KANEOHE — Roosevelt got the bounce-back win that it needed, although it required just about every last ounce of effort. 

Ioane Kamanao passed for 246 yards and the go-ahead touchdown to help the Rough Riders come away with a hard-fought 27-20 win over host Castle in an Oahu Interscholastic Association Division II football game Friday night.

A crowd of about 1,000 fans saw Roosevelt rebound from a road loss at Kaiser a week ago to improve to 5-2 overall and 4-1 in league play. The Rough Riders knocked the Knights out of sole possession of first place in the OIA D2 standings with two weeks to play. 

Castle had its four-game win streak snapped and fell to 5-2 overall and 4-1 in conference. 

"It's a huge win for us knowing where everybody sits in our division," said Roosevelt coach Kui Kahooilihala, whose team had its own string of four consecutive victories snapped by the Cougars just seven days prior. 

Friday's contest featured five lead changes, including two in the fourth quarter alone. 

Roosevelt held a 17-13 lead at halftime. After a scoreless third quarter, Castle pulled ahead one play into the final stanza on a 21-yard touchdown pass from Nai Kalauaokaaea to Noa Sebay.

However, the Rough Riders reclaimed the lead for good with 6:48 left in the game when Kamanao fired a quick pass to Williama Aarona in the right flat. The speedy wideout utilized a couple of blocks on the designed screen pass before he sped past the rest of the Castle secondary for a 58-yard touchdown. 

Following the PAT by Journey DePeralta, Roosevelt held a 24-20 advantage. Two plays into the ensuing Knights' possession, cornerback Kona Siamani intercepted a pass by Kalauokaaea and returned it inside the red zone. The Rough Riders were able to convert the takeaway into some insurance in the form of a 24-yard field goal by Peralta with 4:41 remaining. 

Castle had two final possessions in the closing minutes. It turned it over on downs on its penultimate drive, but got the ball back with just under a minute to play after a fumble for the Rough Riders. 

A pass interference penalty allowed the Knights to penetrate as deep as the Roosevelt 8-yard line and set-up, with four seconds left on the clock, the game's final play. 

On the last play of the game, Kalauokaaea was flushed out of the pocket to his left. He opted to tuck the ball and run with it, but his scramble came up short after he was stopped by Izaiah Nakamura at the 4-yard line. 

"Our d-line had that amazing pressure," Nakamura, a junior linebacker, recalled of the final sequence. "We were expecting them to go for that (downfield) shot, but we also know that that QB can run. With that amazing pressure from our d-line, I seen him coming out of the pocket and I knew I had to make a play on that."

Defensive back Bobby Sousa recounted his version Nakamura's game-saving tackle a few yards shy of the end zone. 

"Our d-line held it down, our (defensive backs) did good with coverage and made the (quarterback) roll out and our linebackers did the rest," Sousa said. 

It was Sousa who was flagged for pass interference on the second-to-last play. He felt the penalty was unwarranted. 

"I didn't think it was (pass interference). I was trying to be aggressive. I know that I had to hit him, if not he's gonna just body me, so I knew I had to just play press on him," Sousa said. 

Kahooilihala praised the effort of his defense, which limited the Knights to only 231 yards of total offense, including just 150 yards through the air on 9-of-26 passing by Kalauokaaea. 

"Our defense, they work every day, every day and bring the right effort and attitude. At practice they're so intense, competitive and the kids, they compete so I wasn't worried and the coaches on the offense wasn't worried," Kahooilihala said. 

"We kind of didn't want to make the game this exciting, but we kind of knew that if it's going to happen, it's going to happen. It's going to come down to this and we all have faith in the defense," he added. 

Roosevelt opened the scoring with a 28-yard Journey DePeralta field goal on its opening drive of the game. Castle pulled even and then took its first lead on field goals by Aztin Pitt of 41 and 39 yards, respectively. 

The Knights stretched their lead to 13-3 after a field goal attempt by DePeralta from 34 yards out was partially blocked near the line of scrimmage by Saumahe Haney-Tongotea. The ball ricocheted off of Haney-Tongotea and found its way into the hands of JHeart Sisra just outside of the goal line. Sisra found a seam up the middle and returned the blocked field goal 99 yards the other way for a Castle touchdown. 

However, Roosevelt scored twice in the final 2:52 of the first half to pull back ahead. 

Shaeden Sexton's 4-yard TD run cut the Knights' lead to 13-10 and on Castle's ensuing possession, a mishandled ball was fumbled on an exchange and recovered by Sousa, who returned it 43 yards for a scoop and score.

Sousa credited linebacker Taimane Souza-Fautanu for jarring the ball loose. 

"I was going for the hit, I was going for the tackle, but I saw (Souza-Fautanu) hit the ball out so I just ran, scooped it up, saw a big open gap — grass all the way — and I just took it," Sousa said. 

DePeralta tacked on the PAT to make it a 17-13 Roosevelt lead with 1:19 left until halftime. 

The Rough Riders finished with 339 yards of total offense. 

Jahsiah Souza-Armstead recorded eight receptions for 86 yards. Keawe Davis added six catches for 65 yards and Sexton carried 15 times for 55 yards in the win. 

Nakamura said he and his teammates were especially eager to hand the Knights their first league loss after they came up short in their 24-12 loss to Kaiser a week ago. 

"This was a real big win. This whole week at practice we been preaching to take them off the top — you know, they were four-and-oh and we wanted to make it a tie in our division — so the whole week we were just preparing and preaching to take them off the top and that's what we did tonight," Nakamura said. 

Roosevelt will close out the regular season against Kalani Friday and at Waialua on Oct. 25. 

Castle has games against McKinley and Kalaheo remaining. 

The top four teams in the final OIA D2 standings will qualify for the four-team league tournament.