Football
St. John Bosco routs No. 3 Saint Louis, 63-14


   



Fri, Aug 22, 2014 @ Aloha Stadium [ 7:30 pm ]


Final 1 2 3 4 T
St. John Bosco (1-0-0) 21 21 14 763
Saint Louis (6-4-0) 0 14 0 014
Tua Tagovailoa 137 yd 2 TD
Josh Rosen 252 yd 1 TD
Sean McGrew 179 yd 3 TD
Jimmy Nunuha 64 yd 1 TD
Anselem Umeh 79 yd

View live stream archive here.

For the winningest coach in Hawaii high school history, Cal Lee's third return to Saint Louis has been a rude awakening.

The Crusaders (0-2), third in the ScoringLive/OC 16 Division I Power Rankings, tied a school-high for points allowed in a 63-14 thrashing from defending MaxPreps national champion St. John Bosco of Bellflower, Calif., Friday night at Hawaiian Airlines Field at Aloha Stadium.

Last week, the Crusaders lost to No. 2 Mililani, 63-47.

The game went into the 35-point differential mercy rule running clock after Sean McGrew's 47-yard TD run with 10 minutes, 14 seconds left in the third quarter. It was the second time a Saint Louis team was put in that situation since a 52-40 loss to Las Vegas power Bishop Gorman here in 2012. Although the game reached the 35-point differential, it was mutually agreed by the teams to continue playing under the normal time keeping. The 49-point differential is the largest deficit since Saint Louis started played football in 1920.

It is Lee's worst start in his 22 seasons as Saint Louis' coach. His first season in 1972, Saint Louis started the season 0-1-1 and was 0-3-1 before getting his first of a state record 239 career wins. It does not get easier for the Crusaders, who last won a state title in 2010 behind Oregon's Heisman Trophy candidate Marcus Mariota. Saint Louis opens the Interscholastic League of Honolulu season Friday against defending state champion and No. 1 Punahou.

It was the 17th consecutive win for the Braves, the California Interscholastic Federation open-division champion, who is ranked No. 2 nationally by USA Today.

The big question entering the game for Saint Louis was its two quarterbacks in incumbent Ryder Kuhns and up-from-the-JV sophomore Tua Tagovailoa. They were to alternate quarters starting with the veteran Kuhns. But down 42-14 at the half, Tagovailoa started Saint Louis' first series. But Lee said he won't decide on a starting QB until the Punahou game.

Lee's biggest concern is his defense, which was tattered for 585 yards. The junior running back McGrew, a 5-foot-7, 173-pound speedster, tore the Crusaders for 179 yards rushing on 14 carries, including TD runs of 4, 30 and 47 yards. Senior quarterback Josh Rosen, a UCLA commit (as is Saint Louis left tackle Fred Ulu-Perry), completed 16 of 25 for 252 yards and one TD. He not only wasn't sacked, but was hardly pressured at all.

"There is a concern," Lee said. "Basically, it's defense. We have to play some defense. Right now, we're not stopping anybody on defense and that's not good."

Kuhns was 9 of 20 for 50 yards and threw one interception. Tagovailoa was 10 of 15 for 137 yards and two TDs. He also rushed for 51 yards on three carries, all for first downs. Tagovailoa impressed SJB coach Jason Negro.

"He's going to be special," Negro said. "He's a young guy and it looks like they're going to try to break him in really slowly so he's not overwhelmed. He's played two pretty good defenses as well and played pretty well. He's going to be really good. I know they have a little bit of a quarterback controversy here, but they have good coaches here. They'll figure it out. Hopefully, both young men will continue to compete."

Negro, the MaxPreps national coach of the year, was obviously pleased that his team kept its focus in paradise and entering the season as defending national champions.

"We thought we could move the ball successfully if we executed," Negro said. "The question was were we going to be able to execute. We played, I think, nine wide receivers tonight, we played seven offensive linemen, three tight ends. We played a lot of guys who were new coming into our program in terms of the varsity level. These guys performed at a pretty high level and hopefully they can improve as we move along in the season."

The Crusaders won the coin toss and elected to receive and took it to their 20. After three incomplete passes, Ietitaia Epenesa blocked Noah Alejado's punt that was recovered by Clifford Simms, who returned the ball 22 yards for the first score just 3:41 into the game.

Allan Cui returned the ensuing kickoff 34 yards to the Saint Louis 45, but four plays later, Bryce Turner's interception off Kuhns that was returned 33 yards to the Braves' 47 led to the first of McGrew's three TDs, a four-yard run that made it 14-0.

Saint Louis punted on its third series and St. John Bosco answered with McGrew's 30-yard TD run to make it 21-0 with 3:14 in the first quarter.

Kuhns got the Crusaders rolling on their fourth series, moving the offense from its 28 to the Braves' 10. But on fourth-and-9, a wide open Keanu Souza dropped Kuhn's pass in the end zone.

Saint Louis' Jedadiah Lulu recovered a fumble forced by Elyjah Hoapili-Kreutz at the Braves' 47 early in the second quarter. Tagovailoa got the Crusaders on the board in four plays, connecting with Jimmy Nunuha for a 28-yard TD to pull Saint Louis to 21-7 with 9:33 in the half.

But Joey Chenoweth returned the ensuing kickoff 74 yards to set up Rosen's 9-yard TD run to make it 28-7.

The Crusaders fumbled on their next series and the Braves cashed the turnover in with Simms' 1-yard TD run that made it 35-7.

Tagovailoa led Saint Louis to its second and final scoring drive of the game that ended with a 15-yard TD pass to Ricardo Sallas III with 2:52 in the half. But the Braves, who had an apparent 12-yard TD pass from Rosen to Devin Fleming nullified by a holding penalty that was followed with an unsportsmanlike conduct call, would score four plays later on a 27-yard run by Anselem Umeh on a reverse to make it 42-14 with 54 seconds left in the half.

The Braves took the second-half kickoff to their 18 and score five plays later on McGrew's 47-yard run to initiate the running clock at 10:14.

"The big question this year was our offensive line," McGrew said. "People knew we had the skill position players to do it. We had a good week of practice. It was pretty crazy. We got here Monday and had a three-hour practice right off the plane. We knew our game plan and executed it and our offensive line just stepped up. There were a bunch of holes opened for me."



Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at [email protected].




Show your support

Every contribution, no matter the size, will help ScoringLive continue its mission to provide the best and most comprehensive coverage of high school sports in the state of Hawaii and beyond.

Please consider making a contribution today.

ADVERTISEMENT


IMAGE GALLERY



MORE STORIES

Punahou continues unbeaten streak, hands Kamehameha second straight loss

Third-ranked Warriors suffered consecutive losses in the regular season for the first time since 2017.

No. 4 Iolani rallies to hand No. 1 Kamehameha first ILH loss

Ethan Akagi and CJ Taira scored the winning runs for the Raiders off a wild pitch to hand the top-ranked...

Punahou pulls away from PAC-5 to notch first ILH win

The Buffanblu ended a five-game skid and broke into the win column to keep the Wolfpack winless in the...

Kalani's Nishigaya headlines All-OIA East selections

Forward/midfielder Kaiulani Nishigaya helped lift Falcons to first-ever league title; Kaiser's Noelani...

Trojans' Fuamatu-Maafala leads All-OIA West picks

Mililani's Iai Fuamatu-Maafala named Player of the Year; Campbell's James Curran named coach of the year.

Knights' Turcios named All-OIA East player of the year

Damon Turcios lone Castle player named to first team; Kailua's Joseph Wood named coach of the year.