For the Punahou Buffanblu, the Tuileta-to-Noa era has begun.
Larry “Tui” Tuileta made his junior season-opener a remarkable one, while Kanawai Noa made his starting debut a memorable one. Tuileta connected with the sophomore for touchdown passes of 55, 5, 44 and 40 yards — all in the first half — as No. 2-ranked Punahou walloped West Anchorage (Alaska) 48-0 Friday night at Hugh Yoshida Stadium on the Leilehua High campus.
“They’ve been doing that to our defense every day at practice,” Buffanblu coach Kale Ane said. “West has a lot of good players, but they had to play both ways.”
Noa finished with six receptions for 176 yards before taking a rest in the second half and Punahou up 34-0.
“Well, most of the time, coaches are calling the plays. A lot of our young guys are stepping up and making plays. I’m really impressed with them,” Tuileta said. “We already run a no-huddle offense, but I kind of wanted to speed up the tempo so that we can catch them off-guard while they’re getting tired at the end of the first half.”
Noa agreed.
“It’s just like practice for us. Shout out to my offensive line,” said Noa, who is 6 feet and 170 pounds. “They were good the other team, considering they were going offense to defense, each side.”
Ryan Tuiasoa, a 214-pound senior, rumbled for 88 yards on 14 carries, and pulled in a 24-yard pass in limited action.
West finished with 66 total yards, including a number of botched shotgun snaps. Two punts went for 2 and 4 yards. That helped Punahou, which missed linebacker Isaac Savaiinaea (broken wrist) and Canton Kaumatule (tendinitis).
“We have such a young team, we didn’t know what to expect,” Ane said of his team’s first game of the season. “They made some mistakes. I’m a coach. I have to nitpick.”
Punahou got a 2-yard touchdown toss from backup Luke Morris to Dylan Cunningham for a 41-0 lead with 4 minutes left in the third quarter and the game went to a running clock (mercy rule) from there. David Torigoe recovered a fumble in the end zone for Punahou’s last score.
West Anchorage came to the islands ranked No. 3 in its home state, but nine players stayed back home. Then, all four starters in the Eagles’ secondary were benched for violating team rules. That left quarterback Conor Feckley starting at cornerback for the first time. They suited up 27 players, and a starting cornerback was injured on a kickoff return.
Feckley, who is also his team’s punter, almost never left the bouncy synthetic turf field. Neither did most of his starting teammates, who endured high temperatures and humidity well before the 4:30 p.m. kickoff. Before halftime, Punahou was clearly the fresher team.
“It was difficult, but that’s not an excuse. Punahou is a great program. I saw a lot of great things from our team. Our guys worked hard, but we were not ready to go both ways against an army,” West coach Tim Davis. “The heat didn’t help, but we would’ve had the same problem if we were playing back home.
“Their quarterback is a great talent. He made all the right passes. That one catch (by Noa) over the top, the arc on it was pretty cool,” Davis said.
“It doesn’t mean much for our playoffs, it doesn’t count for anything. We’ll have our guys back and I saw some amazing individual effort. What Conor did was amazing. Other than the scuffle before the end of the half, it was amazing effort.”
Ane expects his team to be ready to work hard this morning in preparation for the next nonconference battle.
“We play a team on the North Shore,” he quipped about meeting defending state champion Kahuku on its home turf. “We’ll probably start talking about it on the bus ride (back to Punahou). It’s just so great to be in that environment. We’ve scrimmaged there before, but I don’t think we’ve ever played there.”
Noa is confident, to say the least.
“It’s going to be a tough game, a rematch like states last year. I’m looking forward to it,” he said.
At Hugh Yoshida Stadium
| W. Anchorage (0-1) |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
— |
0 |
| Punahou (1-0) |
13 |
21 |
7 |
7 |
— |
48 |
PUN—Kanawai Noa from Larry Tuileta (kick blocked)
PUN—Noa 5 pass from Tuileta (Alex Trifonovitch kick)
PUN—Ryan Tuiasoa 1 run (Trifonovitch kick)
PUN—Noa 44 pass from Tuileta (Trifonovitch kick)
PUN—Noa 40 pass from Tuileta (Trifonovitch kick)
PUN—Dylan Cunningham 2 pass from Luke Morris (Trifonovitch kick)
PUN—David Torigoe fumble recovery in end zone (Trifonotitch kick)
RUSHING—West Anchorage: Nathan Sailele 7-23, Tulimasealii 4-17, Lincoln Dave Tuilimu 3-1, Lui Faamasino 1-3, Conor Feeley 10-(-5), TEAM 3-(-63). Punahou: Ryan Tuiasoa 14-88, Darreon Schwartz 4-18, Morris 1-(-1), Keanu Chee 1-(-13).
PASSING—West Anchorage: Feckley 8-22-0-90. Punahou: Tuileta 8-10-0-178, Morris 4-7-0-58.
RECEIVING—West Anchorage: Leroy Elliott 2-33, Eric Vandervort 2-30, Nathen Sailele 2-4, Tyrone Davis 1-21, Tulimasealii 1-2. Punahou: Kanawai Noa 6-176, Austin Sivik 2-18, Tuiasoa 1-24, Trent Sitar 1-9, Jesse Huang 1-7, Cunningham 1-2.
