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Kalani Takase | ScoringLiveOctober 30, 2022, 12:15am
Sat, Oct 29, 2022 @ Farrington [ 7:00 pm ]
KALIHI — With Election Day on the horizon, Punahou completed a long-awaited transition of power in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Saturday night.
John-Keawe Sagapolutele passed for 385 yards and three touchdowns to help the Buffanblu claim their first ILH title since 2014 with their 24-8 win over reigning seven-time champ Saint Louis before a crowd of about 1,500 fans at Farrington's Edward ‘Skippa' Diaz Stadium.
Punahou, the No. 2 team in the ScoringLive Power Rankings, improved to 8-1 and snagged the ILH's lone spot in the upcoming four-team First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA Open Division State Championships.
Fifth-ranked Saint Louis completed the season with a record of 4-5. Three of its losses have come at the hands of the Buffanblu.
While Punahou posted 43 and 42 points in their prior wins over the Crusaders, this one had a bit more of a feeling-out process, second-year Buffanblu coach Nate Kia said.
"Well, it's similar in the sense that the opponent familiarity, especially in the ILH when you gotta play somebody three times to win (the league title). That makes it very similar from the previous times, however, I think it was a title game in much more of a competitive sense with turnovers and it seemed like a little slower pace of a game; it wasn't a lot of huge, big plays, so I think our ability to execute, even though not perfect at times, our resolve allowed us to finish the game," Kia stated.
Kia's squad certainly got off on the right foot by capping its opening drive of the night with a 1-yard touchdown pass from Sagapolutele to Iosepa Lyman on a third-and-goal. Astin Hange's 40-yard return of the opening kickoff gave his team starting field position near midfield and Sagapolutele extended the drive with a 22-yard completion to Hange to convert a third-and-9.
Saint Louis punted on its first possession, but penetrated the red zone on its second. However, the Buffanblu forced and recovered a fumble just outside the end zone after an 11-yard run by the Crusaders' William Lentz.
Although Punahou's offense was unable to recycle the takeaway into points, the goal line stand was huge in its own right, Kia said.
"Yeah, you know, it's one of those things you make it a focus to create turnovers and protect the ball, but the only way you really do that is by doing your job and doing your assignments and making sure that we finish tackles and doing all the fundamentals — if you do that enough, good things happen: turnovers," Kia said. "Those opportunities create themselves."
Saint Louis put together an 11-play drive — almost exclusively with a short-passing game — on its next drive, but eventually turned it over on downs when quarterback Kekahi Graham was sacked for a four-yard loss on fourth down by GianCarlo Rufo. It was one of Rufo's three first-half sacks.
The Buffanblu were able to cash in this time with a 38-yard Jordan Kapisi field goal on the final play of the first half and took a 10-0 lead into the break.
Sagapolutele made it a three-score game with his 5-yard TD to Noah Macapulay on a two-handed underhand shovel pass to cap Punahou's first possession of the second half. The scoring drive covered 91 yards in 11 plays and included a 19-yard pass from Sagapolutele to Macapulay to move the chains on a third-and-10. One play before the scoring play, Sagapolutele floated a perfectly-placed pass over Lyman's shoulder and into his waiting hands for a 35-yard completion.
Three plays into the fourth quarter, Sagapolutele and Macapulay hooked up on another third down, this time for a 98-yard touchdown. Macapulay ran a vertical route in the middle of the field and with no safety over the top, Sagapolutele dropped another dime that found his receiver in-step. Macapulay did the rest and ran away from the Saint Louis defense for the long touchdown.
"It was an audible," Macapulay disclosed. "Me and my quarterback, John, we saw the same look at the same time and it's just great when you have chemistry with your quarterback. We just saw the same look and it was just a touchdown, so I just ran up the middle, nobody was there and it was just a touchdown."
The play was telling of the progress that the offensive unit has made over the course of the season, Kia said.
"I think overall our offense, they've grown, they've grown over the year. Defense was really strong early, they've been strong throughout and have battled and have been able to hold teams at bay while the offense has gotten going, but we're at a point where the offense is, you know, they've jelled; they're of one mind and they play well together and they can make adjustments as a group on the fly and a lot of that has to do with our staff, they do a terrific job of preparing them for the game every week," Kia expressed.
But the Buffanblu defense still had more to give as well. Linebacker Blayne Shiraki jumped a Graham pass and returned the interception 55 yards to halt the Crusaders' next drive.
Saint Louis was held to 252 yards of total offense. It converted 3 of 11 third downs and allowed five sacks by the Buffanblu.
Graham threw for 203 yards on 25-of-35 passing. Nine different Crusaders caught a pass in the loss, led by Chyler DeSilva's five grabs for 75 yards.
Keola Apduhan's 2-yard touchdown run — and Yosei Takahashi's completed pass to Titan Lacaden on the ensuing two-point conversion — with five minutes made up all of the Saint Louis scoring.
Punahou's defense had standouts at each level Saturday. In addition to Rufo's three sacks from his outside linebacker position, defensive lineman Kekai Burnett had 1 1/2 sacks and batted down a pass at the line of scrimmage. Additionally, cornerback Travis Ross tallied 1 1/2 tackles for loss, including one-half sack and two pass break-ups.
"Man, going against the best defense in the state — yeah, I said the best defense in the state — every day is so challenging," Macapulay said. "Travis, man, he always gives us a hard time in practice, but I think that's how come we do so well during the game, because it just comes easier every time we play because every week we challenge against our defense and I feel like we always get better."
Ross passed the praise back to the Buffanblu offense, which is averaging better than 42 points and 425 yards per game, including 310 through the air.
"Our offense is one of the best in the state and going up against them in practice makes not just us better, but them better as one because they're amazing," he said. "They're an amazing group of receivers, quarterback John, o-line amazing."
Macapulay finished with seven receptions for a season-high 170 yards, while Hange continued his reign of terror on the Crusaders this season with seven grabs for 109 yards. In his other games against Saint Louis, Hange caught seven balls for 111 yards and a touchdown and eight for 169 yards and two TDs.
Punahou, which had a bye last week while Saint Louis defeated Kamehameha, posted 431 yards of total offense.
The Crusaders needed to win Saturday's second-round final to force a winner-take-all playoff against the Buffanblu for the overall league title next week.
Instead, Punahou finally re-captured the ILH crown after an eight-year absence.
"It'll probably sink in a little bit more tomorrow. It's always a hard battle when it's Saint Louis, but I'm just very proud of our guys," Kia said. "You know, we did a lot of work in the offseason, through the summer, through camp, through this grind of a season and we got better every week where we needed to and just grateful to be able to have them experience a championship in the ILH."
The HHSAA revealed its state tournament brackets late Saturday night. The Buffanblu are seeded second in the Open bracket behind defending champion Kahuku and will play OIA runner-up Mililani in the nightcap of a semifinal doubleheader at John Kauinana Stadium on Nov. 18. The Red Raiders will face Campbell in the first semifinal at 4 p.m.
The semifinal winners will advance to the state championship game on Nov. 25 at Mililani.
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