Football
Buffanblu squeak by Trojans


  



Fri, Oct 11, 2019 @ Aloha Stadium [ 7:30 pm ]


Final 1 2 3 4 T
Mililani (8-5-0) 0 0 0 00
Punahou (10-2-0) 0 0 0 33

HALAWA — An anticipated showdown between two of the state's top offenses turned into a defensive slugfest as No. 2 Punahou squeezed by No. 3 Mililani, 3-0, at Hawaiian Financial FCU Field at Aloha Stadium in an Open Division regular season finale for both teams Friday.

Since losing to Saint Louis, the Buffanblu closed out the regular season with three-straight wins to finish 9-1 overall, 7-1 in league play.

Up next for the Buffanblu is the Interscholastic League of Honolulu postseason single-elimination tournament against Kamehameha on Friday, Oct. 25.

The Trojans fell to 7-3 overall and will be the top seed in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Open Division playoffs starting next week.

Both teams combined for five punts in the first half and totaled 11 punts for the game as neither team could gain traction offensively. Punahou was 1 of 12 on third down conversions, while Mililani was just 5 of 13.

John-Keawe Sagapolutele started off the game going 10 for 10 and finished with 130 yards on 17-of-22 passing. He was dropped for minus-52 net rushing yards as the Trojans' defense registered eight sacks, four coming from Sonny Semeatu.

Ian Eveleth came off the bench momentarily to throw for 50 yards and completed a 46-yard pass to Koa Eldredge, who finished with a game-high eight catches for 91 yards.

Punahou had minus-43 net rushing yards for the entire game and had 137 yards of total offense, but found a way to break the scoreless stalemate.

The Buffanblu faced a third-and-35 until Vincent Terrell, who rushed for 58 yards for the game, gained 34 yards and he converted the fourth down on a 3-yard run. Sagapolutele completed a two-yard pass to Christopher Paige and tacked on 15 more yards after a personal foul. Two incompletions and a 3-yard gain by Terrell helped set up Quinn Maretzki for another shot at redemption.

Maretzki missed a 47-yard field goal attempt in the second quarter but converted it, this time from 39 yards out in the fourth quarter with 7:18 left for the game's only points.

Nathaniel Kia had six tackles and recovered two fumbles and Eli Thompson and Kilinahe Mendiola-Jensen each intercepted Mililani quarterback Brendyn Agbayani, who finished with 130 yards on 15-of-29 passing.

The Trojans had 213 yards of net offense, their second lowest output all season.

Mililani had an opportunity to get into the red zone and got down to the Punahou 8 until Alakai Gilman punched the ball out of Pono Hookano's hand after a completed pass and Kia recovered the ball at the 5.



Reach Brandon Ching at [email protected].




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