St. Louis rolls past Waimea; Castle wins in three OTs

By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

After hauling in a pass, Waimea's Dane Koga is hit by St. Louis' Jonah Lakatani. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

An ecstatic and screaming crowd of 8,077 at Aloha Stadium watched Jacob Ramos score with 8 seconds left in regulation and Ethan Gonsalves kick the PAT to tie the game at 14 and force overtime.

The Knights (10-4) will meet St. Louis (10-2) in Friday's championship. It will be Castle's first appearance in the finals. St. Louis, winner of the inaugural tournament in 1999, is 5-0 against Castle since 1960.

"Unbelievable," Castle coach Nelson Maeda said. "What a game."

Indeed.

It was the longest game in the state tournament, which is in its fourth year.

In overtime, each team starts from the defense's 20. Each has a chance to make a first down before scoring. The series ends with a turnover, unless a loose ball is recovered in the other team's end zone.

The periods repeat until one team has scored more than the other.

Sebay atoned for a fumble in the first overtime, which ended up scoreless.

The Tigers took the lead to start the second overtime on a 1-yard touchdown run by quarterback Abel Werner.

But the Knights came back on a 17-yard touchdown run by quarterback Jacob Ramos to tie game at 21.

Ernesto Lopez intercepted a Werner pass in the end zone on second down in the third overtime.

The Knights took over from the Tigers' 20 and faced third-and-10 before Sebay bulled his way for 11 yards and a first down. From there, the Knights just wanted to hold on to the ball for a possible field goal try. Instead, Sebay scored on a 9-yard run to end the game

"It's a play we call the zombie," Sebay said. "It's to keep the ball safe.

"This is huge. I made a lot of mistakes and the team made a lot of mistake, but not as large as the one I made. I'm glad I had the opportunity to make up for what I did."

It was a devastating loss to the Tigers, who had a 14-7 lead with 1:19 left when Castle took over from the Tigers' 42. Six plays later, Ramos scored on first-and-goal at the 1 with eight seconds left. At the time, the Knights were out of timeouts.

"We have nothing to be ashamed of," McKinley coach David Tanuvasa said. "Castle came to play and they made a lot more plays than we did. We got nothing to be ashamed of. We got to the final four, the only four teams in the state to play football. It's a loss, we hurt, But we're here."

MCKINLEY 0 0 7 7 0 7 0 — 21
CASTLE 0 0 0 14 0 7 6 — 27

• McK—Lama Lauvao 34 pass from Abel Werner (John Mai kick)
• Cast—Ikaika Ho 71 punt return (Ethan Gonsalves kick)
• McK—Isaiah Iaea 18 pass from Werner (Mai kick)
• Cast—Ramos run (Gonsalves kick)
• McK—Werner 1 run (Mai kick)
• Cast—Ramos 17 run (Gonsalves kick)
• Cast—Kawika Sebay 9 run

RUSHING — McKinley: Michael Vasconcellos 21-46, Werner 15-(minus 23), Joshua Bumanglag 1-(minus 1). Castle: Sebay 15-70, Jared Suzui 1-4, Ramos 17-39.

PASSING — McKinley: Werner 15-40-4—216, Castle: Ramos 18-29-1—162.

RECEIVING — McKinley: Lauvao 6-97, Iaea 4-84, Bumanglag 2-15, Vasconcellos 3-20. Castle: Suzui 6-37, Sebay 4-18, Ho 6-63, Matt Kanahele 1-32, Ernesto Lopez 1-12.