It was supposed to be the battle of quarterbacks.

Instead, it came down to turnovers.

Punahou won the turnover war, 7-4, and consequently the game, knocking off Baldwin, 30-7, last night in a semifinal of the First Hawaiian Bank Division I state football tournament.

An Aloha Stadium crowd of 9,629 watched the No. 2 Buffanblu (11-2) advance to Friday's championship against three-time champion Kahuku (10-1). Kickoff is 8 p.m. at the stadium.

"It's a great opportunity for our school and a great opportunity for us," said Punahou defensive back Jay Angotti, who had two interceptions. "I'm so thankful that we're here."

The No. 3 Bears (11-1) saw their 14-game win streak snapped.

"It's pretty disappointing," Baldwin receiver Chase Nakamura said. "We had high hopes coming into this game. We thought we could take it, but..."

The teams entered the game with high-octane passing quarterbacks in Punahou's Brett Kan and Baldwin's Kalehua Moniz. Both had more than 2,300 yards passing and at least 22 touchdowns apiece coming in. But Moniz was intercepted a season-high four times and threw for 145 yards, while Kan was picked three times and had 169 yards. Each had one TD pass. The Bears also lost three fumbles and the Buffanblu one.

"That's what killed us," Moniz said. "When you have that much turnovers, the game not going go your way. It went to the better team tonight and hats off to them. They did a great job on defense."

Punahou's defense applied constant pressure, forcing Moniz to throw off his back foot at times.

Kan also had to dodge rushers, but gave no excuses for the interceptions.

"I had an off-night," he admitted.

Kan threw two interceptions on the first two series of the second half with the score tied at 7. But Punahou's defense got one of the turnovers back with a fumble recovery and then by forcing Baldwin to punt from its end zone to the Bears' 40. That's when the Buffanblu changed the pace by running the ball 11 times in a 12-yard scoring drive that ended with Kan sneaking from the 1 with 1:50 left in the third quarter to break the deadlock. River Kim's PAT made it 14-7.

"We thought we should be able to run the ball against the sets they were running," Kan said.

At the outset, it appeared it would be a game of big plays.

Baldwin's Jensen Somera returned the opening kickoff 78 yards to the Buffanblu 18. Four plays later, Moniz rolled left and found a wide-open Nakamura in the back left corner of the end zone to complete a 4-yard TD pass to put the Bears ahead 7-0 at the 9:53 mark.

The Bears got the first turnover of the game when Kim lost a fumble after a 7-yard reception at the Punahou 26. But the Bears couldn't cash in because Angotti made his first interception after a Moniz pass went off the fingertips of a receiver, returning the ball to the Punahou 22. That's where Kim beat the Bears secondary and Kan hit him for a 78-yard TD pass to tie the score at 7 with 1:22 left in the first quarter.

The Bears thought they had another big TD play early in the second quarter but an apparent 88-yard TD pass from Moniz to Colten Quinabo was nullified by an ineligible receiver downfield penalty. The Bears eventually lost the ball when Moniz fumbled at the Punahou 27.

Angotti and Baldwin's Kyle Ka'aihue-Kaimiola exchanged interceptions before the half to keep the score deadlocked.

After the Buffanblu took a 14-7 lead on a 1-yard sneak by Kan, the roof caved in on the Bears. Dane Fernandez mishandled a punt for a 22-yard loss to the Bears' 19. Kan capped a five-play drive with his second 1-yard sneak to make it 21-7 at 9:13 of the fourth quarter.

The Buffanblu added another score, this time a 6-yard run by running back Kainoa Carlson at 4:31 to make it 28-7.

PUNAHOU 7 0 7 16—30

BALDWIN 7 0 0 0— 7

Bald—Chase Nakamura 4 pass from Kalehua Moniz (John Takitani kick)

Pun—River Kim 78 pass from Brett Kan (Kim kick)

Pun—Kan 1 run (Kim kick)

Pun—Kan 1 run (Kim kick)

Pun—Kainoa Carlson 5 run (Kim kick)

Pun—Safety, intentional grounding in end zone RUSHING—Punahou: Carlson 18-49, Colin Viloria 5-9, David White 1-6, Kyle Whitford 1-6, Christopher Wong 3-4, Reid Nakahara 1-2, Kan 4-0, Pono Akina 2-(minus 2). Baldwin: Moniz 9-21, Oli DeCambra 2-6, Chansi Bolosan 3-6, Kyle Kaaihue-Kaimiola 2-5, Kaulana Alo-Kaonohi 7-2, Dane Fernandez 1-(minus 22).

PASSING—Punahou: Kan 15-26-3—169, Akina 0-1-0—0. Baldwin: Moniz 11-24-4—145, Jordan Helle 1-3-0—9.

RECEIVING—Punahou: Miah Ostrowski 6-51, Viloria 3-13, Kim 2-85, Whitford 2-2, Chris Unemori 1-11, Carlson 1-7. Baldwin: Nakamura 4-25, Colten Quinabo 3-29, Alo-Kaonohi 2-17, Kainoa Klask 1-42, Ikaika Lau 1-38, DeCambra 1-3.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.