Punahou's Jackson Faringer takes on a Damien defender on a carry attempt. Mason Asato | Special to SL

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Fri, Sep 5, 2014 @ Aloha Stadium [ 5:30 pm ]

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Punahou

52

Damien

6

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Punahou (8-1-0)	21	21	7	3	52
Damien (4-5-0)	0	6	0	0	6

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Dallas Labanon 82 yd 1 TD

Nicholas Kapule 257 yd 3 TD

Dallas Labanon 14 yd

Wayne Taulapapa 48 yd 2 TD

Kapiinaokala King 77 yd 1 TD

Micah Maa 100 yd 2 TD

HALAWA — For the second consecutive week, a new face started at quarterback for Punahou.

With starter Ephraim Tuliloa feeling under the weather, backup Nicholas Kapule stepped in and stepped up to lead the Buffanblu in a 52-6 rout of Damien in an Interscholastic League of Honolulu game at Hawaiian Airlines Field at Aloha Stadium Friday night.

Punahou, the top-ranked team in the ScoringLive/OC16 Division I Football Power Rankings, dominated all facets of the game against the Division-II Monarchs to improve to 2-0 on the season. Damien dropped its second straight game to fall to 1-2 overall and 0-2 in the ILH.

"He did great," said wide receiver Micah Maa, who caught a pair of touchdown passes from Kapule. "At the last minute Ephraim went home from school — he actually came to school — and so Nick did a great job filling in."

Kapule did all of his damage in the first half, completing 10 of 12 passes for 257 yards with three touchdowns. He completed his first five attempts for the game, but was intercepted on two of his next three throws — both by Damien's Jarin Manuel — before completing his last four passes.

"I felt like I did OK," said Kapule, a sophomore making his first career varsity start. "Those two interceptions were my fault, but I feel like we did pretty good as a team today."

Kapule said he found out he would be starting just a few hours before the game.

"Ephraim gave me a text (message) in math class earlier today and it was just surprising and it was just a great feeling knowing that I get to lead the team today," Kapule said.

Tuliloa, a junior, threw for 428 yards and six touchdowns in Punahou's season-opening 55-7 win over Saint Louis last week. It was his first career start as well.

Buffanblu defensive coordinator Agenhart Ellis was happy with his unit's performance against the Monarchs coming off the big win over the Crusaders.

"There's always concern of a letdown, but we worked hard this week to make sure that we got our kids together so that mentally we were ready for Damien," said Ellis, whose defense allowed just 119 total yards.

Punahou scored on its first two offensive possessions of the game — on a 13-yard Wayne Taulapapa run and a 39-yard Kapule-to-Maa pass play — before Kanawai Noa found the end zone after an electrifying 67-yard punt return. Noa received the punt from Damien's Cody Labanon outside of the left hash mark and weaved his way through traffic, tight-roping the right sideline en route to the end zone.

The score was 21-0 before the Monarchs got on the board with a 13-yard touchdown pass from Dallas Labanon to Kapiina King.

Taulapapa added a 1-yard touchdown run and Kapule threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Heisman Hosoda and a 61-yard bomb to Maa all before halftime to give the Buffanblu a 42-6 lead at the intermission.

Third-string quarterback Jackson Faringer played the entire second half — which was played under the 35-point differential mercy rule — and added a rushing score in the third quarter. Kicker John Toner was 7 of 7 on extra points and added a 31-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter to close out the scoring.

"It felt really good to get this win," Maa said. "We came out and we didn't underestimate Damien — that's a great team and they put up a great fight — I'm just proud of our boys."

The reigning three-time ILH champion Buffanblu have now won 13 consecutive games dating back to last season. Their last loss came in the 2012 state title game against Kahuku. Punahou hosts Saint Francis next Saturday.

Damien, the 10th-ranked team in the SL/OC16 D2 Power Rankings, will visit Kamehameha Thursday.