Shawn Borges was the ultimate hero out of many who tried out for that role in the early football game at Aloha Stadium on Friday night.
Borges broke through a hole in the line to block an extra-point attempt by Pac-Five’s Tyler Fukuroda to preserve a 50-49 triple-overtime victory.
The win allowed the Monarchs (5-2, 3-1) to take over first place in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division II. A loss would have kept them in second place, behind St. Francis (2-1).
“I told (my teammate), No. 54 Shiloh Kaeo, that I didn’t think anyone out here can last this long,” Borges, a senior, said. “I was telling him that if he went in and blew the guard for me, ‘I promise you I’ll block this.’ He blew him up and I blocked it and I gave him props at the end.”
The back-and-forth game was tied 40-40 after Damien’s Kaimana Cameron kicked a 23-yard field goal at the end of regulation.
In the first overtime, neither team scored, but both teams hit field goals in the second overtime — Fukuroda from 43 yards and Cameron from 47.
“No difficulty at all because every day at practice, we do it as a team and kick those,” said Cameron, who wound up kicking the winning extra point and also came up with two interceptions. “So I’ve got to give props to my line for blocking for me.”
In the third OT, Damien scored on Marcus Faufata-Pedrina’s 20-yard TD pass to Justice White before Cameron’s point-after made it 50-43.
Back came Pac-Five on its turn in the third OT. Quarterback Ryan Johnson threw his seventh touchdown pass of the game — 15 yards to Travis Kaloa — to get the Wolfpack (2-3, 0-3) within one point before Borges’ huge block.
“It was close the whole game. It hurt when I saw that kick blocked,” Pac-Five’s Kealii Carvalho, a defensive stalwart all night, said.
Faufata-Pedrina rushed for 124 yards and threw for 244 and did not have an interception.
“I knew I just had to stay poised,” he said. “I’m the leader of the offense and a leader of this team. I knew we just had to stay calm and I had to lead my boys into the end zone. The biggest thing for us is finishing. All season we stepped on the gas pedal and let teams come back. Today, it happened again, but we finished hard.”
Johnson threw for 366 yards in the loss. Four of his seven TD tosses went to Kaloa.
Damien is done with its regular season. It can take the regular-season title if Pac-Five can beat St. Francis in the regular-season finale next week. If the Saints win that, the Monarchs and St. Francis will be co-regular-season champs with the single-elimination playoffs to follow.