By Wes Nakama

In an entertaining and spirited "Battle for Houghtailing Street," Damien pulled away from host Farrington, 34-16, Friday night at breezy Skippy Diaz Stadium.

Tonga Tuifua completed 22 of 28 passes for 253 yards and four touchdowns and Wyatt Ho-Williams caught five passes for 136 yards and two TD's to help the Monarchs improve to 1-3. Quarterback Kenzo Kawai rushed for 116 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries to lead the Governors, who fell to 0-4.

Damien held a 14-0 lead at halftime and went up, 20-0, on Tuifua's 36-yard scoring pass to Ho-Williams just over two minutes into the third quarter. Farrington finally broke through the end zone on Kawai's 6-yard keeper, and he added a two-point conversion run to make it 20-8 with 2:50 remaining in the quarter, The Govs then closed it to 20-16 after Kawai's 48-yard gallop to paydirt followed by Lexzyah Faumui's two-point conversion run with 51 seconds still remaining in the third quarter.

But the Monarchs answered with Tuifua's 20-yard strike to Oli Steinhoff with 9:35 left in the game, and effectively sealed the victory after Jonah Wong's 10-yard scoring run with 2:29 on the clock.

"The last three games, we faced adversity, but we were able to come together as a team and our seniors pulled the team together and said, 'We gotta lock in and go finish the game,' " Damien coach "Bones" Tuitele said. "It was good to see, after the previous three games, how we faced adversity."

The Monarchs wasted little time getting started after the opening kickoff, scoring on the game's third play from scrimmage after Tuifua completed a pass to Ho-Williams near midfield, with Ho-Williams then deftly eluding a tackler and bouncing outside and sprinting to the end zone for a 72-yard touchdown. Ray Almeida's extra point made it 7-0 with just a minute and 43 seconds gone by.

Farrington capitalized on a short punt on the ensuing possession and advanced to the Damien 12-yard line, but lost a fumble on second-and-1. The Monarchs then responded by marching 88 yards in 12 plays, culminating in Tuifua's 7-yard scoring pass to Dreden Kaawaloa. Almeida tacked on the PAT to stretch the lead to 14-0 with 5:56 remaining in the half.

Then in the third quarter, the Governors lost another fumble three plays after the second-half kickoff and two plays later, Tuifua found Ho-Williams all alone on the left side of blown coverage, and Ho-Williams easily trotted to paydirt for a 36-yard score. The extra point attempt failed, leaving the tally at 20-0 with 9:46 still to play in the third quarter.

"We're a young team, there's a lot of stuff we're learning," Farrington coach Mike Lafaele said. "The first three games were rough for us. But we got better. (The Monarchs) have speed, but we weren't disciplined enough to handle that speed. Our guys were there, but we were taking bad angles. But we stayed locked in, trusted the plan and trusted each other."

The Govs regrouped and were able to move the chains behind a unique "Elephant" package featuring a tight formation and Kawai running a read option attack.

It worked nicely throughout a 12-play, 69-yard drive capped by Kawai's 7-yard TD run and two-point conversion to make it 20-8 with 2:50 left in the third quarter. After Damien lost the ball on downs near midfield on the ensuing possession, Farrington scored one play later when Kawai found a big opening on a quarterback keeper and dashed 48 yards to the end zone. Faumui's two-point conversion run then closed the margin to 20-16 with 51 seconds still to play in the third quarter.

"In our normal offense, we tried to do a bunch of stuff, but we had too many young guys and too much confusion," Lafaele said. "We've always had (the Elephant package), we ran it against Waipahu. And we figured against a smaller opponent like Damien, we could have some success. And we did. But we just gotta clean up a bunch of other things."

The Monarchs grabbed the momentum back on the next series, covering 79 yards in eight plays culminating in Tuifua's 20-yard touchdown pass to Steinhoff, who made a nice catch in a tight window and kept his two feet inside the paint. Almeida's PAT expanded the lead to 27-16 with 9:35 remaining, and then after the Governors went three-and-out on the ensuing possession, Damien went 66 yards in eight plays capped by Wong's scoring run to effectively seal the victory with 2:29 left.

"We had to make little adjustments, and our kids and our coaches made those adjustments and stepped up," Tuitele said.

Lafaele said despite the loss, Farrington did show signs of improvement.

"We got better tonight," Lafaele said. "We just gotta keep working."