Johnny Wilson | Special to SL

Purchase image 1 of 2

Leilehua's Kona Andres passed for 241 yards and 3 touchdowns in a win over Castle. Johnny Wilson | Special to SL

Purchase image 2 of 2

Fri, Sep 4, 2015 @ Castle [ 8:00 pm ]

---

Leilehua

27

Castle

26

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Leilehua (3-6-0)	13	7	0	7	27
Castle (3-6-0)	7	7	0	12	26

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Willie Ewaliko 293 yd 2 TD

Konapiliahi Andres 241 yd 3 TD

Quinn Aquino 26 yd

Justice Aranio 26 yd

Kainalu Moya 99 yd

Ty Keough 118 yd 1 TD

KANEOHE—Leilehua held off a feisty, tenth-ranked Castle squad, 27-26 to claim their first win for the 2015 season on Friday night at Castle High School. The Mules improve to 1-3 overall, 1-2 league while the tenth-ranked Knights fall to 2-3 overall, 2-2 league.

"I'm proud of the guys, they grew up tonight. What's more important than the win is these guys pulling together and dealing with the adversity and the mistakes we made," said Leilehua coach Nolan Tokuda.

"We fell short tonight and it was a game of blown opportunities. Leilehua played good enough to win and took advantage and capitalized on our mistakes and I was disappointed we couldn't give them a better game," said Castle coach Nelson Maeda.

The Knights managed to tie the game at 20 with 4:54 remaining in the fourth after Willie Ewaliko threw a fade to Jeremy McGoldrick for a 9-yard touchdown, but the snap was botched on the PAT. Ewaliko threw for 293 yards on 26-of-50 passing, two touchdowns, and three interceptions for the game. McGoldrick caught seven passes for 51 yards and Kainalu Moya led the way with 99 receiving yards.

"I think Willie got his rhythm in the second half because the first half he struggled a little bit and they put the pressure on us," said Maeda.

Leilehua got a good return to their own 49-yard line and two plays later, Andres found Keough for a 42-yard touchdown and Connor Murakami's PAT made it, 27-20. Keough led all receivers with five catches for 118 yards.

The Knights caught a break after Caleb Retuta intercepted the ball, but the Mules were called for roughing the passer, giving Castle new life. In three plays, Ewaliko connected with Paki Tyquiengco for a 43-yard touchdown, but Ewaliko's kick went wide right as the Knights trailed, 27-26.

Castle forced a turnover and recovered the fumble, but could not capitalize on it as Ewaliko threw an interception to Asher Ray Palomare. The Knights' defense held tough forcing the Mules to punt and received the ball back on their own 45-yard line with 20 seconds left on the clock.

"They (the defense) leads us and we're going to ride their shoulders for now and get better on offense," said Tokuda.

After two straight incompletions, Netane Muti notched his second sack to seal the game as the clock ran out. The Mules defense forced five turnovers and had sacks from several players.

Kona Andres passed for 241 yards on 25-of-38 passing, three touchdowns and two interceptions for the Mules.

"We got a young guy and when he settles down and start trusting his teammates, he'll be fine," said Tokuda.

Andres threw a 13-yard touchdown to Hoaka Costorio Carvalho for the first score. Ewaliko threw an interception to Charles Watson, but Leilehua gave back the ball as Tyquiengco intercepted Andres.

The Knights redeemed the turnover for points as Ewaliko snuck it in for a 1-yard run and his PAT tied the game at 7.

Ty Keough returned the ensuing kickoff 89 yards and the Mules defense recovered a fumble and scored four plays later after Andres found Anthony Ugalino for an 11-yard touchdown to make it, 20-7.

Tyquiengco caught his second interception of the game and returned it 35 yards for a Castle score as the Knights trailed, 20-14 going into halftime.

The Mules had more than 15 penalties for over 154 yards for the game.

Leilehua will hope to carry the momentum as they take on Waipahu (1-3 overall), while Castle will travel to Laie to take on fourth-ranked Kahuku (3-0 overall). Both games are on Friday, Sept. 11.