St. Francis did what it couldn’t in the first meeting against Damien.
Leading by double digits at halftime, the Saints closed this one out with two picks in the second half and sophomore Jonan Aina-Chaves added a game-clinching 74-yard touchdown run in a 19-0 victory over the 10th-ranked Monarchs.
Samson Kaleikau intercepted a pass off a deflection late in the third quarter and Shepherd Kekahuna tracked down a pick in the back corner of the south end zone midway through the fourth quarter to give St. Francis (6-3, 4-2) its third shutout of the season.
Damien (7-2, 5-1) lost for the first time this season against a Hawaii opponent.
“Every game is important for us, so we played it like it was an important game,” St. Francis coach Kip Akana said. “Coming off the ‘Iolani loss, we couldn’t wait to get back out on the field and the boys did good today.”
The Saints held a 20-7 lead in the first meeting against Damien before surrendering 20 unanswered points in a seven-point loss.
St. Francis gave up five touchdown passes in a loss to ‘Iolani last week and was in danger of entering the ILH’s second round on a losing skid.
Instead, the defense contained Damien quarterback Marcus Faufata-Pedrina, holding him to 91 yards on 9-for-18 passing and 3 rushing yards on 11 carries.
“The guys stepped up and played very hard,” said St. Francis senior Wembley Mailei, who had eight tackles and a sack. “We really pushed each other to win this game for our fans.”
Quarterback Bubba Akana completed all eight of his throws in the first half and finished 11-for-15 for 197 yards.
His one scoring throw came on a 63-yarder to Scott McLeod, who broke two tackles at the same time and then raced down the right sideline for a 12-0 St. Francis lead.
Aina-Chaves, who had been bottled up for 60 yards on 16 carries, then put the game away when he got a pancake block from one of his offensive linemen that allowed him to get outside on a third-and-6 play for the score.
Damien ran 57 plays in the game with 39 carries and 18 pass attempts.
Senior Akila Arecchi was the Monarchs’ leading receiver with 53 yard on three receptions.
“We approached this like any other week and wanted to obviously win the game,” Damien coach Eddie Klaneski said. “We thought we were in a good place (on offense) to do things, but we just weren’t clicking the whole game. We just couldn’t get going and when we did we had turnovers.”
Damien will face Pac-Five on Friday at Aloha Stadium, while ‘Iolani will host St. Francis. The winners will play for the second-round title in two weeks. If the Monarchs win the next two games, they will clinch the ILH title and the league berth in the Division I state tournament.
