The sequel was a success again for Saint Louis and not much fun for Narbonne.
It wasn’t quite so thrilling, but the Crusaders’ 47-7 rout of Narbonne (Harbor City, Calif.) could be filed under the clinical documentary category. For all four quarters, Saint Louis was relentless defensively, allowing only a 10-yard fake-field goal run by Steve Jenkins — the pigskin was arguably outside of the pylon as he leaped — in an otherwise stellar performance.
Saint Louis entered the game ranked No. 1 in the Star-Advertiser Football Top 10 and No. 12 in the MaxPreps Xcellent 25, as well as No. 14 by USA Today. Narbonne began the season ranked No. 24 in the Xcellent 25.
Last year’s 56-50 aerial circus, won by Saint Louis en route to its second state title in a row, bore no resemblance to this battle. Narbonne’s sophomore quarterback, Jaylen Henderson, threw three picks in the first half and was sacked five times.
“Saint Louis had size and speed coming at my sophomore quarterback (Henderson). He was just a little bit rattled and the game was fast. He got pressured and couldn’t make the throws, and that’s a credit to Saint Louis,” Gauchos coach Manuel Douglas said. “Henderson didn’t start as a JV quarterback last year.”
With some of Narbonne’s best players sidelined for five games — a CIF transfer rule — Henderson and his teammates made the best of it against a veteran Crusader defense led by defensive tackle Faatui Tuitele. The Gauchos finished with 32 rushing yards on 25 carries. Henderson and freshman Ashley Tucker Jr. were a combined 12-for-26, 125 yards.
“We’ve got to find ourselves a little bit. We’re a little bit inexperienced. The kid who’s my starter (quarterback Jake Garcia) has to sit out the first five games,” Douglas said, referring to the CIF’s transfer rule. “I’m not saying we would’ve won, but we would’ve done a better job throwing the ball, and they loaded up and blitzed us. They’re better than us. ”
When Narbonne visited last year, they already had four games under their belts.
“It’s our first game of the year, and it’s a learning lesson. That’s why we play these teams. There’s plenty of blame to go around and we’re not going to do that. We’re working toward our 15th game,” Douglas said.
Last year, Narbonne was 2-3 after the high-scoring loss at Aloha Stadium, then ran the table with 10 wins to take the CIF Single-A crown.
The visitors were in all-white uniforms from top to bottom with last year’s senior-heavy squad. They wore goldenrod yellow helmets and pants this time, a very Green Bay Packers kind of look.
“That’s old-school Narbonne. We went throwback. I wish we would’ve christened it with a win or at least a competitive game,” Douglas said. “I feel like we’ll turn it around. It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. We want to start better than we did tonight, but hat’s off to them. They did a great job and they’re a better team than they were last year. More physical, bigger size. Our speed was evident, but they did a good job corralling us. A couple of times we were able to get out there, but they overwhelmed us.”
Hawai’i should adopt this CIF transfer rule. Instead 5 games cut it down to the first 3 games. Too many kids transferring! All in all great win for the crusaders even though narbonne wasnt at full strength, the crusaders took care of business. On to next week showdown a rematch of the state semi final matchu up.
Narbonne’s best players are incoming transfers? So if they are sitting out due to transfering in, these players have yet to play in a Narbonne uniform. All the transfers are would be starters?
Jayden De Laura is only 1 year older than their qb but De Laura hasn’t played for 2 years
Lots of new names and faces on offense and defense for the Saints. They lost a ton of starters to graduation.
Narbonne First game but Saint Louis only had 1 game and starters only played 2 quarters.
Saint Louis represented Hawaii well.
Robocop
St. Louis did represent Hawai’i good. But when will St. Louis step up to the plate and travel to play teams like Bishop Gorman,mater dei or St. John Bosco in the mainland?
Great Job Boys and Coaches, awesome game!! Great play calling Coach Ron
Crusader Strong, G2G
Izzz Bishop Gorman was on the schedule instead of Narbonne, but there was a schedule conflict on Gorman’s part. Narbonne got the call to fill the spot and they jumped at the chance for a second chance.
The CIF transfer rule is the player must sit out in the first 5 games. It should be any 5 games in the season the player can sit out. These transfer rules is not thought out well enough by the CiF rule the people who is in charge. Narbonne lost a lot of key players due graduation they when on to play D1 College football. Narbonne reloaded with key players who transferred into the area of Harbor City Narbonne. The CIF rule should at least let the player choose which 5 games he sits out. These players transfer into Narbonne to play in these Nationally preseason games that get these transfers better. Narbonne is so dominating in league it would be better for Narbonne football and the player if the CIF rule whould let them sit out in league play. Let the transfer play in preseason and let them sit out in league play makes better scents. Well what could Narbonne do playing without their key players due to they have to sit out 5 big games? Loss by Dumb rule!
Izzzz St. Louis been giving invitations to the mainland teams to play for some reason Cal Lee phone remains quiet no responds no missed calls no voicemails… believe it or not the old man been doin this for the past 20-30 yrs.
LOL classic Saint Lulu and classic ILH. They want to play big names, but only on their own terms. They only want to play at home, and at the start of the season knowing that narbonne won’t be at full strength or full experience. Then they beat the pants off of that team and parade it around to other communities in order to recruit them away from their hometowns and families. This is what you voted for, OIA. This is what happens when you sell out your own schools. RRFL!
Envy-us much?
Robocop:
Yes, and most have D1 offers. They really missed their QB, Garcia starting a soph in his first varsity start. Narbonne still would have lost. St. Louis looked dominant like the old Prep Bowl days. It would have a 2 TD game.
Hopefully, this 5 game rule discourages what’s become free agency in So Cal. Nor Cal isn’t even close to as bad.
St. Louis would be on the 2nd tier of CA teams. Mater Dei and St John Bosco are way above everybody in CA. Nobody touches them. The top of the 2nd tier includes national powers De La Salle, Cent10, Mission Viejo and this year, Orange Lutheran. St Louis would be in this mix. Playing these teams on the mainland would be a great showcase.
Stop Hating. Saints will win it all this year and all you haters know that as why. From off Islandand always cheer for who represents my Island and State.
Hey Anywaaaays…. hate much?! OMG, really? Saint Louis has a proven record… they’re ranked nationally. Parade around their wins? They don’t need to…. everyone knows they’re the team to beat who are coached by an excellent coaching staff! #CrusaderStrong
Awesome job Kalaepohaku crew!
Petty scale pretty high on this thread!!
STL can only prepare for what’s in front of them. Bottom line, Narbonne did not show up to play.
STL enrollment pool does not reach out as far as Gorman, MD, Bosco (Economy, Geo isolation, Player marketing….figure it out people). Bottom line, what’s best for the student athletes and their families.
What’s very clear is players don’t leave Kalaepohaku for other opportunities, especially in Lee Bros Tenure.
Sol-Jay’s actions this past year clearly speak to negative energy out there on the North Shore. Too much criticism from a community whose main concern seems to be the all night town party after the state title win. Start truly backing the players AND THE COACHES! THERE IS NO STRENGTH WITHOUT FAITH!!!
All these jealous kahuku cry babies still talking lol. Stop trying to measure up to saint Louis lol , you guys have a lot more to accomplish to be like saint Louis. Remember , saint Louis is the the team that put kahuku on the map so thank the crusaders for that . And lastly , kahuku recruits also , guys from main land and the poly islands . Get a grip and grow up all you red raider wanna be’s who probably wasn’t an athlete at all. So shame
Lol, I hate St Lulu, but even I wouldn’t say they would be 2nd tier in California.
RRFL!
wow,grow up a little people….u guys are really arguing about high school football… these are peoples kids were talking about. #hawaiifootball #shame
Saints Assasin
Idk for sure, im not sure if you know the answer. But was Cal Lee willing to fly to vegas or cali??? Bosco and Mater Dei is like St. Louis they recruit the Best players in their respective state. St. Louis would be good to see how they would do against a team who recruits heavily as they do…
Coach cal lee wont travel to play teams like Bishop Gorman, bosco or mater dei. He was complaining dis year about playing at Kahuku. At least coach vae took the red raiders to vegas to play bishop gorman.
cal won’t ever play a mainland team unless the odds are stacked against them. he will never have the team travel to the mainland. he will never play a mainland team and full strength. all he wants to do his protect his inflated win total. most of his wins were racked up in a soft ILH league playing the same three or four teams over and over again. Soft league = soft mind = soft team. I can’t wait until they come out to the north shore to get licked. RRFL!
hahaha typical kahuku people complaining about high school football LMAOOO🤫😂
@anywaaaysss please just focus on your Red Raiders and stop wining about the nationally ranked Crusaders. Kahuku struggled offensively against Waianae so this Sept 7 game is not going to be close with STL dominating both sides of the ball. Practice up on your Haka as this is about the only thing that I can remember from the past couple state championships. Very entertaining fans!
I’d rather sit down and read all the kahuku haters hate on stl than watch Kevin Hart do a stand up comedy show, this is plain hilarious! LOLOLOL Its so funny how they’re arguing over HIGH SCHOOL KIDS… and better yet they’re just plain hating on their success!!
Stl been called out to coaches… yes we have to play them here… why?? Well back in the day when stl went to Vegas there was a whole controversy that went viral putting stl school to shame when the High School kids were caught with prostitutes and stuff in their rooms back in early 2000’s… that put a big shame on our school.. so ever since then, we have been banned, not by our coaches but by the stl board to even travel out of state… and playing at home or away.. why does hat even matter?? If a team is good they’ll ball out either way…
Also, have you ever seen stl people comment on articles about kahuku?? NOPE. So why does every stl article have to be commented on hatefully by these “kahuku fans”?? To me, y’all our biggest haters and fans.. LOL
Sept. 7……. I can’t wait to smash Kahuku & then look at the comments on Hawaii prep world like “stl just recruits #rr4l” hahhha so typical
STL 3 peat season
Why does it matter to travel? This isnt your normal bus ride road games.. you got to travel by plane that’s easily 5 hours, battle with the time zone change, being out of your element. Even the pros struggle with road games… St. Louis board dont got trust that kids wont do the school proud by syaying out of trouble? That says something about the Head Coach they have… every year Hawai’i high school travel. That incident happen almost 20 years ago. If it happens again. Then St.Louis football program seriously have a problem.
When STL traveled in the 90’s they had hookers and booze right? Hahaha maybe they don’t wanna deal with the distractions.
LOL…Narbonne HAS to say that = gives them a built-in excuse. They lost too many key players.
Good job St LuLu. Way to rep HI. Hopefully, you jump up to Top 10…It will make your upcoming loss to Big Red that much sweeter… (but if I were you I’d be worried about Millz first).
RRFL.
@TooMeke you should worry about your Red Raiders as they struggled offensively against Waianae (nuff said)
Every school in Hawaii will get killed by bishop Gorman or st john bosco.
rrforlifebaby:
St Louis would be 2nd tier in CA whether your opinion suppports it or not. The top of the 2nd tier has several nationally ranked teams. No shame in that.
There are only 2 teams on CAs top tier. Bosco and Mater Dei are simply at another level. For example, last year MD put a running clock on everybody but BG and Bosco. That included a section semifinal win vs previously unbeaten Mission Viejo, ranked 11th nationally.
When you put a running clock on the #11 team in the nation, you’re on a whole other tier.