Punahou defense denies Kamehameha

You can pick off Stephen Barber four times in a game. The Punahou quarterback will just pick another way to beat you.

Barber struggled with his passing but busted loose — and about five tackles — for a game-sealing 55-yard run in No. 3 Punahou’s 21-0 win over No. 5 Kamehameha on Saturday night at Aloha Stadium.

“I seen the opening and just adrenalin took over. I had some nicks and stuff, a little bit of bruises,” said the 6-foot-3 senior. “But I just seen the opening and I just took it.”

He finished with 114 yards on the ground to offset his 11-for-21, 124-yard, four-interception effort in the air.

It was the second straight game he sealed with a late jaunt — he put away Junipero Serra (Calif.) with a 99-yard breakaway for a 56-42 Buffanblu win in San Diego last week.

But it was the Buffanblu defense that held things together until backup running back Vincent Terrell’s 48-yard scoring scamper in the third.

Both teams’ signal-callers threw three first-half picks. The only score before the break was a 30-yard pick-6 of Brandon Baniaga by senior defensive back Tanner Ono in the second quarter. Ono hauled in two picks in the half.

“My teammate told me that he was going to do a hitch before the play even happened,” Ono said. “I just saw him hitch and I broke up on it.”

Barber was clearly thankful for the help. The first half ended on an intercepted Barber ball (by Kalamaku Kuewa) flung to the end zone. Three of his final four passes of the half were snared by the Warriors. Kuewa got one more in the third quarter.

But the Buffanblu defense held each time, helping earn Punahou (4-0, 1-0 ILH) its ninth straight win in the series.

“We gotta make it up to them this (coming) week,” Barber said. “They definitely held their own and a little bit more for us, especially with the offense slacking a little bit. … We’re proud of them and thankful.”

Punahou and top-ranked Saint Louis (3-0, 1-0) square off at Aloha Stadium next Saturday in the first of two regular-season meetings.

“We have a huge game next week with Saint Louis,” Buffanblu coach Kale Ane said. “We’re happy to have won this, a hard-fought battle, but we got a big game coming up.

“I was hoping we’d score a little bit more, but they played great defense and they capitalized on a lot of things we did wrong. I know they’re hurting at a key position.”

Kamehameha trotted out two quarterbacks, including freshman Kiai Keone, in the absence of injured starter Thomas Yam (elbow).

Kamehameha (3-2, 0-2) averaged 33.7 points in its three nonconference wins but was shut out for the second straight week of league play for the first time since 1990.

“It’s a day-by-day thing,” Warriors coach Abu Ma‘afala said of Yam’s injury. “So we made the decision to pull up a freshman, first freshman ever to play ILH varsity football, and the kid grew up right before our eyes tonight.”

Keone got picked once in the first half but none in the second and finished 8-for-20 for 51 yards.

Punahou sniffed out Kanoa Shannon’s running game, stuffing him for losses on his last three attempts of the half. Shannon busted a 45-yard run in the final period to help his numbers at 27 carries for 119 yards.

More photos of the game between Punahou and Kamehameha.