St. Louis drives by Punahou, 46-17
By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer
St. Louis School football coach Cal Lee last night compared high school football to the game of golf.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
"You can never master it," said Lee, after his team's 46-17 victory over Punahou at Aloha Stadium. "Just like in golf, it's always something — either your putting is off, or your short game. We made some mistakes tonight, but we're getting better, and hopefully we can build on it."
Iolani's Kawika Nakoa returns a fumble 56 yards for a touchdown against Pac-Five in the second quarter. The Raiders won 33-0.
St. Louis, the Interscholastic League of Honolulu's Tiger Woods for the past 15 years, improved to 5-0-1 overall and 3-0-1 in the ILH. But the performance, like the Crusaders' previous three league games, was far from perfect.
St. Louis had some crushing drives right down the middle, but also misfired on some shots and surrendered some gimmies.
Punahou (3-3, 1-3) intercepted three passes and converted two of them into scores. But the Crusaders' defense also came up with another huge night, intercepting four passes and limiting the Buffanblu to 100 total yards. St. Louis outgained Punahou 204 yards to 26 in the first half while building a 26-3 lead.
At times, the Crusaders looked every bit like the teams that dominated Hawai'i football from 1986-1999. They went 59 yards in six plays on their opening drive to take a 7-0 lead less than three minutes into the game. St. Louis manufactured a 12-play, 52-yard drive later in the quarter to take a 10-0 lead on Michael Hauar's 27-yard field goal. The Crusaders made it 12-0 after a bad punt snap by the Buffanblu resulted in a safety.
But an interception by Punahou's Stan Fisher helped the Buffanblu close it to 12-3 on Tamatoa Hackney's 23-yard field goal.
A 13-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Bobby George to Tito Sallas helped the Saints go up 19-3 with 8:56 remaining in the half, and another George-to-Sallas pass, this one from 19 yards out, allowed St. Louis to take a 26-3 advantage into the locker room.
The closest Punahou got in the second half was 39-17, after Hackney's 1-yard touchdown plunge with 3:30 left in the third quarter.
St. Louis (5-0-1, 3-0-1) 12 14 13 7—46
Punahou (3-3, 2-2) 0 3 14 0—17
SL—Prince Brown 1 run (Michael Hauar kick)
SL—FG 27 Hauar
SL—Safety, Stan Fisher downs ball in end zone
P—FG 23 Tamatoa Hackney
SL—Tito Sallas 13 pass from Bobby George (Hauar kick)
SL—Sallas 19 pass from George (Hauar kick)
SL—Ross Dickerson 49 pass from George (Hauar kick)
P—Kawika Fiddler 22 interception return (Hackney kick)
SL—Chad Adviento 26 interception return (kick failed)
P—Hackney 1 run (Hackney kick)
SL—Dickerson 28 run (Hauar kick)
RUSHING—SL: B.J. Batts 10-54, Brown 9-43, Dickerson 2-30, Justin Cabansag 10-17, George 4-1; Pun: Drew Monahan 5-17, Todd LaFountaine 7-2, Jason Sakata 1-0, Hackney 1-1.
PASSING—SL: George 16-26-3--201, Andy Kubic 0-1-0--0; Pun: Monahan 3-17-1--16, LaFountaine 0-3-1--0, Sean Fitzsimmons 5-9-2--65.
RECEIVING—SL: Sallas 6-60, Jason Rivers 4-55, Dickerson 2-49, Kainoa Fernandez 3-28, Keahua Bowman 1-9; Pun: LaFountaine 5-18, Brian Sanders 1-44, Peter Lee 1-14, Hackney 1-5.
• Iolani 33, Pac-Five 0: Teo Bennett rushed for 186 yards and three touchdowns on 22 carries, and the Raiders defense held the Wolfpack to 197 yards in ILH action at Aloha Stadium.
Iolani's defense also directly accounted for two touchdowns, with Kawika Nakoa's 56-yard fumble return giving the Raiders a 12-0 lead midway through the second quarter and Kyle Muraoka's 89-yard interception return making it 33-0 with 2:47 left to play. Iolani's Erik Nakamura also had an interception, which he returned 34 yards to help set up Bennett's third touchdown run — a 5-yarder that helped put the Raiders up 27-0 on the first play of the fourth quarter.
Pac-five (2-5, 1-3) 0 0 0 0— 0
Iolani (5-1, 3-1) 6 14 0 13—33
Iol—Teo Bennett 1 run (kick failed)
Iol—Kawika Nakoa 56 fumble return (kick failed)
Iol—Bennett 47 run (Ikaika Goo pass from Kila Kaaihue)
Iol—Bennett 5 run (Noah Myers kick)
Iol—Kyle Muraoka 89 interception return (kick failed)
RUSHING—Pac-Five: Michael Yamauchi-Yamate 9-55, Alika Durington 1-8, Shane Lawrence 1-(-4), McShane Dator 10-(-40); Iolani: Bennett 22-186, Kaaihue 8-53, Robert Mageo 4-(-1), Peter Heimerdinger 1-(-1).
PASSING—Pac-Five: Dator 17-42-1—171; Jordan Tani 1-3-1—7; Iolani: Kaaihue 6-25-1—71.
RECEIVING: Pac-Five: Matthew Friedman 6-56, Travis Tyler 3-36, Cheyne Abbey-Chong 2-26, Ryan Urabe 3-24, Yamauchi-Yamate 2-19, Ryan Leong 2-17; Iolani: Jay Marcoullier 2-39, Bennett 2-18, Nate Kawamura 2-14.
