to the air to get things going.

Despite losing three fumbles before halftime, Lahainaluna held a 14-3 lead after one quarter. It extended the lead to 21-3 with a one-play drive early in the second, when quarterback Nainoa Irish rolled out of the pocket to his right and lofted a short pass near the right sideline for Kaihulali Casco, who leapt over the defensive back and snatched the ball away before being escorted by a number of teammates to the end zone on the 72-yard touchdown pass.

The Lunas took a 27-10 lead into the intermission. Their defense got a key turnover when Derek Perez tipped a Sky Ogata pass, which fell into the hands of Brysen Rickard. However, Lahainaluna went three-and-out on its ensuing drive and went to a different look on its next possession.

Lahainaluna went to the air on all six of its plays and orchestrated a 63-yard drive that culminated with Esekielu Storer's 39-yard TD pass to Casco with 22 seconds left in the third quarter.

"(Roosevelt) did a hell of a job against our run, so we needed to change it up a little bit and I'm just glad that we were able to pick up the blitzes and complete some passes," Lunas' co-head coach Garret Tihada said.

The scoring play was similar to Casco's first touchdown reception. The 6-foot, 180-pound junior wideout was working along the right sideline and overpowered the defender on another jump ball.

"Our coach talked to us at halftime and he told us we gotta pick it up, we gotta make big plays, we gotta do something out there to pick up the momentum to pick the game up and we did and we ended up with the W," Casco said.

Casco noted that the Lunas have had success throwing the ball this season. They passed for a season-high 258 yards in a 28-3 win over Maui on Sept. 1, 253 yards in a 49-3 win at King Kekaulike on Sept. 28 and 188 yards in a 47-0 rout of Kamehameha-Maui on Oct. 12.

"We've had a few games where we had to go to the pass because our running game was getting stuffed in the middle, so coach would just tell us to go outside, try the corners and it worked out," Casco said. "We've been practicing it throughout practices and it showed today."

Three different quarterbacks combined to completed 8 of 10 passes without an interception for 174 yards for the Lunas Saturday. Irish finished 3-of-4 passing for 92 yards, Esekielu Storer was 4 of 5 for 68 yards and Etuati Storer completed his only pass attempt for 14 yards. Six different players caught a pass and nine different players had at least one rush attempt in the win.

It was just the second state tournament game that Lahainaluna has hosted at Sue D. Cooley Stadium and the first time since a 2015 state quarterfinal against Kaimuki.

"The community, it's a blessing for them to come out and just support us in every way and their support honestly just pushes us to perform better," Casco said.

Now the Lunas will turn their sights to a familiar opponent in No. 15 Kapaa. The teams met in the 2016 D2 state final — which Lahainaluna hung on to win, 21-14 — and opened this season against each other in a non-league game at Vidinha Stadium in Lihue on Aug. 4.

Lahainaluna, which has won the last two D2 state championships, beat Kapaa by a score of 30-10 in that game.

"That's pretty exciting," Casco said of the prospect of a three-peat. "Just during practice we just gotta push each other like we did throughout the season and just make each other better players."

The Lunas (10-0) and Warriors (7-2) kick off at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Aloha Stadium and will be followed by the D1 final between No. 10 Waipahu (9-4) and No. 9 Hilo (9-1) before the nightcap featuring No. 3 Mililani (10-2) and top-ranked Saint Louis (10-0) in the Open title game.