Punahou's John-Keawe Sagapolutele (16) completed 17 of 21 passes for 215 yards and four touchdowns to four different receivers against Saint Louis at Farrington's Edward 'Skippa' Diaz Stadium at Kusunoki Field. CJ Caraang | SL

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Sat, Sep 17, 2022 @ Farrington [ 7:00 pm ]

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Punahou

43

Saint Louis

19

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Punahou (9-2-0)	7	22	0	14	43
Saint Louis (4-5-0)	6	6	7	0	19

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Kekahi Graham 306 yd 1 TD

John-Keawe Sagapolutele 215 yd 4 TD

Keola Apduhan 15 yd 2 TD

Alaimaikekaimalie Williams 132 yd 1 TD

Titan Lacaden 147 yd

Astin Hange 111 yd 1 TD

KALIHI — John-Keawe Sagapolutele passed for 215 yards and four touchdowns and No. 2 Punahou got 11 tackles for loss from its defense in a 43-19 win over No. 5 Saint Louis Saturday night. 

A crowd of about 2,200 at Farrington's Edward ‘Skippa' Diaz Stadium at Kusunoki Field saw the Buffanblu (4-1 overall, 1-0 league) open its Interscholastic League of Honolulu Open Division campaign with their first victory over the Crusaders (2-3, 1-1) in nearly six years. 

Punahou snapped a string of 10 consecutive losses to Saint Louis. Its last win in the series came on Sept. 29, 2016 at Aloha Stadium by a score of 33-20. 

"We hadn't beat these guys in years, so yeah, it's definitely satisfying," said Buffanblu coach Nate Kia, whose team was coming off of a bye since a down-to-the-wire 27-20 loss at top-ranked Kahuku on Sept. 3. 

Sagapolutele, a senior quarterback, went 8-of-17 passing for 103 yards and two interceptions against the Red Raiders before he was replaced by backup Ty McCutcheon in the second half of that game. Saturday night, however, Sagapolutele reaffirmed his spot atop the Punahou quarterback depth chart. 

He finished 17 of his 21 pass attempts was was not intercepted. His four TD passes were to four different receivers. 

"He had an excellent game and we expect that from him. He was dialed in on preparation all week and he's been a tremendous captain for us this year," Kia said. 

Sagapolutele connected on his first four throws and was 12 of 16 for 151 yards and three touchdowns by halftime. He completed his final nine passes before he gave way to McCutcheon for mop-up duty in the closing minutes. 

"I think that's what we all expected. John's a dog and we knew he would bounce back and he did a great job; We're all proud of him."

Saint Louis led 6-0 after Keola Apduhan's 1-yard touchdown run with one minute and 50 seconds left in the first quarter. However, Travis Ross returned the ensuing kickoff 73 yards and a personal foul on the Crusaders was tacked on to the end of the run to set the Buffanblu up at the 12-yard line. Two plays later, Sagapolutele zipped an 8-yard TD pass to Justice Wu to tie it up. 

Kia credited Ross for the momentum-turning kickoff return that helped negate the steady mauka-to-makai breeze that Punahou was playing into for the opening quarter. 

"Well, any time — going into the wind, too — you have a terrific effort from Travis that helps and that's something that we've grown accustomed to, seeing Travis making big plays for our team, doing whatever we ask of him, whether it's special teams or defense," Kia said. 

Jordan Kapisi tacked on the extra point to give Punahou its first lead, but Saint Louis reclaimed the lead about five minutes into the second quarter after it recycled a Buffanblu fumble into a 34-yard TD pass on third down from Kekahi Graham to Jayden Peters-de Laura. The PAT missed wide right to keep the Crusader lead at 12-6. 

Punahou turned the tide of the contest just before halftime. It answered the Saint Louis scoring drive with a 10-play possession that covered 64 yards and culminated with Sagapolutele's 4-yard TD pass to Noah Macaulay with 2:27 left in the second quarter. Kapisi's PAT pushed Punahou ahead 14-12. 

Saint Louis drove to the Buffanblu 27 on its next series, but Graham was strip-sacked by Kekai Burnett on fourth-and-9 and GianCarlo Rufo picked up the loose ball and returned it 51 yards for a touchdown. 

"I saw Kekai Burnett — that's my dog — he punched it out and then that's my job to get contain, scoop and score and that's what I did," said Rufo, who totaled four tackles for loss and two sacks. 

But the Buffanblu defense wasn't done for the half just yet. On Saint Louis' next play from scrimmage after the Rufo fumble return, Apduhan had the ball jarred loose by Punahou's Josiah Kia and his teammate, Terahiti Wolfe, covered up the pigskin at the Crusaders' 20-yard line. 

One play later, Sagapolutele found Ean Kamau-Waikiki for his third TD pass of the half. Alai Williams ran in the two-point conversion that followed and the Buffanblu took a 29-12 lead into the intermission. 

Rufo said Kia kept the Buffanblu calm and collected when Saint Louis twice held leads in the first half. 

"Definitely. I think our coach did a good job of keeping us calm, keeping us cool and just reminding us that it's the little stuff we need to work on — missed tackles, missed assignments — so once we got that fixed, they didn't score on us again," Rufo said.

Saint Louis cut it the Buffanblu lead to 29-19 after a 3-yard TD run by Apduhan and Makena Kauai PAT just before the end of the third quarter, but Sagapolutele threw a 36-yard TD pass to Astin Hange a few minutes into the fourth.

Williams closed out the scoring with a 33-yard TD run midway through the final period. 

Hange finished with seven receptions for 111 yards and Williams tallied 132 rushing yards on 17 carries. 

"It's the ILH, we expected a tough battle and we got that early on and we were able to make some key plays to separate and be able to hold on for the win, but it was a battle right out the gate," Kia said. 

Graham threw for 306 yards on 27-of-35 passing in the loss. Lacaden recorded game-highs of 11 receptions for 147 yards and Chyler DeSilva added 10 grabs for 80 yards. 

Six different Punahou players recorded at least one tackle for loss. It tallied six total sacks and turned four defensive takeaways into 21 points. 

"I think we definitely saw their o-line was young," Rufo said "They didn't have much experience so we wanted to take advantage of that. We sent a bunch of blitzes and a bunch of different packages so that's what took care of business."

Opponents are averaging only 10.6 points and 227.2 yards per game against the Buffanblu defense. 

"With the defense we never know who's going to end up making a play when they all do their jobs. When they do their job, there's plays to be made and whoever needs to step up, steps up," Kia said. "They're a very close-knit group and they work really well together and they put in the work together. They were prepared, they were very focused this week in preparation for this game, so I think they saw the fruits of that."

Saint Louis, which was coming off of a 49-14 win over Kamehameha last week, was held to just 2 of 10 on third downs and 1 of 4 on fourth downs by Punahou.

"It feels amazing. It's nothing we didn't expect. We expected to come out and execute, we all did our jobs and I mean, it feels great to finally beat Saint Louis," Rufo said. 

It was the first of two scheduled meetings between the teams this fall. Punahou will host Saint Louis on Oct. 8 at Alexander Field. 

The Buffanblu will take on Kamehameha Saturday, while the Crusaders will have a bye next before they meet the Warriors on Oct. 1 at Kunuiakea Stadium.