Castle's Senituli Punivai finds some running room in the second half against Moanalua. Michael Lasquero | SL

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Sat, Oct 20, 2018 @ Mililani [ 7:30 pm ]

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Castle

28

Moanalua

14

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Castle (5-7-0)	3	5	6	14	28
Moanalua (8-1-0)	7	0	0	7	14

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Nick Au 152 yd 1 TD

Senituli Punivai 35 yd

Rudy Kealohi -3 yd 1 TD

Senituli Punivai 247 yd 3 TD

Rudy Kealohi 59 yd 1 TD

Paul Omenegbar 32 yd

MILILANI — All week unranked Castle embraced the role of the underdog and Saturday night it delivered a monumental upset.

Senituli Punivai rushed for a career-high 247 yards and three touchdowns on 37 carries and Raiden Wong recorded four of his team's six sacks to lift fourth-seeded Castle to a 28-14 semifinal win over previously-unbeaten and ninth-ranked Moanalua Saturday night.

A crowd of about 800 fans at John Kauinana Stadium saw the unranked Knights (5-6) hold top-seeded Na Menehune (8-1) to a season-low in points scored and total offense to punch their ticket to Friday's Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I title game.

"It's big time," Castle coach John Hao said after the win. "Nobody expected it. Nobody expected it, but our Castle kids wanted it. They knew what they were gonna accomplish and they did today."

Moanalua entered the game averaging over 36 points and 330 yards of total offense per game, but was held to just 156 Saturday night.

"My guys were prepared, they held their composure and they played hard. They played hard the whole game, all four quarters," Hao said.

Wong, a senior defensive lineman, set the Moanalua offense back 39 yards with his four sacks — two in each half.

"We just got down and did our job," Wong said. "We just did the work that we've been putting in all week. We just took what the coaches gave us from all their scouting and all the things to key on, we just used that to our advantage and we just executed the plays correctly."

The Knights also got several big plays from its special teams units throughout the night, starting with the opening kickoff.

After a short, high kickoff by Cheydan Costa was muffed by Moanalua's Jacob Copeland, Justice Ching recovered the loose ball for the Knights. It eventually led to a 32-yard field goal by Costa for the game's first points three minutes later.

About midway through the opening quarter, Moanalua recycled a Christian Sison interception into a 32-yard touchdown pass from Nick Au to Rudy Kealohi one play later to take the lead. Luke Palalay tacked on the extra point to make it a 7-3 Moanalua lead.

Early in the second quarter, Punivai flipped the field with a 67-yard, rugby-style punt that pinned Na Menehune at their own 5-yard line. Au got off a short pass to Javon Monico on the first play of Moanalua's ensuing possession, but a flag was thrown for holding to negate the gain. After a brief discussion, it was determined by the officiating crew that the penalty occurred in the end zone, which resulted in a safety and cut it to a 7-5 advantage for Na Menehune.

Costa lined up to try a 49-yard field goal with about five minutes left in the half, but the holder, Punivai, was unable to get a handle on the snap and was tackled for a three-yard loss. However, Castle's defense turned in a three-and-out and Costa eventually capped an eight-play drive with a 38-yard field goal from the right hash to give his team its first lead at 8-7 with 15 seconds left until halftime.

The teams exchanged three-and-outs on their opening possessions of the second half before Castle sustained a long, 10-play, 58-yard drive that took nearly five minutes off the clock and culminated with a 5-yard TD run by Punivai. That PAT was wide right and Castle clung to a 14-7 lead with 4:17 left in the third quarter.

Hao said the game plan was to wear down the Moanalua defense with a heavy dose of Punivai behind a wall of blockers.

"That's the reason why I put in the elephant (offense). I knew that our o-line was — they were feisty this past week — so we kind of decided, you know what, let's go with 10 guys in the box, one guy outside just in case we can throw the ball and take our shot."

The move paid off as the Knights rushed for 304 of their 365 yards of total offense, including 170 rushing yards after halftime. Ten of their 15 first downs by rush were in the second half. For the game, they averaged five yards per carry.

"First of all, I'd just like to give credit to our defense for giving us the ball back and my linemen for just giving me the opportunity to run the ball and get the yardage," said Punivai, who recorded his seventh consecutive game with more than 100 rushing yards.

Castle's lone interception came with 10:05 left in the game. Davie Keanu tipped an Au pass that was picked off by Ching, who returned it to the Castle 46-yard line. Three plays later, Punvai ran through a big role on the left side and away from the Moanalua defense for a 47-yard touchdown on third-and-3. Costa's PAT made it a 21-7 lead.

Moanalua got within a score on Kealohi's 16-yard TD run on a quarterback draw up the middle with 6:05 left to play, but Punivai put the game away with a 16-yard TD run to cap a 11-play, 80-yard drive. He carried on nine of those plays — including a 12-yard pick-up on a 3rd-and-7 and a 4-yard jaunt on 3rd-and-4.

The drive was kept alive by a 22-yard completion from Punivai to Jonah Figueroa on a 3rd-and-7. Figueroa worked against Na Menehune standout defensive back Trequan Henderson on the play. He worked his route downfield along the left sideline, turned back for the pass before ripping it out of the hands of Henderson to complete the play and move the chains.

Hao said the Knights were fully aware of the underdog role they played against Moanalua.

"Oh, we knew it. We knew it. Their record and how we've been playing all season, but you know, it's just a matter of if we execute, bottom line, and today our o-line and our defense and Tuli and everybody came to play. Even our receivers, when it really mattered on third-and-long, our guys went up and got it," Hao said.

The Knights rushed for 15 of their 20 first downs and were 7 of 18 on third downs.

Moanalua was just 2 of 11 on third downs and managed only 12 first downs, seven of them by pass.

Hao said the key was getting after Au in the backfield.

"For the last two weeks we've just been trying to tell the guys to play hard, and they come off the ball pretty quick, but when they get tired they start to slow down, so I told them, ‘Hey, either you're going to give up in the second or third quarter or you're going to play all four quarters and you're going to go home crawling,' " Hao said.

Wong and Braxton Wilcox had six tackles apiece to lead the defense.

Micah Kim posted a game-high 18 tackles, Keanu Kekawa had 14 stops and Tupu Alualu added 13 tackles for Moanalua.

Castle committed 16 penalties for 151 yards and Moanalua was flagged nine times for 99 yards.

The game was a rematch of a down-to-the-wire thriller back in week 2 of the regular season won by Na Menehune, 40-36.

Moanalua was seeking its first appearance in an OIA Division I championship game.

Castle will try for just its second league title and first since 2002.