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Kalani Takase | ScoringLiveSeptember 25, 2021, 1:27am
Fri, Sep 24, 2021 @ Aloha Stadium [ 7:30 pm ]
Noah Bartley ran for 127 yards and a touchdown and No. 5 Kamehameha upset four-time defending Open Division state champion Saint Louis, 23-21, in the nightcap of an Interscholastic League of Honolulu doubleheader at Aloha Stadium Friday night.
The Warriors (1-1) were playing their first game in four weeks, since a five-point loss to Punahou in late August. With their victory, they find themselves in a three-way tie with the Crusaders (1-1) and Buffanblu (1-1).
"I'm so so excited," Kamehameha fifth-year coach Abu Maafala said. "It was kind of touch-and-go within these last four weeks and to see them pull it together for each other, I couldn't be happier for these kids; they deserve this win, for sure."
Kamehameha was outgained by Saint Louis, 425 total yards to 239, but was able to cash in two turnovers generated by its defense.
Kyle Lee picked off an A.J. Bianco pass that led to Kealii Ah Yat's 3-yard touchdown pass to Blaze Kamoku that gave them a 10-0 lead with 7:25 remaining in the first half.
Midway through the third quarter, Hunter Ah Loo intercepted Bianco and six plays later, Elijah Apao punched it into the end zone from a yard out give the Warriors their largest lead at 23-14 with 3:19 until the final quarter.
Maafala credited offensive coordinator Billy Borengasser and defensive coordinator Matt Wright for what he deemed to be "superb" execution.
"Of course, the typical coach-speak, there are things we gotta clean up, but both our coordinators did a fabulous job of getting our kids prepared and getting them locked in on their assignments and executing and I think by focusing on those things, (the players) didn't focus on ‘oh my God, it's Saint Louis,' " Maafala said. "All our coaches did a good job of keeping our kids laser-beam focused and it paid off tonight."
Saint Louis answered on its ensuing possession by covering 74 yards in five plays and just two minutes and 17 seconds of elapsed time, capped off Trech Kekahuna's 34-yard TD pass from Bianco. Lason Napuunoa's extra point cut the Kamehameha lead to 23-21 with 1:06 left in the third quarter.
The Crusaders turned it over on downs on each of their final two possessions. On fourth-and-1 from the Warriors' 24-yard line, Bianco was hurried by Dylan Palama and his pass for Kekahuna was incomplete. On fourth-and-5 from the Kamehameha 25, Palama sacked Bianco for an 8-yard loss to give his team the ball back with 1:14 to play.
The Warriors picked up a first down on a 12-yard run by Bartley to reset the chains and were able to run out the clock.
Bartley, a 5-foot-9, 185-pound senior, averaged 6.0 yards on each of his 21 carries.
Maafala credited Bartley and the offensive line for working in unison.
"It all starts up front and you'll hear (Bartley) talk about it, they have such an unbelievable chemistry," Maafala said. "Our offensive line is such a physical bunch and our o-line coaches work them hard. Sometimes we've only got five o-linemen for an entire practice, so I'm so glad that they got that payday, but Noah by himself — Noah is a special player."
Bartley agreed with his coach's sentiment.
"Honestly I feel like it's just me and my linemen, we run together," Bartley told Spectrum OC16's Jimmy Bender. "We been together for a long time, we been together from frosh year, we been working out together for a long time."
Winston Freitas converted a 33-yard field goal to culminate a 10-play, 51-yard drive to open the scoring and put Kamehameha ahead late in the first quarter.
Saint Louis got on the board at the 6:24 mark of the second quarter on Bianco's 39-yard TD pass to Devon Tauaefa. It took the lead with 35 seconds until halftime with a 31-yard Kekahuna run to paydirt.
Bartley's 9-yard TD run highlighted a 13-play, 90-yard drive that took 5:41 off the clock and put Kamehameha back ahead, 17-14, including the Freitas PAT.
Kekahuna racked up 157 all-purpose yards; He caught seven passes for 110 yards and also carried four times for a team-high 47 yards. Jayden Peters-deLaura led all players with 12 receptions for 113 yards in the loss.
Bianco finished 30-of-44 passing for 344 yards.
Ah Yat threw for 68 yards on 7-of-19 passing. He was forced to leave the game in the second half due to injury, but was able to return.
Apao filled in at quarterback in his stead; and commandeered two drives that ended with touchdowns until Ah Yat re-entered in the fourth quarter.
"That's kind of the blessing and the curse of having such a limited roster, is throughout this entire summer and even in the spring, our coaches did a great job of moving and shuffling pieces around and making sure that our guys were getting the reps and mental reps that they needed to so that if they were called upon, they could go in and execute," Maafala said. "Dwight is one of those guys; he runs plays at quarterback and wide receiver. He literally will run three plays at receiver and then run two plays at quarterback, so hats off to offensive coordinator, because that's stuff that they saw and they got him prepared."
Kamehameha was 6 of 13 on third downs and 0 for 1 on fourth downs. It went 4 for 4 on red-zone scoring chances, all but one of them touchdowns.
Saint Louis went 2 of 10 on third downs and 3 of 8 on fourth downs.
The Warriors held possession for more than 15 minutes in the second half, compared to 8:47 for the Crusaders.
"It's huge. It's the run and shoot offense, being engineered by the offensive coordinator from the greatest stretch in (University of) Hawaii football history, so that's always the thought, you want to limit their time on the field and when you get an opportunity on the offensive side of the ball, that you execute and make it a physical game," Maafala said.
"That's one things I'm real proud of our kids for, is that we made it a physical football game and especially on the defensive side of the ball it can be hard to do when you're playing against such a wide open offense, so it was just unbelievable to watch," he added.
The Crusaders saw their streak of 36 straight wins over in-state opponents come to an end. Their last defeat against a team from Hawaii was a 33-20 loss to Punahou on Sept. 29, 2016.
"It's crazy; that's such a long streak," Bartley said to Bender. "These past two, three weeks we been working really hard to break the streak and we did, it's crazy."
Kamehameha recorded a win over Saint Louis for the first time since Oct. 19, 2013, to end a string of 11 straight wins by the Crusaders.
"I'm most proud that our kids walked into that game focused on what we needed to be, which was us, and executing and they played extremely hard for each other and like I was telling them, they've been working hard, sacrificing and going through these things and my message to them pre-game was ‘expect to win," Maafala said.
"But even after it's been five years or whatever since Saint Louis hasn't lost to a Hawaii team, I told them we still have practice (Saturday) at 8:30 (a.m.), because the goal isn't just to beat Saint Louis, it's to win a state championship and now that they've got something to really believe, now the hard work really starts," Maafala said.
He made sure to extend his gratitude to the Warriors' vast support system, especially the families of his coaching staff.
"I'm thankful to all our coaches, staff, managers — talk about a team win," Maafala said. "A lot of people sacrificed, my coaches' families and their wives give up so much family time and I'm so blessed that I have such an awesome staff and supportive administration. The athletic director and the headmaster have been pushing to continue to have games and so I'm excited not just that we won, but that we're playing again because it looked bad there for a while."
Kamehameha faces No. 4 Punahou Friday, 7:30 p.m. at Aloha Stadium. That game will be preceded by Damien (2-3) and PAC-5 (0-4) at 5 p.m.
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