St. Louis quarterback Ryder Kuhns (2) winds up for a throw against Kahuku. Kuhns threw for 361 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Crusaders victorious over the Red Raiders. Eugene Tanner | SL

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Running back Adam Noga attempts to break free from a Kahuku defender. Celine Truong | Special to SL

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Kahuku QB Tuli Wily-Matagi gets set to make a pass attempt against Saint Louis. Tyler Kanoa | Special to SL

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Saint Louis WR Devan Stubblefield breaks into the open field following a pass completion against Kahuku. Tyler Kanoa | Special to SL

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Saint Louis WR Drew Kobayashi attempts to make a leaping reception over Kahuku's Huleia Naeole. Celine Truong | Special to SL

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Kahuku's Soli Afalava is propelled airborne by a Saint Louis defender Eugene Tanner | SL

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Saint Louis WR Allan Cui makes a leaping reception against Kahuku. Eugene Tanner | SL

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Kahuku's Keala Boy Santiago attempts to maintain his balance after a tackle attempt by a Saint Louis defender. Eugene Tanner | SL

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Saint Louis WR Devan Stubblefield hauls in a pass for a score late in the second quarter against Kahuku. Eugene Tanner | SL

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HALAWA — With his team in the hole, Ryder Kuhns rose to the occasion.

Kuhns completed 28 of 41 passes — including his final seven attempts — for 361 yards and four touchdowns to rally Saint Louis to a 45-24 win over Kahuku in a non-league game Saturday night.

A crowd of about 5,000 spectators at Hawaiian Airlines Field at Aloha Stadium saw the Crusaders rally from a 24-23 deficit after three quarters to improve to 2-0 on the season. The reigning two-time Division I state champion Red Raiders fell to 0-1 in their season debut.

"I think we just executed and did what we needed to do," said Kuhns, a junior quarterback. "We didn't do it the whole game, but I felt like we did it in the fourth quarter."

Kuhns led the go-ahead drive, which began on the Crusaders' own 39-yard line, on his team's second possession of the fourth quarter. After an 18-yard run by Adam Noga, Kuhns completed five consecutive passes — the last an 8-yard touchdown pass to Riccardo Salas III with seven minutes and 19 seconds to play — to give his team a 30-24 lead it would not relinquish.

"We knew we weren't going to give up that lead again after that," said Kuhns, who threw for 220 yards by halftime.

Matthew Mariota converted the PAT to make it 31-24.

Kahuku fumbled away a chance to tie on its ensuing drive when PJ Liua was stripped by Saint Louis' Faafetai Lulu. The loose ball was recovered by teammate Jacob Morey to give the Crusaders the ball back at their own 39-yard line.

Three plays later, Noga made the Red Raiders pay with a 10-yard touchdown run. Following the Mariota kick, Saint Louis held a 38-24 lead with 4:45 remaining.

Another Kahuku three-and-out followed and Saint Louis got a late insurance score on Raymond Caayon's 41-yard run with 22 seconds left.

"Our defense stepped up big time in the fourth quarter," Crusaders' coach Matt Wright said. "Going up against a team like Kahuku — whose strength is the fourth quarter — I thought our defense did an outstanding job of stepping up on some key series. Kahuku was moving the ball on us and I think that our senior leadership kind of took over and the will to succeed and the will to compete and the will to excel no matter what the obstacles are, took over within our defense and our offense capitalized on it."

Kahuku coach Reggie Torres said defensive miscues down the stretch didn't help any ideas of a late rally.

"We couldn't stop their run. They would throw short, run long. Simple zone plays, we took bad angles, can't wrap, can't tackle, but it's OK, those are things we can work on," Torres said.

Saint Louis scored on its opening drive of the game, going 96 yards on eight plays, capped by Kuhns' 9-yard touchdown pass to Cui with five minutes and 46 seconds left in the first quarter. Kuhns found Drew Kobayashi for a 22-yard pick-up to convert a key third down and later connected with Noga for a 35-yard pitch-and-catch. Kaulana Vinoya broke loose on a 31-yard run on the following play to set-up Cui's first touchdown grab. The PAT was no good as the snap was high and Mariota, the placekicker, was tackled short of the end zone.

Kahuku got on the board early in the second quarter on a 3-yard run by Salanoa Wily. The drive, which consisted of nine rushes and one pass, covered 51 yards in 4:40. Jake Samsel's extra point gave the Red Raiders their first lead at 7-6.

However, Kuhns answered for the Crusaders, guiding them on an eight-play, 80-yard drive that was highlighted by his 2-yard touchdown pass to Cui on a shovel play. Kuhns was 5-of-5 passing on the drive for 78 yards. Mariota's PAT was good to make the score, 13-7, in favor of Saint Louis with 7:25 until halftime.

The Red Raiders reclaimed the lead two possessions later when Soli Afalava broke three tackles en route to the end zone on a 21-yard touchdown run with 1:40 remaining. The drive started at the Kahuku 27-yard line following a Saint Louis fumble recovered by the Red Raiders' Roman Salanoa.

Saint Louis got in a score just five seconds before halftime on a 30-yard touchdown pass from Kuhns to Devon Stubblefield. On the scoring play, Kuhns pump faked a hitch to Stubblefield, who burned past a Kahuku defender, and found him on a corner route between the cornerback and the safety.

The Crusaders finished with 523 yards of total offense, including 162 rushing yards. Stubblefield finished with six receptions for 117 yards, while Drew Kobayashi added four catches for 83 yards and Cui collected nine grabs for 81 yards. Jacob Lacaden led all players with nine tackles.

Afalava led all rushers with 85 yards on 19 carries, Tuli Wily-Matagi added 14 rushes for 62 yards and Liua 56 yards on nine attempts.

"We always want to go out there and win, but we also knew realistically that Saint Louis is a good team," Torres said. "We knew that they're full of stud athletes and we were just trying to matchup with them. Our kids didn't matchup well with them so we try to disguise, we try to blitz and get to the quarterback. We don't get to the quarterback and you can see what happened. We're young in the secondary and it showed tonight."

It was the most points allowed by Kahuku since a 47-12 loss to Aiea in 1965. The Red Raiders also saw their 18-game win streak, which dated back to October of 2011, snapped with the loss.

Kahuku, which returned just two defensive starters from last season, played without "twenty-something" players, according to Torres, including offensive linemen Henry Tonga, Herman Kanoa and outside linebacker Clifford Ramseyer.

It was the first meeting between Saint Louis and Kahuku since 2010, when the Red Raiders won, 49-27, in Laie.