Good things came in twos for Damien in a 16-7 road win at Kailua on Friday night.
Logan Lauti scored two touchdowns and Kyle Kinney intercepted two passes as the Monarchs outlasted the Surfriders in a slugfest.
Lauti’s first score was a 5-yard pass from Duke Ho’ohuli that broke a scoreless tie as the first-half clock expired. His second touchdown of the evening gave the Monarchs a two-possession lead with 9:59 remaining in the fourth quarter and proved to be the game’s final score.
In total, the junior finished with 234 yards of offense individually. He rushed 19 times for 115 yards and caught five passes for 119 yards, becoming the first Damien running back to pass the century mark in both categories in the same game.
“It gets a little tiring,” Lauti admitted of the workload. “But the coaches bring me out for a couple of plays and I’ll go right back in.”
Aperamo Sulu gave the Monarchs a powerful 1-2 punch in the backfield, carrying the ball 19 times for 101 yards. Sulu and Lauti became the first duo to rush for more than 100 yards each since Justice White and Marcus Faufata-Pedrina did so in 2015 against Pac-Five.
The victory keeps Damien (4-2 ILH D-I) in contention for the league’s lone Division I state title spot. But ‘Iolani is 4-1 and won the head-to-head matchup 30-19 on Sept. 15 at Aloha Stadium in the only matchup of the season between the teams.
After the Raiders play at Nanakuli on Saturday night, both teams will have two games remaining in the regular season. While the Monarchs currently don’t have control over their own destiny, they’ll still have control over everything else.
“I felt good, but it doesn’t stop here. We still got more games left and we’ll just come back tomorrow and grind,” Lauti said. “It starts tomorrow. We’ll correct our mistakes and get better from there.”
Viriliter Age