Football
Williams, Buffanblu pounce on Knights early in lopsided win


Kalani Takase | ScoringLive
August 18, 2022, 9:41pm

  


Thu, Aug 18, 2022 @ Castle [ 6:00 pm ]

Punahou

42

Castle

0

Final 1 2 3 4 T
Punahou (9-2-0) 21 14 0 742
Castle (1-8-0) 0 0 0 00

KANEOHE — Alai Williams set the tone for the fourth-ranked Punahou football team Thursday night. 

Wiliams accounted for 133 total yards and two touchdowns, including a 69-yard scamper to the end zone on the first play from scrimmage, to lead fourth-ranked Punahou to a 42-0 win over host Castle in a non-league game. 

The Buffanblu improved to 2-0 on the season with their second shutout in as many weeks, while the Knights fell to 0-2, with both of their losses coming against Open Division teams. 

With the victory, Punahou eclipsed its win total from the pandemic-shortened five-game 2021 season, when it won its first game but dropped its final four contests. 

"It was a priority for us in the offseason to make sure that we had as robust a schedule as we could put forward for the players, so I think having some preseason games, having the opportunity to play different opponents — not just play the same opponents over and over again as we do once we get into ILH Open play — it's helpful for the growth and develop of our players," said Buffanblu coach Nate Kia, whose team was coming off of a 35-0 win at Moanalua last week. 

Williams, a 6-foot, 215-pound junior running back, didn't wait very long to make his presence felt against the Division-I Knights. On the heels of Travis Ross's 17-yard kickoff return to open the game, Williams lined up behind quarterback John-Keawe Sagapolutele, who had another back aligned to his right in Iosepa Lyman. Sagapolutele received the shotgun snap, then tossed it underhand to Williams, who turned the right corner and cut inside of two defenders before he ran away from the rest of the pack. 

"It was a pitch to the outside and I saw open field and I just took off," Williams stated. 

His touchdown run — only 19 seconds into the game — was about was good of a start that Kia could have hoped for. 

"It was a terrific start, obviously," he affirmed. "It was good for the rest of the team to know that we're going to come out firing and executing right off the bat."

Castle went three and out on its first possession before the Buffanblu drove 58 yards in 10 plays, capped by a 36-yard touchdown pass from Sagapolutele to Astin Hange on a fourth-and-2. 

On the scoring play, Hange hauled in a short pass from Sagapolutele just beyond the line of scrimmage. He then turned upfield and juked a pair of Knights near the left sideline on his way to the end zone. 

"Astin is a terrific player. He's really good in space; we get him the ball and he can do some dangerous things," Kia said of the 5-foot-9, 165-pound junior wide receiver. 

Following another Castle three-and-out, Punahou got a boost from its special teams unit when Travis Ross scored on a 41-yard punt return for touchdown. Ross broke a couple of tackles shortly after he fielded the punt and then utilized some downfield blocking before he leapt across the plane of the goal line from a few yards out. 

"That was pretty mean," Williams said of the score, which gave the Buffanblu a 21-0 lead with three minutes and 12 seconds left in the first quarter. "It got the team hyped on the sideline and it just kept us energized throughout the whole game."

Williams found his way back to the end zone with 9:12 left in the first half, when he caught a short pass out of the backfield from Sagapolutele and turned it into a 55-yard touchdown reception. Along the way, Williams hurdled over a diving defender at about the Knights' 20-yard line. 

"It was a swing (pass), then I just saw one guy downfield and I just wanted to hurdle him, so I jumped," Williams said. 

Sagapolutele finished 11-of-20 passing for 186 yards without an interception. His 15-yard touchdown pass to Noah Macaulay with 2:09 remaining in the first half, along with Jordan Kapisi's extra point, extended the lead to 35-0. 

The Buffanblu closed out the scoring with backup quarterback Ty McCutcheon's 12-yard TD pass to Luke Uechi with 7:55 remaining. 

Punahou finished with 462 yards of total offense, including 306 passing. It averaged 8.2 yards per rush. Williams was his team's leading rusher (five carries for 83 yards) and receiver (one catch for 55 yards). 

Castle, which was idle last week after a 26-6 loss to Waianae to open the season two weeks prior, was limited to 28 total yards and only three first downs. It was 1 of 8 on third downs. 

"Any time you hold your opponent to zero (points), it's a commendable job," Kia said. "We felt the execution was pretty crisp. (Castle) gave us some things to prepare for that were different than the last game and for the most part, the team executed the game plan real good."

Both teams continue non-league play next Friday. Punahou will visit No. 13 Waianae, while Castle will host No. 6 Iolani. 


Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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