Punahou QB Nick Kapule calls out a play from the line of scrimmage. John Lujan | SL

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Fri, Sep 23, 2016 @ Aloha Stadium [ 7:45 pm ]

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Kamehameha

15

Punahou

42

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Kamehameha (3-6-0)	0	7	0	8	15
Punahou (7-3-0)	21	7	14	0	42

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Nick Kapule 298 yd 4 TD

Justice Young 94 yd 1 TD

Nick Kapule 54 yd

Kanoa Shannon 38 yd 1 TD

Eamon Brady 101 yd 3 TD

Chris Ah Mook Sang 71 yd

HALAWA — Risk management is Nick Kapule's specialty.

Kapule, a senior quarterback, threw for 298 yards and four touchdowns — three of them to wide receiver Eamon Brady — and did not turn the ball over to lead Punahou to a 42-15 win over Kamehameha on a humid Friday night at Aloha Stadium.

The Buffanblu, who are ranked third in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Division I Power Rankings, threw for 321 of their 439 yards of total offense and never looked from from a 21-0 first quarter lead. They improved 4-1 overall and 3-1 in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu.

Although Kapule completed just 14 of his 25 pass attempts — both regular-season-low marks — none of the southpaw's misses were in dangerous spots.

"He works hard at that; he's pushed every day in practice," Punahou coach Kale Ane said of Kapule. "He makes great decisions. He knows when to throw, he knows when to move around in the pocket."

The 6-foot-2, 190-pound Kapule also rushed for a game-high 54 yards on four carries — all of them on scrambles.

"Today was one of the few times that he actually ran downfield and we were yelling at him to get out of bounds, but he always makes good decisions and we're very, very lucky to have someone like that," Ane said.

Kapule's first run — a 21-yard scamper along the left sideline — moved the chains on a 3rd-and-6 play in the game's opening minutes. Three plays later — on a 3rd-and-10 — he lofted a pass to Brady, who came down with the over-the-shoulder grab in the right side of the end zone for a 14-yard score.

Enoch Nawahine punched in a 2-yard touchdown to cap the second Buffanblu possession a few minutes later.

Brady, one of four starting senior receivers, pulled down four receptions for 101 yards. All three of his touchdown catches from Kapule came before halftime. Just before the end of the first quarter, Brady made another over-the-shoulder catch on a Kapule floater before breaking two tackles on the 42-yard touchdown.

"I was actually a little surprised Nick threw that to me, but once I caught it I just tried to make a play and luckily it happened," Brady said.

Punahou built a 21-0 lead after the first quarter, much to the delight of Ane.

"You need to do that, because (Kamehameha) is going to roll and they're going to take the clock out and force us to have smaller amounts of time, so it's very important to get some early success going with the offense," the 18th-year Buffanblu coach said.

Brady's third TD grab came on a 30-yard fade from Kapule with just over a minute left in the first half. It was set-up by a Kamehameha fumble just two plays prior that was forced by Marist Liufau, and recovered by Miki Suguturaga at the Warriors' 22-yard line.

The Buffanblu held a 28-7 lead at the intermission. They padded it with a pair of Keala Martinson touchdown receptions in the opening minutes of the second half.

Martinson was on the receiving end of a 25-yard scoring strike from Kapule, who beat the oncoming Kamehameha blitz with his throw down the right sideline.

"Nick had pressure in his face all night, but he was able to put the ball in good spots where he was letting us (receivers) make a play, so I think he did a great job tonight," Brady said.

Martinson added a 23-yard TD pass from backup quarterback Stephen Barber just 62 seconds after his last score. That gave Punahou its largest lead at 42-7 and activated the running clock with 9:45 still left in the third quarter.

Neither Kapule nor Barber were dropped for a sack by the aggressive Warrior defense.

"They did a great job against Saint Louis; they put a lot of pressure on them, so we really worked hard at protecting the quarterback and doing the best we can — they're still going to get through at times — but I thought the (offensive) line played really, really well. They gave us time to make things happens," Ane said. "The risk when you blitz is you're in man coverage and we were able to take advantage of that a couple of times."

Martinson finished with game-highs of five catches for 109 yards and Ethan Takeyama added five receptions for 95 yards for Punahou

Kamehameha's scores came on a 1-yard run by Kanoa Shannon late in the second quarter and a 4-yard pass from Justice Young to Jaykob Cabunoc in the closing seconds of the game. Young, who came in in relief of starter Thomas Yam, finished with 94 yards on 8-of-13 passing with an interception. Yam was 5 of 12 for 57 yards.

Ola Aina intercepted a pass for Punahou and helped set-up a pair of first-half touchdown drives with punt returns of 16 and 30 yards. He also recovered a late Kamehameha onside kick.

The Buffanblu finished with 19 first downs to 17 for the Warriors, who were a mere 3 of 12 on third-down conversions.

The Warriors dropped to 2-4 overall and 1-3 in league play.

Punahou can pull even with division-leading Saint Louis (5-0, 4-0 ILH) with a win when the teams go head to head Thursday at Aloha Stadium.