Punahou running back Wayne Taulapapa rushed for 164 yards and four touchdowns, including the game winner in overtime. Steve Erler | Special to SL

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HALAWA — Punahou running back Wayne Taulapapa rushed for 164 yards with four touchdowns — including the game-winning score — to help top-ranked Punahou outlast No. 2 Saint Louis in double overtime, 51-45 Friday night.

A crowd of about 6,000 at Hawaiian Airlines Field at Aloha Stadium were on hand to see Punahou notch its sixth win of the year. The Buffanblu also improved to 3-0 in Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division-I play and are one of two D1 teams that are still unbeaten statewide.

Saint Louis suffered its first loss of the season and dropped to 4-1 and 2-1.

Punahou drew first blood on Jet Toner's 39-yard field goal, but faced a deficit for most of the game after Saint Louis scored 21 points in the second quarter. The Buffanblu defense were able to hold Saint Louis to just one score in each of the the three periods after halftime and Punahou was able to rally for the win.

"I'm very proud of our team, they never gave up," said Punahou coach Kale Ane. "We were behind for what seemed like the whole game. They just kept the faith and the coaches and the kids kept believing in each other. It was a huge accomplishment to make stops when we did in the second half, which gave our offense a chance to get us back in the game."

The Buffanblu's final defensive stand of the game was an interception on Saint Louis quarterback Tua Tagovailoa on the first possession of the second overtime period. Tagovailoa tried to throw out of a sack with a shovel pass, but the pass was bobbed by Dylan Silva and plucked out of the air by Punahou linebacker Laakea Look. 

"Our coaches were making the right calls and we just get in the right spots to make the plays." said Look, who finished with four tackles. "I dropped back, cause I thought he was gonna throw it over the middle, and I just seen him falling. He kind of caught himself and the ball just ended up in my hands. It was crazy."

Taulapapa's 2-yard score on the ensuing possession gave Punahou the win in walk-off fashion. The senior running back also was responsible for the final touchdown in regulation, a 1-yard blast to make the score 38-all.

"I'm super excited, but super humbled by this experience," said Taulapapa, who gave a verbal commitment to play for BYU on Tuesday. "It all comes down to heart. Our team established the fact that we needed to win and we were able to pull out the victory."

Nick Kapule was making his second straight start behind center in place of the injured Ephraim Tuliloa (shoulder) and completed 26 of his 36 pass attempts for a career-best 328 yards and three touchdowns and two interceptions. He was picked off by Ronson Timbreza on his first throw off the game, but helped tie the game up twice with a 51-yard scoring strike to Keala Martinson early in the fourth quarter and a 9-yard touchdown pass to Ethan Takeyama in the first overtime period. 

Tagovailoa rushed for 72 yards and two scores and was 21-of-38 passing for 346 yards and a touchdown, but was intercepted twice for the first time in his career. Ryan Dominick had the other interception on Tagovailoa.

Toner's 39-yard field capped an 11-play drive after Saint Louis' Jacob Tobias missed a 36-yard field goal. Saint Louis had good field position after Kapule's first interception of the game, but a personal foul against the Crusaders' derailed the drive while Saint Louis was on the Punahou 1-yard line.

Tobias redeemed himself with a 37-yard field goal that punctuated a 12-play drive. This tied the game up at 3-all with 18 ticks left in the first quarter.

Saint Louis was able to force a punt on the Buffanblu's next possession and took its first lead of the game on Austin Tuisano's 1-yard touchdown run. Tuisano's scoring run was set up by a 49- and 28-yard receptions by Leeland Oasay.

Punahou answered right back with a 9-play drive that culminated in Taulapapa's first score of the game from four yards out, which made the score 10-all with 5:08 left before halftime.

The Crusaders got their next score of the game on a 7-yard touchdown run by Jahred Silofau. This was set up by Tagovailoa's 34-yard scramble on 3rd-and-14.

Saint Louis' final score of the first half came after Isaac Slade-Matautia blocked Toner's punt attempt. Tagovailoa missed the rest of the second quarter with an injury, but backup Chevan Cordeiro was able to throw a 16-yard touchdown pass to Drew Kobayashi to help give Saint Louis a 24-10 lead with 1:26 left in the first half.

Punahou went no-huddle on its next possession and was able to engineer a 7-play drive that ended on Kapule's 15-yard touchdown pass to Martinson in the back of the end zone. Martinson leaped over two defenders for the reception and appeared to have landed out of bounds, but the back judge signaled that the score was good.

Saint Louis led 24-17 at the break.

The Crusaders pushed their lead back up by two scores on Tagovailoa's 6-yard touchdown pass to Oasay on Saint Louis' first possession of the third quarter.

Taulapapa's second score of the game helped trim the Crusader's lead down to single digits with 3:18 with a little over three minutes remaining before the start of the final period of regulation.

The two teams traded interceptions on their next possessions before Kapule was able to hit Martinson on a deep post pattern for a 51-yard score.

Saint Louis quickly regained the lead on an 8-yard run by Tagovailoa that capped a 3-play drive. Tagovailoa scrambled for 19 yards on the first play of the drive and tossed a 53-yard pass to Lanakila Wilson a play later. Wilson did a good job of selling the catch as the stadium's replay monitor showed that it shouldn't have counted.

The Buffanblu turned it over on downs on their next possession, but was able to force a three-and-out to give them one last chance at tying the game. Punahou got the ball back on the Saint Louis 41-yard line and was able to get it down to the 1-yard line after a 6-yard reception from Takeyama, two scrambles for 24 yards by Kapule and a 10-yard run from Taulapapa. The senior running back's 1-yard blast made tied the game with 2:40 left in regulation.

Tagovailoa notched the first score of the overtime period from three yards, but had that costly interception in double overtime to aid the Punahou victory.

Saint Louis will have a short turnaround as they face No. 5 Kamehameha next Thursday while Punahou hosts Iolani on Friday.