Moanalua’s dream season under first-year head coach Savaii Eselu continued Friday night.

Playing in front of their home fans, Na Menehune (5-4) locked up a spot in the upcoming high school football state tournament by pulling away from Castle for a 49-7 victory in the first round of the Oahu Interscholastic Association playoffs.

The Knights (4-5) were hanging around and within striking distance at 14-0 until late in the third quarter, when Moanalua took control.

It will be Moanalua’s first time playing in a state tournament above the Division II level and it will find out next week whether it will be in the new Open division or Division I. By virtue of the win, Na Menehune advance to play Kapolei in the OIA quarterfinals next week.

“It’s a great opportunity,” Eselu said about meeting the regular-season OIA Red champion Hurricanes (7-1). “It’s no secret what they’re all about. It was a close game (early) tonight. Castle had a great game plan and were confusing the heck out of us. We couldn’t figure out what was going on. After a while, things started clicking on the ground and in the air.”

Trailing 14-0, the Knights drove deep into Moanalua territory before halftime and again early in the third quarter but couldn’t put points on the board.

“That was a crucial point in the game,” Castle coach Nelson Maeda said. “(Then) we ran into a buzzsaw and we had some blunders and it ballooned after that. Moanalua was on it.”

The Moanalua running game came up big on this night. Usually, it’s through the air with quarterback Alaka’i Yuen. This time, Yuen kept the drives going and gave it to backs Brandon Bender and Bronson Louis-Merry, who had two rushing touchdowns each in the second half.

An 81-yard interception return by Jacob Ramelb in the third quarter also served to put an end to Castle’s season.

“We fought hard, but couldn’t put it together,” said the Knights’ Ezekiel Rombawa, who had two sacks of Yuen. “We really wanted to move on. I thought we would give Kapolei a good game and I thought we would give Moanalua a better game.”

Castle’s only touchdown came in the fourth quarter. After a series of Na Menehune penalties, backup quarterback (and former starter) Jaylen Uyemura-Lee hit Keola Lewis with a 4-yard touchdown pass.

Yuen finished with 201 passing yards and, by his standards, was low on his TD passing output with just one — of 24 yards to Ryan Ramones (10 catches for 110 yards) in the second quarter for the 14-0 bulge.

“We know Kapolei is going to be a tough team,” Yuen said. “We did pretty good tonight and had some little mistakes in the beginning. We just gotta clean it up and get ready for Kapolei. It’s a blessing. We knew we were going to go far. It’s only the first round, so we have a lot more to do.”