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The East side is about way more than grinding running backs.
A motley crew of East quarterbacks outshone Campbell’s Isaac Hurd and Radford’s Cody Lui-Yuen for a 20-7 win over the West in the Hawaii Union Builders Foundation Goodwill Senior Bowl at Mililani on Friday night.
Noah Brum of Kalani led the way with three touchdowns, two of them to Saint Louis receiver Devan Stubblefield, and combined with Moanalua’s Micah Kaneshiro and Kaiser’s Kahoalii Karratti to go 17-for-30 for 266 yards. Hurd and Lui-Yuen combined to go 18-for-47 for 214 yards
Stubblefield took over in his only shot at postseason play this year, beating Kristian Vaana-Kikuyama of Pearl City on a streak and hauling in Brum’s first throw of the evening for a 68-yard score. Castle kicker Ikaika Urasaki’s extra-point try was blocked.
"I was supposed to run a short route and I saw the coverage and I said, let’s take a shot," Stubblefield said. "The second one, that was on the goal line, I said, ‘Let’s go and make a play.’ Sure enough, we made a play."
Stubblefield went high over a doubleteam by Andrew Killen of Radford and Mata Leota of Mililani to snatch a jump ball from Brum in the corner of the end zone. Urasaki’s kick was true this time, and the East enjoyed a 13-0 lead at the half.
Brum was at Saint Louis two years ago, but they never really practiced together. You couldn’t tell by the way they hooked up on Friday.
"On big downs I told (Brum) check this side, check this side," Stubblefield said. "We all came out just ready to play. Coach (Arnold) Martinez said we have to win this for the East. We saw the lightning at the beginning of the game, oh, what’s going to happen."
Stubblefield finished with three catches for 88 yards.
The East defense ruled in the first half, limiting the West to 67 total yards, 57 of them by Hurd. He put the ball up 19 times in the first half and completed eight of them but was sacked twice. Farrington’s Motu Heimuli and Peter Sagapolutele each collared him and Kahuku’s Clifford Ramseyer came up with a fumble recovery on a bad snap to Kaneshiro.
East quarterbacks Kaneshiro, Brum and Karratti were 11-for-17 for 188 yards in the wet first half.
Neither team was allowed to blitz, but the East didn’t need it, stopping Hurd behind the line five times and Lui-Yuen twice. Of the West’s 22 running plays, half of them were stopped behind the line.
"I’m surprised. It’s touching," said Heimuli, the East’s defensive player of the game. "It’s our last game for high school and it’s good to know that we’re appreciated. People around Kalihi were saying we’re going to get smashed and that was our motivation to practice hard."
The East earned a cushion in the third quarter when Brum hit Moanalua’s Matt Bishop from 30 yards out and Urasaki added another extra point to make the score 20-0.
The West tried to come back in the fourth quarter when Hurd hit Mililani’s Bronsen Ader — the two were teammates at Campbell last year — from 60 yards out to spoil the shutout. Mililani coach Rod York tried an onside kick and it failed, but Killen got the ball back for the West with an interception of Karratti.
That added a little drama to the proceedings, but East defenders Fitou Fisiiahi of Kaiser and Joshua Ramelb of Moanalua came up with big plays to close it out.
Lui-Yuen nearly ended the game with a 35-yard touchdown run but was stopped short of the stripe.