The Punahou Buffanblu Varsity 1 football team won October 8th’s matchup against the Saint Louis Crusaders, by a score of 42-21. The teams had already played each other this season, with Punahou winning the first matchup 43-19. With this win, Punahou clinched the ILH Open top seed, and a bye in the first round of the ILH playoffs. 

With Punahou receiving the opening kickoff, Astin Hange ‘24 opened up the scoring for Punahou, with a 64 yard reception thrown by John-Keawe Sagapolutele ‘23. This was Hange’s 5th touchdown of the season. Jordan Kapisi ‘23 kicked the extra point to make the score 7-0.

On the ensuing kickoff, a pooch kick from Kapisi was recovered by receiver Dash Watanabe ‘25, giving the ball to the Buffanblu offense deep into Crusader territory. The drive was later ended by a Saint Louis interception. Aided by a facemask penalty on Punahou, Saint Louis’s offense was able to turn the takeaway into 7 points: Kekahi Graham ‘23 threw a 4 yard touchdown to Chyler Desilva ‘23 and Makena Kauai ‘25 tacked on the PAT, making the score 7-7.

On Punahou’s next drive, Hange had a 48 yard catch-and-run, which he took down to the Saint Louis 10 yard line. On the next play, Iosepa Lyman ‘24 took the ball 10 yards up the middle for a Punahou touchdown. Kapisi’s point-after put the Buffanblu up 14-7.

Special teams were a huge factor in the game, as when Punahou attempted an onside kick, Terahiti Wolfe ‘24 ended up with the ball, but the play was later called back for “kick catch interference”. Saint Louis ended up with the ball in Punahou territory, but Blayne Shiraki ‘24 later neutralized the threat by intercepting a pass in the endzone. 

Punahou’s offense then put together a 6 minute, 90 yard drive, deep into Saint Louis territory, capped by a Noah Macapulay ‘24 touchdown on an 8 yard catch. 

The Punahou defense later stopped Saint Louis, forcing a punt from the Crusaders’ Yosei Takahashi ‘23. The ball was downed at the Punahou 25-yard line, but that was not an impediment for the offense, with Punahou eventually driving deep into the Crusader redzone. Iona Purcell ‘23 came up huge, forcing two fumbles on the drive. The second was recovered by Joshua Sagapolutele ‘23, giving the Crusaders the ball back on their own 9 yard line. 

Saint Louis’s Takahashi followed up Purcell’s effort, with a 74 yard reception through broken coverage. Kauai’s point-after was good, making the score 21-14 with 4:30 left in the first half. 

Alai Williams ‘24 scored on a 3 yard rush for Punahou with 48 seconds left before half, pushing the Buffanblu lead to 28-14. 

To start the second half, Saint Louis drove down into Punahou territory but came up short on the 4th down, after a stop by Wolfe. Punahou’s offense turned right around and later scored on a 14 yard reception by Hange, after a 4th down illegal substitution penalty on the Crusaders. 

In the fourth quarter, Punahou’s Ean Kamau-Waikiki ‘23 caught a pass and scampered 42 yards down to inside the 10 yard line. This set up William’s second touchdown of the day, a 6 yard rush. 

The Crusaders ended up scoring once more before the game ended, but it wasn’t enough to erase the deficit. 

Punahou’ senior quarterback John-Keawe Sagapolutele ended the game with 24/33 completions for 414 yards and 3 touchdowns. When asked about the team’s performance he said “I’m just happy that we were able to secure the win for all of the seniors on our senior night. I’m so proud of the defense for holding it down, not letting them score, and our offense for punching it in every time we had the ball.” 

Punahou improved to 6-1 (3-0 ILH open) on the season and was scheduled to play at Kamehameha in the regular season finale (10/15 @ 7:00 pm).

St. Louis dropped to 3-4 (2-2 ILH open) and was scheduled for 3 weeks off before facing Kamehameha in the first round of ILH playoffs. 

This game was on Punahou’s senior night. The writers would like to acknowledge all of the Punahou seniors.

Varsity 1 Open: #3 Ean Kamau-Waikiki, #4 Kielan Siamani, #6 GianCarlo Rufo, #9 Luke Uechi, #11 Travis Ross, #12 Christian Kauhane, #15 Alexander “Alex” Yuen, #16 John-Keawe Sagapolutele, #19 Justice Wu, #28 Madison Ung, #33 Jordan Kapisi, #50 Hunter Hustace, #52 Landon “Kui” Eldredge, #57 Nathan “Nate” Rath, #67 Nicholas “Nick” Kaneshiro, #75 Skyden Hanisi.
Varsity 1-AA: #16 Leo Ogiwara-Akaki, #21 Makana Kapoi, #22 Justin Kwak, #31 Kai Erickson, #40 Noah Sagon, #47 Luke Lee, #87 Colson Falk, #88 Andre Ku.