MILILANI — The Open Division title game will feature two of the state's blue bloods of prep football. 

With its come-from-behind 27-24 win over Campbell Saturday night, Saint Louis punched its ticket to the First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA state final, where it will meet longtime rival Kahuku for all the marbles. 

The Crusaders (8-3) rallied from a 14-point first-quarter deficit against the Sabers (9-2) behind a herculean effort from Titan Lacaden, who racked up a 216 rushing yards and scored three touchdowns. 

A crowd of about 3,500 fans at John Kauinana Stadium was on hand to see Saint Louis make its first return to the state tournament in three years a successful one. It will be playing in the championship game for the first time since 2021. Saint Louis last won a state title in 2019. 

"Definitely looking forward to it a lot," said Lacaden, who was a freshman when the Crusaders fell to the Red Raiders in the 2021 final, 49-14. 

"To be back in the (championship), facing the same guys that I did in my freshman year, it feels great," Lacaden added. 

Lacaden got Saint Louis on the board with a 3-yard touchdown run with 6:53 left in the second quarter. He found the end zone on the direct snap behind the left side of the offensive line to cap an 18-play, 79-yard drive that took 6:57 off the clock. 

The Sabers held a 24-12 lead after three quarters, but Lacaden kept the Crusaders within striking distance with his 2-yard TD run on third and goal. On the scoring play — which came three plays after Hashley-Kingston Siliado kept the drive alive with a 20-yard completion from Nainoa Lopes to convert a fourth and 13 — Lacaden changed directions on a dime behind the line of scrimmage and found a crease off left tackle for the touchdown.

"Oh yeah, he's a baller, man. Sometimes he does things that I never did see before," sophomore linebacker TJ Alualu said of Lacaden, a University of Hawaii commit. 

Lacaden's second touchdown run finished off a 12-play, 75-yard drive. After Makena Kauai tacked on the extra point, Saint Louis cut the Campbell lead to 24-19 with 9:58 to play. 

Three plays into the Sabers' ensuing possession, a fumble was recovered by Alualu for Saint Louis at the Campbell 24-yard line. 

"On the sideline we were just staying positive, saying that we gotta make another turnover and we made it happen," Alualu said. 

The Crusaders cashed in the takeaway for Lacaden's third touchdown of the night just five plays later. He carried on all but one play on the scoring drive — for a combined 21 yards — including a key six-yard pick-up to move the chains on a third and four. On the touchdown itself, Lacaden made two cuts to the outside before he leapt for the front left pylon to complete his hat trick. 

After it turned the ball over on a pair of interceptions near the goal line, Saint Louis opted to keep the ball in Lacaden's hands much more often via wildcat formations and direct snaps. 

Lacaden had seven carries for 50 yards by halftime, but registered 20 carries for 161 yards in the final two quarters, an average of more than eight yards per attempt. 

"He's the guy. I mean, if you're gonna go down, you're gonna go down with the guy. He knows that," Saint Louis coach Tupu Alualu said. 

Lacaden's 10-yard TD run put his team ahead by the slimmest of margins, 25-24. Lopes completed a pass to Siliado on the two-point conversion that followed to give the Crusaders a three-point cushion with 7:15 remaining. 

Campbell's final possession began at its own 24-yard line, but ended with a punt from near midfield with just under five minutes to play. The Sabers never got the ball back as Saint Louis picked up a pair of first downs and ran out the clock. 

Campbell entered the game averaging nearly 44 points and more than 410 yards per game offensively, but was held to only 238 total yards by the Crusaders. 

The Sabers capped their first two possessions of the game with Brystin Sansano touchdowns. His 2-yard touchdown plunge on third down opened the scoring a few minutes into the contest. Sansano doubled up his team's lead with a 6-yard TD run off right tackle to culminate a 12-play drive that covered 85 yards in 6:01. 

On the final play of the first half, Campbell added to its lead with a 48-yard field goal by Jadyn Parker. It was the longest field goal made in the eight-year history of the Open Division state tournament. 

The Sabers led at halftime, 17-6, but Saint Louis needed just three plays out of the intermission to inch closer. Lopes completed a short pass to Siliado, who carved his way through the Campbell secondary on his way to a 28-yard touchdown. 

Saint Louis pulled to within 17-12 with the touchdown, but Campbell answered with a 75-yard touchdown return by Rusten Abang-Perez on the ensuing kickoff. Parker's PAT made it a 24-12 lead for the Sabers with 10:07 on the clock in the third quarter. 

Campbell posted 206 yards of total offense in the first half, including 168 through the air from quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, but a rib injury to the standout signal-caller kept him out of the second half. The Sabers' offense sputtered without the state's all-time passing leader. They managed just 32 yards and three first downs over the final two quarters. 

"I don't really remember what it was. I think it was that second drive when we were driving down, I stepped up, I tried getting a couple yards, I got hit and it just started getting worse and worse," Sagapolutele said. 

As the teams were warming up for the second half, Sagapolutele was seen wincing while attempting to throw the football. Ultimately, the discomfort proved to be too much for the prolific southpaw to overcome. 

"I just remember taking each drive and my breathing — I couldn't really breathe and my rib was just getting more sore and sore and I couldn't throw the ball and I didn't want to be a hindrance to the team and the coaches and it was better if I just sat out and we just trusted in our backup quarterback," Sagapolutele said. 

With Sagapolutele out, the Sabers turned to junior Brayden Medeiros, but he completed only five of his 11 passes for 39 yards and was sacked three times. 

Sagapolutele, a verbal commit to Cal Berkeley, got emotional when asked about being relegated to a spectator in the second half of what proved to be his final prep football game. 

"It's probably one of the toughest things I've ever had to do, especially knowing I couldn't do anything from the sideline but just support. I wish I could have done more, but due to my rib, it was all bruised, I couldn't even throw the ball so I'm just grateful for the boys for just a wonderful season and just I was truly blessed to have a great year with these guys. It's all glory to Jesus, always," Sagapolutele said. 

Among those who embraced Sagapolutele during the postgame handshake line was Lacaden, a childhood friend from their days playing youth football together. 

"I wish he was able to finish out his senior year playing and I always wish him the best," Lacaden expressed. 

Saint Louis finished with 403 yards of total offense, including 271 rushing. 

Mahana Alameda led the Crusaders defensively with six tackles, including three behind the line of scrimmage. 

Zechariah Alualu-Tuiolemotu and Aisiah Paogofie registered seven tackles apiece and Antonio Casto had six tackles with one interception for the Sabers. Zairus Tuzon-Salvador also came up with a pick and three tackles in the loss. 

Campbell was seeking only its second all-time appearance in a state final. It beat Iolani by a score of 28-7 in the 2004 Division II title game. 

The Sabers dropped to 0-6 all-time in Open Division state tournament games. 

"It's always (tough). Nobody wants to end this way. We want to stay on the high and keep getting higher, but hats off to these kids and they worked hard," Campbell coach Darren Johnson said.

After a 9-0 start, the Sabers saw their season come to an abrupt end with losses in back-to-back weeks, including a 33-15 defeat at the hands of Kahuku in the OIA championship game just seven days prior. 

Saint Louis will take a four-game winning streak into the state final, which will take place on Nov. 29 at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletic Complex at UH-Manoa. 

Since an 0-2 start to their campaign this fall, the Crusaders have won eight of their last nine games in their first year under Alualu, who replaced Ron Lee following the 2023 season. 

"I played here at Saint Louis under the Lee brothers and I know the recipe to do what we do and to be where we're at now, for the kids to work hard with God's plan, the journey that we've been through — I told them this week that we're just one game away from the dance, so I'm just proud of all my players and coaches," Tupu Alualu said. 

The Crusaders opened the season with a narrow 14-13 loss to Kahuku at Carleton E. Weimer field on Aug. 10. The teams will face off in the rematch 111 days later. It will be the 11th time in the state-championship era that they will meet in a title game. 

Kahuku has captured 11 state championships, including the last three, while Saint Louis has won seven state crowns, including a string of four straight from 2016 to 2019.