By Wes Nakama
Determining an ILH Open Division football champion in recent years was not always a clean and clear-cut endeavor, but Kamehameha left no doubt this time after holding off visiting Saint Louis, 34-14, last Saturday night at Kunuiakea Stadium.
The Homecoming Night victory improved the Warriors to 4-4 overall and 3-0 in league play, with only one game remaining (against Punahou) on Oct. 31. The Crusaders fell to 1-6, 1-2, also with one game remaining against Punahou on Saturday. Thus the worst Kamehameha can finish in the ILH is 3-1, while the best Saint Louis can finish is 2-2, meaning the Warriors clinched the league title with last Saturday's win.
"It's done," said Kamehameha coach Kaeo Drummondo. "We needed it tonight, we didn't want to get back into that scenario where we gotta pay attention to next week just to see what our next game against Punahou on the 31st means. We didn't want an opportunity to slip from our hands. It's Homecoming Night, we gotta protect our house, protect our hill. The kids came out and executed well."
The Warriors won last year's championship only after first getting upset by Saint Louis and then beating Punahou a week later, and then finally clinching it when the Buff 'N Blue upset the Crusaders in the season finale on Nov. 1.
This time, Kamehameha took a 7-0 lead after Loea Keopuhiwa's 18-yard touchdown pass to Jayden Braun on the first play of the second quarter, but two possessions later, Saint Louis tied it at 7-7 when Eli Fonseca picked up a Warriors fumble on the left sideline and rambled 33 yards to paydirt. Pomaikai Kauka tacked on the extra point.
But on the ensuing kickoff, Braun fielded it at his own 20, shot through a seam and then sprinted up the left sideline all the way back to the house to give Kamehameha the lead for good. Tyler Fujimoto converted the extra point to make it 14-7 with 7:46 remaining before halftime.
"I gotta thank all my blockers out there," said Braun, a 5-foot-9 junior receiver. "I saw a big hole on the right and just hit it, and turned on the burners."
Drummondo said the kick return was "a game-changer."
"They (the Crusaders) could have taken the momentum," Drummondo said. "Most games, when you get a defensive score ... you're going to win, 70 or 80 percent of the time. So luckily, we followed it up right afterward with a special teams score to equalize it. I don't know what happened, I think the ball bounced and I don't know if the pursuit over-ran the ball ... but he was able to hit it up the seam and there was no one there. Most nights when Jayden hits the open field, not too many people are gonna catch him."
Nobody caught Braun on a post route late in the third quarter, when he hauled in a perfect 36-yard TD pass from Keopuhiwa. The PAT attempt was blocked, leaving the score at 20-7 with 3:46 left in the period. Then late in the fourth, the Warriors effectively sealed the victory with Keopuhiwa's 32-yard scoring pass to Loea Asuega-Stark with 2:50 remaining in the game.
Braun said after Kamehameha struggled on offense throughout a four-game losing streak earlier this season, he and other receivers put in extra work with Keopuhiwa on perfecting deep routes.
"When we had the bye weeks, we took advantage of that," Braun said. "We would try to get at least five verticals (passes) in each after practice."
Drummondo said the team saw opportunities on film, and also welcomed the return of some injured players.
"There's some things that we felt like we wanted to take advantage of, that ended up paying off," Drummondo said. "And this was our first night where we had our (original) projected starting offensive line actually take snaps together -- first time all season, in Game 8. So there were a couple things that just came together for us, we played a sound game and the scoreboard reflects it."
Defensively, the Warriors limited the Crusaders to 137 yards of total offense -- 81 passing and 56 through the air.
"We gave up some stuff, I thought it was good on their part when they went tempo on us," Drummondo said. "We kind of got a little helter-skelter in the middle (routes), but we told them that teams are gonna do that, it's a good strategy. We just gotta be ready."
Kamehameha now has one more bye week before facing Punahou on Oct. 31, followed by the HHSAA Open Division State Tournament in November.
"Now we can kind of take a breather, figure out how we want to approach the Punahou game, and get ready for States," Drummondo said.
MAHALO TO OUR SPONSORS
for helping ESPN Honolulu celebrate and share the pride, passion, and unforgettable moments of Hawai‘i high school sports.
