HONOLULU — The Saint Louis Crusaders ended the controversy on the field.
After days of talk about the format of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu’s system to determine its football Open Division champion via a card draw followed by convoluted playoff, Saint Louis made it moot with a 33-9 win over Kamehameha on the Kapalama Heights on Friday night.
“I’m happy for the kids,” first-year Crusaders coach Tupu Alualu told KHON’s Christian Shimabuku on the field afterward. “We manifested this from March, when I got the job in February. I told the boys, we ain’t going to do anything but work with the guys that we have at Saint Louis. And that’s what we did.”
Senior running back Titan Lacaden helped the Crusaders (7-3) punch their ticket to the state tournament for the first time since 2021 by rushing for three touchdowns and catching one more. According to ScoringLive, the University of Hawaii commit compiled 146 yards on 25 carries, adding 26 more yards on four catches.
Earlier Friday, the ILH decided to move the game from the grass turf of Radford High to the artificial surface of the Warriors’ Kunuiakea Stadium due to the heavy rain that the former site absorbed this week.
Even prior to the relocation, some Saint Louis partisans were dissatisfied with the winner-take-all nature of the game, given that the Crusaders had won the ILH season first round and Friday’s game should’ve been for the second-round title based on ILH precedent of declaring distinct round champions who then face off for an overall title.
Kamehameha (5-4) also benefited from a random card drawing for a bye before the playoffs began.
Part of the confusion was that the HHSAA Open tournament is scheduled to begin next week and the ILH did not begin its playoffs early enough to guarantee a champion without having the HHSAA move back its opening round, which in the end was a nonstarter.
Saint Louis helped simplify matters by routing Punahou in the first playoff game last week.
“With all the adversity, the way they did all this, drawing cards, whatever it is, I don’t believe in all that crap,” Alualu said. “So, we were motivated for just moving the games. We’re all about that action. I’m just happy for the kids, for the parents, for the school. You know what I mean, we haven’t won in three, four years. It’s just the beginning. We’re going to close this ILH chapter, and we just gotta work to see who we play next."
It is expected that OIA Open champion Kahuku, which beat Campbell 33-15 for that title at Farrington on Friday night, will get the top seed in the HHSAA Open four-team bracket. Saint Louis is expected to get the No. 2 seed and face Campbell in the other semifinal Friday at Mililani.
Mililani and Kapolei will play 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Roosevelt to determine the fourth and final Open team in states.
Lacaden’s 1-yard first-quarter TD on a swing pass from Nainoa Lopes got the scoring started for Saint Louis. Kamehameha answered with a 50-yard touchdown run by Kamehameha quarterback Pono Kahaulelio, but that would be the last time the Warriors would find the end zone.
Jordan Nunuha caught a 6-yard scoring pass in the middle of the end zone for a 13-6 lead after a quarter.
Lacaden scored on handoffs from 1, 5 and 6 yards in the second, third and fourth quarters, respectively.
The Crusaders’ Kalai Lee and Roman Jarett recorded interceptions of Kahaulelio. Lopes was 18-for-27 for 250 yards and no picks for Saint Louis.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.