Kamehameha's Kealii Ah Yat threw for 206 yards and three touchdowns to three different receivers against No. 3 Punahou. CJ Caraang | SL

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Fri, Oct 1, 2021 @ Aloha Stadium [ 7:30 pm ]

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Punahou

28

Kamehameha

35

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Punahou (1-4-0)	7	7	7	7	28
Kamehameha (3-3-0)	0	7	14	14	35

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Kealii Ah Yat 206 yd 3 TD

John-Keawe Sagapolutele 97 yd 2 TD

Noah Bartley 108 yd 2 TD

Ean Kamau-Waikiki 36 yd

Sheyden Iokia 48 yd 1 TD

Astin Hange 30 yd 2 TD

Kealii Ah Yat passed for 206 yards and three touchdowns and Noah Bartley ran for 108 yards and two more scores to help No. 1 Kamehameha come away with a 35-28 win over No. 3 Punahou at Aloha Stadium Friday night. 

The Warriors (2-1) got a lot of help from their defense, which held the Buffanblu (1-2) to 186 yards of total offense, to record their second straight win and take sole possession of first place in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu's Open Division standings. 

Kamehameha overcame a pair of seven-point deficits in the first half with a couple of 14-point stanzas in the third and fourth quarters. 

"I think I just went in there (at halftime) and I just told them that we needed to match and exceed the intensity of Punahou, because Punahou was playing a very explosive game to that point and the coaches went in and made some great adjustments — and they've been doing a great job of that," Warriors coach Abu Maafala said. "The kids hung together, they weren't down, there was some resolve in them and they executed a lot better (offensively) than they did in the first half."

Ah Yat connected with Dwight Apao for a 2-yard touchdown pass to cap a 14-play, 62-yard drive that took more than six minutes off the clock in the second half. Winston Freitas tacked on the extra point to even the score at 14 with 3:37 left in the third quarter. 

The Warriors took their first lead minutes later on a 48-yard TD pass from Ah Yat to Sheyden Iokia, but Punahou tied it at 21 with a 77-yard return for touchdown by Travis Ross on the ensuing kickoff. 

Ah Yat's 21-yard scoring strike to Raiden Morris gave Kamehameha the lead for good with 8:35 to play. That score culminated an eight-play, 74-yard drive and made it a 28-21 advantage. 

The Warriors stretched it to a two-score game with Bartley's 15-yard TD run with 3:26 remaining. 

The Buffanblu got a late score on a 4-yard TD pass from Ty McCutcheon to Astin Hange to close out the scoring. 

Punahou was held to a season low in total yards. Junior quarterback John-Keawe Sagapolutele was just 10-of-23 passing with an interception for 97 yards. He sandwiched touchdown passes of 5 and 35 yards to Astin Hange and Peyton Macapulay, respectively, around a Bartley 5-yard TD run for Kamehameha to account for all of the first-half scoring. 

Maafala was quite pleased with the play of his defense, which held the Buffanblu to 238 fewer yards of offense than in their first meeting this fall. 

"Outside of that one big play (Sagapolutele's 35-yard TD pass to Macapulay), our defense did a great job of keeping their speedsters inside and in front of us," Maafala said. "I really liked what Punahou tried to do with running the football, but it took some time to adjust and we came out and ended up on top and I'm just excited and happy for the boys."

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Bartley's first TD run was set-up by Connor Hackbarth's interception off Sagapolutele. 

Kamehameha's first two possessions resulted in fumbles lost, both of them forced by Punahou's Tevarua Tafiti, a Stanford commit. 

Tafiti finished with eight tackles, 5 1/2 for losses and one sack. 

Reyn Asato racked up 11 tackles, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and a pass break-up to lead the Warriors' defense. 

"We just had the mentality to never give up," Asato told Spectrum OC16's Jimmy Bender. "Coaches always preach ‘one snap and clear,' so forget about it and just play. Even if it's a good play, you just gotta forget about it because it's in the past, so that's part of the mentality of never giving up and playing your hardest, because you never know what's going to happen."

Kamehameha recycled Asato's fumble recovery into the Ah Yat-to-Apao game-tying score. 

Apao started the game at quarterback, but finished it at receiver after Ah Yat entered the game early in the second quarter. 

Maafala said a leg injury Ah Yat sustained against Saint Louis last week was part of the reason for his coming on in relief of Apao. 

"He was a little banged up coming into the week and Dwight had a great week of practice. He came in at the end of the Saint Louis game and had two really solid drives where he helped us to hold the offense, so Dwight deserved to start," said Maafala, who also credited offensive coordinator Billy Borengasser for preparing both quarterbacks. 

"That's the beauty of what he and the offensive staff have done is they rep them, they rep them, they rep them and we felt confident with either one starting, either one coming in the game and they're both unselfish players, both of them understand what we're trying to do and it was a great job tonight by both of them," Maafala added. 

The Warriors were 8 of 11 on third downs, but also lost three fumbles in the win. 

Punahou was held to just 2.1 yards per rush and totaled just 55 yards rushing. It was penalized 13 times for 91 yards. 

Kamehameha drew seven flags for 78 yards. 

Alika Cavaco-Amoy had a team-high 10 tackles and a forced fumble for the Buffanblu defense, who recorded 10 tackles for loss in defeat. 

Punahou will look to end a two-game losing streak when it faces No. 2 Saint Louis Friday night at Aloha Stadium. 

Kamehameha has a bye next week before it concludes the ILH first round against the Crusaders on Oct. 15, but will hold a controlled scrimmage against Kahuku next Saturday at Farrington's Skippa Diaz Stadium. It was originally scheduled as a non-league game, but may be of even more value to the Warriors now that it's a scrimmage instead, Maafala explained. 

"Absolutely. I think, number one, it being downgraded to a scrimmage just allows for us — we never really had any developmental time for the bottom half of our roster — so it'll be good to get those guys some reps and if we're fortunate enough to go play in states, Kahuku is one of those teams we could face, so it's an opportunity to let our guys go against their guys and see what we can do, so I think it's a win-win for everybody," he said.