Saint Louis quarterback Jayden de Laura was on his way to the bus after the Crusaders’ 48-27 win at No. 4 Campbell on Friday night when the subject turned to the week ahead.
The top-ranked Crusaders had blazed out to a commanding lead against the Sabers then cruised to their 28th straight victory. Next up for Saint Louis — a showdown with Nevada power Bishop Gorman in a matchup of nationally ranked programs at Aloha Stadium.
“(Saturday) we’ll watch film and get ready for them,” de Laura said of the Gaels, who entered the week ranked 18th in the USA Today Super 25. “That starts now. We can’t live on this win. We didn’t play a really good game, but it’s over, we got that win.”
>> CLICK HERE FOR A PHOTO GALLERY FROM THE GAME
The Saint Louis-Bishop Gorman matchup is half of the Aloha Football Classic, with Mililani, ranked second in the Star-Advertiser top 10, hosting Liberty at John Kauinana Stadium. Bishop Gorman has won 10 straight state titles and opened its season Friday with a 40-7 win over Orem (Utah).
Saint Louis, the three-time defending Open Division state champion, began the season at No. 12 in the Super 25 and wasn’t seriously threatened in OIA-ILH Open Division wins over Kapolei and Campbell. Even so, Saint Louis coach Cal Lee wasn’t all that thrilled with the way the Crusaders finished Friday’s game in Ewa Beach after scoring on their first five possessions to take a 34-6 lead in the second quarter.
“It’s another team that we have to get ready for,” Lee said of next week’s matchup. “I don’t care who it was, if it’s Bishop Gorman or Kahuku or whoever, the things that I see out here we need to fix fast.”
Saint Louis’ defense helped fuel the early onslaught with a fumble recovery by defensive lineman Stanley McKenzie and an interception by defensive back Kamo’i Latu in a span of 18 seconds of game time in the first quarter to set up Crusaders touchdowns as Saint Louis built a 27-0 lead.
Saint Louis’ offense cooled a bit after the blazing start, but de Laura pushed the lead to 41-14 with a 15-yard touchdown run on his final snap of the night late in the third quarter. De Laura, coming off a 12-for-13 performance against Kapolei, finished the night with 22 completions in 37 attempts with an interception and four touchdowns, two each to receivers Matthew Sykes and Koali Nishigaya.
“(The Sabers) were throwing the kitchen sink at us,” said de Laura, who was 16-for-20 for 195 yards and four scores midway through the second quarter, “But with receivers like Matt, Roman (Wilson), you can get the ball off and let them make plays. Isaac Silva was doing great after the catch. Koali was amazing. Everyone sleeps on on him because he’s like 5-2.”
Officially, Nishigaya is 5-foot-6 on the roster, but continues to put up big numbers for the Crusaders. He ranked second on the team with 43 receptions last year, including four touchdowns, and caught a team-high eight passes for 89 yards with scores of 20 and 24 yards on Friday. The 6-foot-2 Sykes finished with three catches for 45 yards, two grabs going for touchdowns. Silva had seven catches for 86 yards.
But Campbell produced some fireworks as well after a ragged start.
Campbell quarterback Blaine Hipa ended the night with three interceptions against the Saint Louis defense, but also threw for 224 yards and four touchdowns, three going to Titus Mokiao-Atimalala, who caught nine passes for 89 yards. Mokiao-Atimalala, a two-way standout, left the game late in the second quarter after taking a scary hit over the middle, but returned in the second half and caught touchdown passes of 15 and 25 yards in the fourth quarter.
Zavier Ceruti caught a 15-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter and nearly came up with two more scores in the second half on deep balls from Hipa before the ball fell to the turf.
Practice hard next week boy’s Bishop Gorman expect’s a undefeated season this year and that say’s alot. There solid on defense but more importantly solid on offense as well which they weren’t saying so I wouldn’t underestimate them in the ranking’s. It will be a chess match that day for player’s and coach’s. I hope you all the best!!! Oh like that I think the guy with the ball can hayaku like mean fo open the play book like braddah man MCM did at milville the braddah is the key’s. Oline braddah man DL need time I no care wo eva in front of you that night you take um even if they like rush so work togeta and get some stuff set up fo that but fasta you make TD the betta gotta testum out on both sides fo see where like the movie when the guy when shoot the arrow at the dragons weak spot. But I think that night you gotto kill choke dragon’s fo get the gold at the end hehe.:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq2OJga3Hi0
Bishop Gorman looks like has some skill players……
https://lasvegassun.com/news/2019/aug/12/preseason-top-10-bishop-gorman-liberty-football/
……but not a lot of size……
https://www.bishopgorman.org/athletics/teams/football
Meant to say that……
…..Bishop Gorman looks like they have some skill players……but not a lot of size……
dont sleep on the size!!!!!! BG has some speed and skill. hope the game will be on TV and best of luck ST. LOUIS
BG is no joke! Can’t underestimate either team
At least maybe get some competition. Cooking shows better after halftime
Not on tv
Good luck to St Louis! BG is always good but I think we should smash them.
Also UH should sign Bubba Aina Chaves. That kid is a beast!
Gotta clean up some stuff, but I gotta say Saint Louis looks like the best well balance team out there. Yes gotta give it up to the Titus and Toa those kids are beast! Also Aina- Chavez, big props to him. He was doing all he could and was doing good blocking for Hipa. Botelho had a hard time getting to Hipa off the edge and that’s a fast big dude, but awesome game.
Good luck to Saint Louis! Go out and show everybody what Hawaii football is all about! The 808 got your back! #BeatGorman #HawaiiVsEverybody #StillRR4L
Stl goin get smashed.
Last time they played Gorman was up 55-0 at the half before they let Louis back in the game.
Gorman 59
Stl 14
I called it.
RenoDave,
Funny, in your head it was 55-0. In reality, it was 28-0 and it ended up a 12 point game. And that’s not even pointing out that in 2012, St. Louis wasn’t very good and got smashed multiple times versus Punahou. Kahuku blew out Punahou in the title game, so St. Louis was nowhere near the top of Hawaii football that year and still put up 40 second half points vs. gorman (the #1 team in nevada that year)
Looks like BG is legit this season……with lots of skill & speed…..though not much size.
If the Crusader pass rush doesn’t get home, the Campbell Saber game showed that the corners looked to be vulnerable against quality receivers…..as exhibited by Titus Mokiao-Atimalala…..as well as even Zavier Ceruti (who dropped 2 TD passes in the end zone).
Will be interesting to see what happens against BG if/when the Crusader pass rush doesn’t get home against mobile dual-threat QB Micah Bowens (a Penn State commit) [in the mold of UA QB Khalil Tate] leaving the secondary to contend with 6-3 WR Rome Odunze (a UW commit).
BG OLINE and Dline are all 300 plus bench and 400 to 500lbs squats they are strong they have world class weight room but they are only averaging 6’3 275 on the oline not the BIGGEST line and this is the fastest team I’ve seen since Tate Martell junior year athletics everywhere and a few didn’t play this week but will be back vs st Louis no need for orem can’t show everything and asked Eastside catholic line how good they are and they have #1 DT in the nation plus top recruits on oline and dline and Gorman beat up on them at camp and all the transfers gets cleared this week including the #1 RB in the nation and I expect a great game but think BG just alil better 35-24
Nevada Mike: I think if St. Louis can exploit Bishop Gorman’s relatively inexperienced secondary they can pull off the big win. I expect a high scoring affair.