Posted at 10:35 p.m., Friday, December 6, 2002
St. Louis downs Castle, 34-15, for state football title
Advertiser Staff
St. Louis exerted two years of frustration on Castle with a 34-15 win to capture its second state high school football championship tonight.The game was called by state tournament officials with 43 seconds left after a brief skirmish in the fourth quarter.
An Aloha Stadium crowd of 10,935 watched the Crusaders (11-2), ranked first in The Advertiser Top 10, win their first title since the inaugural tournament in 1999 after losing the past two years to Kahuku, which did not qualify for this year's tournament.
The third-ranked Knights' seven-game winning streak was snapped to end a storybook season that saw them start 1-3 before winning nine of their last 10 before last night.
B.J. Batts starred in the first half to help the Crusaders jump to a 20-6 lead. After St. Louis scored on a 4-yard pass from Bobby George to Shaun Kaleinamoku to give the Crusaders a 7-0 lead, Batts capped a four-play, 59-yard drive with a 1-yard TD run to make it 14-0. The Crusaders started that drive at their own 41 after a punt for zero yardage when the Knights were apparently confused as to when the ball was downed.
But Castle got consecutive field goals by Ethan Gonvalves of 25 and 37 yards to close to 14-6 with 1:06 left in the half. The 37-yarder came after Batts lost a fumble after a 7-yard gain to the St. Louis 48.
But Batts redeemed himself by returning the ensuing kickoff a tournament record 99 yards with 50 seconds left in the half. Ernesto Lopez blocked Kaeo Adams' PAT that made it 20-6.
