John E. Velasco Stadium – Titan Lacaden and the Crusaders ran away with this one.
The Punahou Buff ‘N Blue suffered a tough 50-14 loss against the Saint Louis Crusaders. This defeat brings the Buff N’ Blue to 3-5 in the ILH and creates a three-way tie with Kamehameha and Saint Louis in the ILH’s second-round title race.
A huge 29-point outburst in the 2nd quarter by the Crusaders put this game out of reach by halftime. Saint Louis running back Titan Lacaden totaled over 200 rushing yards and scored four touchdowns.
It was a different story for Punahou as they struggled to keep up with Saint Louis on the scoreboard. The Buff and Blue defense gave up big plays time and time again. The loss resulted in a three-team playoff creating even more chaos in the ILH Open Division.
Monday’s card draw provided more excitement to the season’s end, setting up a high-stakes rematch between Punahou and Saint Louis. The winner will advance to face Kamehameha in the second-round title game. The Kamehameha Warriors received the bye week.
“There wasn’t very much that went well for us in the game. We struggled heavily on defense to stop Saint Louis’ run attack and prevent explosive plays. On the offensive side of the ball, we were actually moving the ball pretty decently but had some crucial mistakes during the drive, preventing us from getting into scoring range,” said kicker Carson Beard ‘25.
Punahou will now need to flush Saturday’s loss and quickly regroup as they prepare to face the Crusaders once more.
“If we can clean up our assignments on defense and eliminate the small miscues on offense, we should be able to put up a much better performance the second time against Saint Louis,” Carson Beard ‘25 said.
If Punahou wants to run the table and ultimately win the state championship, it must start now.
The rematch takes place on November 1 at John E. Velasco Stadium.