Recent history repeated itself in Saint Louis’ shortened 28-0 victory over Kahuku at Aloha Stadium on Saturday night.
The No. 1 Crusaders, winners of the last three state championships in the Open Division, dominated despite playing just a half of football. Before last year’s meeting in the state semifinals, Saint Louis and Kahuku had never played in mercy rule conditions.
Saturday night’s game certainly appeared to be heading in that direction before a 15-minute delay occurred at halftime. A handful of the lights in the stadium bleachers went out, and after an extra 10-minute warm-up period, Saint Louis coach Cal Lee and Kahuku coach Sterling Carvalho met at the middle of the field with officials and decided to call the game.
Unfortunately for Lee, he isn’t new to this. His team’s 2016 season opener at Mililani was cut short when a transformer blew at John Kauinana Stadium.
“As coaches, we agreed that if we’re talking the safety of our players and everything, to make a decision,” Lee said of the matchup against the Red Raiders on Saturday night. “And we agreed (to call it off). It was mutual.”
Lee and Carvalho were told there were no guarantees that the lights wouldn’t go out at some point during the second half.
“Mother nature. You cannot control the elements. Coach Lee and I were saying what’s first and foremost — the safety of the kids,” Carvalho said. “That’s what the discussion was about. The bottom line was what’s best for our players. It’s out of our control and we don’t know. We just want our kids to be safe, go home and be safe for the rest of the year as well.”
As for the two quarters where the two teams were able to compete against each other, what Carvalho saw was straightforward.
“Saint Louis is the defending champions. They are a top-10 team in the nation,” Carvalho said. “There’s a lot we can do better and a lot we can learn from this game even though it was a half.”
For two quarters, the Crusaders were in full control on both sides of the ball. Mason Taliulu and Jason Cruz each had short rushing touchdowns, while speedsters Roman Wilson and Koali Nishigaya hauled in touchdown passes from Jayden de Laura.
De Laura in particular had another impressive showing in a senior year full of them. He completed 14 of his 19 passes for 156 yards and added 47 yards rushing on six carries, showing impressive escapability on multiple would-be sacks. His first half produced a full game’s worth of highlights, placing himself even more prominently in the state offensive player of the year discussion like many noteworthy Crusader quarterbacks who have come before him.
“Yeah, I’m bummed, but we live to play another day,” de Laura said. “That’s good. We can go back, practice tomorrow, everyone’s kind of healthy so we can go back and work on our mistakes.”
Saint Louis’ defense was equally dominant. Star linebackers Jordan Botelho and Nick Herbig each had a sack, and the unit as a whole held the Red Raiders to 56 yards of total offense.
“We’re all hungry. We were waiting in that locker room to come out after halftime and just bring it again,” Herbig said. “It is what it is. We’re just happy with our first half play and we’re ready to go back.”
Lucky they called the game at half….we were about to make our historic comeback!
Looks like my friend 88 is missing in action 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
A five receiver formation at Kahuku? REALLY? The offensive game plan was really “offensive “. They talk about learning from this game. All last season they tried this to no success. Their “if you first don’t succeed add another receiver” hasn’t panned out. Even an idiot eventually learns from his mistakes. I lack a term for this abnormal retromingent behaviour other than it’s smelly, distasteful and moving us backwards. As a minimum we expect a game plan were the athletes have a chance to be competitive.
Good Job LOU!
They need to ban St Lulu from playing in the state. They have destroyed the competitive balance of Hawaii state high school football. They can play other win-at-all-costs high school football programs on the mainland, like Bishop Gorman and John Bosco.
I thought St Lulu got rid of Cal Lee back in 2001.
Just look at the photo in this article. It shows the prime property, the 50 yard line. Nobody at the game. That’s what happens when you have a tam that recruits so much that no other team has a chance.
I remember back in the 1970s, we would draw 15,000 fans to Friday night high school games. Auwe!
kahuku was on the verge of making a comeback (anyone who knows football could see that kahuku was starting to get it together) and somehow, CONVENIENTLY, the lights go out and the ILH homer refs call the game. classic “coach” cal lee. only plays when the deck is stacked in his favor. we play anyone any time, any where, any place, mainland, at our house, at aloha stadium, anywhere.
Saint louis doesn’t even want to travel mainland to play becuse they know as soon as they stop winning, nobody is gonna want to go to their school and them and the rest of the ILH like punahou and kamehameha will shut down their schools because of lack of students. it’s so sad how these “schools” only care about football and will destroy communities by recruiting to keep them down
Notes: Hilo was beating Waiakea 80-0 at halftime and they still came out to play. The leader/coach of Kahuku quit. The mentality there is no longer what it used to be. Once a powerful program is now a pop warner offense because the coach lacks identity in what he wants to do. Stl broke Kahuku to the point where the coaches wanted to take the buses home early and that’s just facts.
mahatma, i agree. it’s so sad that high school football used to be about communities and supporting the kids. now it’s just about recruiting and money. we need to take a stand now against the ILH and the saint louises. this is not the hawaii i want my kids to grow up in
Notes: Leave. They don’t have to grow up here. It’s the way football is. Be happy for these kids who get recruited. Do you realize that when scouts come to watch players, their opponents benefit also because they too get evaluated by collegiate scouts. This is more than high school football and it’s a shame you don’t realize this.
These coach’s and boy’s work so hard in the off season they would like to show something for there hard work playing some type of championship at the end. I suggest a different type of State championship where the top four in the open plays for the open state championship which everybody will know the top four in the open means your the best top four in the state regardless. Fifth place or a playoff from open fifth and six winner play’s the champion from D1 in the state championship and the same type of playoff’s for D1 who will play the champion from D2 in that state champioship. This will give the boy’s something to look and strive for at the end!!!:)
Quitters, if you have Div 1 football potential,they will find you no matter where you play. Sama Paama was recruited to play Div 1 football from Kaimuki. Kaiser had the top recruit in the state 5 years ago.
I have no problem at all with recruiting to make your team competitive. It’s the excessive recruiting that destroys the competitive balance of Hawaii state football that I have major problems with. St Lulu has crossed way over the line in football and Iolani to a lesser degree has done the same with basketball. They recruiting volleyball too now.
I am good friend with a both newspapers 1st team ILH All-Star from St Louis back in the 1970s. He tells me St Lulu quietly pushed out Cal Lee back in 2001. When I asked him why they did that, he just hesitated and gave me a look that said he told me more than he should have and wasn’t comfortable adding any more
Mahatma: I call bs with whatever your “friend” said. Hear say is all it is. Of course talent will be found but I’m saying it gives kids without a lot of tape to be seen by scouts in person. Everyone needs to stop complaining about recruiting and ask themselves why kids want to leave there own programs to play elsewhere. The problem is not StL. The problem is the origin of where these kids come from. I wouldn’t want my kids playing for a team that quits at halftime and for a community that only shows up when the team is doing good. Nobody cares to speak the truth here.
Sore Losers The Red Raiders only bring the fans if they can win?
Notes/Mahatmau – I agree that the crowds were larger in the past, but you can’t blame that on StL. Late game, pouring rain and its televised, plus a number of other large events were last night. And you can’t use that picture without the back story that the Stadium was only seating on the Makai side, Kahuku was on the visitor (Mauka side)…
If parents, like myself are willing to pay for our kids education vs a free education, then those parents of public school students should point the fingers and accusations at the DOE/school officials….there are only 2 kids who claim Laie as their hometown on our team…maybe the school or community should raise money to send coaches to get professional development classes – maybe at a big college, UH or something…
Red Raiders played hard, but the team seems limited on what it was able to execute (not much passing).
When Kahuku loses, they blame the coach, the offensive play calling, recruiting, the ILH, the bus ride, weather, the full moon, Donald Trump, the heat in Africa, Bigfoot…..etc.
Just be supportive of the coaches and players, and represent your community with pride…even during a loss.
To be honest, it doesn’t matter what kind of offense they would’ve ran last night. Their opponent was just far too superior.
@Mahatma Ghandi,
Sir, you are the biggest whiner on here.
You can:
1) Stop watching STL play.
2) Focus on D2 where the games are more competitive.
3) Leave Hawaii and move to another state where the games are more competitive.
You are the most bitter and salty person on these blogs. No one forces you to pay attention to STL football. You choose to follow them.
Physically dominated? The coaching staff was mentally dominated. They have been trying to run this offense for two seasons now with limited success. The 400+ rushing yards in the Campbell game must not be good for them. They rather pass and achieve an minimum amount of success. Making excuses is the worst form of condescening a bad behavior. Does it really take this long to figure out a solid offensive plan.
Crusaders are too Big, too fast and too strong. Next!
No get to big head my friend be humble there’s alway’s someone out there who can match or surpass the competion remember that. You wouldn’t hear that type of talk from a good ambassador of the sport. We only playing ourselves down here this island is a speck on the globe lol next will be Mater Dei or St.John’s I guess HEHE!!!:) We move forward we do it right!!!
@ T. Au, anyone on the field could see Kahuku was getting physically dominated. The score represented that. It was 28-0. It could have been much worse. One more half of that would only put some Kahuku kids in a physical situation they did not need to be in. This game projected to be something like 49 or 56 – 0. That is a mauling.
I’m just curious as to what kind of offense you folks complaining about the Kahuku offense want them to run? (No pun intended) STL was putting 7 and 8 guys in the box!! Why Campbell didn’t do that I have no idea.
@ Notes – you cracking me up with that “comeback” talk
@Mahatma Ghandi wow…you clearly give St. Louis too much credit here. You forget that St. Louis went through a few years of losing and losing badly. Why all the hate?? Because they are on top that’s why. Support your team that’s fine but how large of a student body do you think they really have? My son’s graduating class was 94 students. I chose to send my sons to St. Louis not because if it’s football program but because it is an all boys catholic school (The last left here on the Oahu). I made my sacrifices to keep my sons in St. Louis and like majority of the parents, we do it for our kids. Does the other schools like Kahuku, or Mililani not recruit? If you think that they are not, then you really don’t understand the dynamics of football these days. I am a proud St. Louis supporter and have been for over 20 years…I will continue to support them when they do fall and we all know that they can’t stay on top forever….until then, just let me know and I’ll call you a Whambulance.
Another ( * ) win for StL. ( * ) 2012 State Champ. “A real football game is played in 4 quarters”. Kahuku is the only threat St.Louis faced this whole century.
I’m sure the Atlanta Falcons wish the game was called in the first half when they were smoking the NE Patriots in Super bowl LI.
The game counts to the groups that matter, HHSAA, ILH & OIA. In many ways the outcome is a win-win; Under OIA rules this loss doesn’t affect KAhuku OIA standings and the win for StL counts for their ILH record.
Kahuku , Mils great teams but this year Stl and Punaho on another level top two teams in state ! Next Friday gonna be a game and I bleed red and blue . Biggest game of the year .
The posters who are the most jealous of STL.
1) NOTES
2) MAHATMA GANDHI
3) COACH C
Coach C, do you you even coach? If so, what sport, school, and level?
This Gandhi joker is obviously someone whomnever played HS or college ball. I played during this heyday, both in HS and college. In fact, one of the greats of HS football in the late 70s, Nate Fletcher, was just saying to me, yeah our time time was great but it’s still enjoyable to watch the game….times moves on, and while it’s great to reflect, nothing stands still.
Only three years ago Kahuku beat St Louis, with Tua at Qb for the state title. How quick the mighty have fallen. Anyone who was watching the game last night and knows football seen how outmatched Kahuku was. They were out coached & outplayed. Kahuku is not even the second best team in the state anymore. Punahou doesn’t have a chance vs St Louis either. Everyone else is playing for second place.
Our Crusaders eat first! REMEMBER THAT! Everyone else is playing for leftovers!
Be humble guys Punahou can ball out great staff bunch of D1 kids .
For any arrogant keyboard warriors on here PRETENDING to post for Saint Louis…Keep yourselves in check! We don’t need your poisonous mentality teaching these boys to get ahead of themselves. There’s still a lot of football to be played. Remember, humble pie can be served up from within as well. I’m all for congratulating the team but c’mon…. Act like we been there before.
On another note…. Doesn’t the stadium have backup generators? Wouldn’t that have solved the “HECO/Safety” issue? lol
Hey quitter, Cal Lee agreed to the quit. Read the article. “Along with the refs ,officials and opposing coach, Cal Lee said “Aww what, kids are safer, we go home early,meet you at Isenberg”.
I love these StL./Kahuku post. 37 comments so far. It’s a love affair that’s been going on for decades. Why? Because as much as the ILH takes from the North shore, the Red Raiders still makes appearance in the State championship series every year. No worry, RR time will come again. Love you all.
justamom saying that st louis graduating class was only 90 something people as if that means anything. yes, in normal public schools where you draw from the community like you supposed to, 90 something kids for a graduating class is a huge handicap. but st louis is pretty much always on top, you know why? becuase they specifically recruit those 90 something kids TO PLAY FOOTBALL. all these kahuku haters here just show up with no class, bad mouthing public schools and kahuku because when all you have is hate in your heart, you just take and take and take.
it’s not enough to just recruit a few of the top players from every district. the greedy ILH has to take all of them because that’s the only way their “schools” stay open and they can pay their administrators 6 or 7 figure salaries. it’s all a scam. and oh please, saying that the recruiting helps college prospects. what helps your prospects more, being a really good player not seeing the field on a super team or being a really good player and a starter getting game film to send to college recruiters? get out of here
Cryhyn: StL had nothing to lose. Their starters are usually out of the game by that point. Saves the roster from injury. You respect surrender. It would’ve been classless to not let them bow out.
Congrats St. Louis. You folks deserve the win. Your team is the best and proven it in one half. But again. Kahuku will be back. RR4L
Notes – again…lame response. Go check your OCD, “in normal public schools…drawing from the community like you supposed to”…bad enough you complain about recruiting, you get all Drama and say STL recruits 90 for one class…Mary puuuhhhhleeezzze..
I’ll say this…if my kid was recruited to play FB at StL or any other school, I’d be super proud! You hear many StL parents shouting to the mountain tops – “Kimo got recruited to play at StL!”…lemme know when you do…
Again, if we willing to pay the big $$$ for our kids educational experience, what does that say about the alternative…
To the guy saying it’s only Crusaders and Puns. Haha. Go ahead and sleep on MillVill. Don’t count out the Trojans.
And again shuddaup about recruiting already.
It don’t matter where you at because other schools almost has the same amount of offers or less in the Open Division. Just keep working!!
Oh I get why all the whining. It’s because SL recruits so much that that one OIA team doesn’t have anymore talented next man up. Give me a break. Why don’t you ask the players and coaches from that one school if they like boycott the league by not participating in football until recruiting stops. They would think you crazy. But we already know that.
Notes, are you high or just not educated in these issues—seven figures is over a million dollars? No one, not even the President of UH gets paid that, in fact, that’s double his total comp. Time for stop going to dispensaries,,,
@notes, I dont know where everyone is getting all this recruiting stuff from. They may lightly recruit, but parents WANT to send their kids to StL, Punahou, Kam, Iolani not just for athletics but also because…. wait for it….. they are GOOD schools. Nobody heavily recruits kids, parents know if their kids are good at football send them to a school with a good program, whether it be Mililani, Kahuku, StL, Kam whatever. Also, if you think these ILH schools are giving scholarships to all theses kids that is a spit in the face to the hard working parents that bust their ass to give their kids everything. This coming from a StL grad, married to a Kahuku grad. Just be happy for the kids, regardless where they go, I’m sure we all cheered for Hawaii, Dylan Gabriel and Tua this weekend watching college ball.
Really your posts are informative but you and several on this blog are overlooking the obvious; Notes, Mahatma Gandhi, Go Figure and ??? are all the same person. Look at his/their posts (all anti-STL and false claims of recruiting) posting times are close in succession and they never contradict one another and he’s actually acknowledged this in the past. Its nice that you guys respond to his nom de plures but the same quasi-RRFL is hoodwinking everyone as usual and simply trying to get a rise out of Crusader Nation. Brahdah needs to get back on his meds or get a life.
Bro not sleeping on Mills or any other team on game day gotta show up and play ur best football it’s any teams game . what I’m saying is Stl and Pun playing at a very high level this year .
@notes,
Guys like notes is ruining it for Kahuku. People like notes makes people from other places hate Kahuku more. Its a shame how a handful of people can make the Kahuku community and true fans look bad. I know there are alot of good true Kahuku Fans whos happy when they win and proud when they lose. Being arrogant and complaining about recruiting is for sore losers, and i know Kahuku fans/community dont want to be known for that, again its a few handful in the community that makes them look bad.
They will be back on top again, but at this moment this year, it is what it is. Stop pointing the finger and blaming recruiting and this and that. Suck it up BE A MAN NOTES.
Why quit? Excuses.
Thats all I hear. So sad and disappointing that a coach would quit.
If there really was an unsafe situation, I would wait for the leagues to call the game.
Play until someone says, “eh cannot because the lights cannot come back on, or get lighting/thunder”.
Not tuck my tail between my legs and ask the opponent if we could call the game on account of SAFETY.
Such an embarrassment to the game and dare I say, to the community. This is who you have leading your kids. 104-0, I give Waiakea credit, they could have cited safety when it was 83-0 in the first half but chose to, I believe, honor the game and finish it.
I can see this in future posts already, “Remember the time you guys when quit to St. Lulu in 2019?”
Just got give credit where credit is due. St Louis is top dog until someone knocks them down. Saturday night proved that when you have talent and great coaching (I still don’t like Coach Lee…lol), you get the monster we call St Louis.
Big Red did show flashes of what could’ve been, but nearly not enough to make the game close. I still don’t like Coach Sterling, but I see that he has improved somewhat, so I’m not going to waste “breath” bashing on him. Big Red just needs to get back to work and hopefully we’ll see a much improved team at the end of the season.
St Louis is just St Louis, what else can you say. No dynasty last forever, but until then, the rest of the state just needs to work.
RRFL!!