No. 2 Punahou leads No. 4 Mililani 17-7 at John Kauinana Stadium with 9:50 to go in the third quarter. Charles McDonald just drilled a field goal and Larry Tuileta has two touchdown passes, including one on fourth and 5.
Having some tech problems. My adapter is really iffy on charging up my MacBook, has been a problem for several weeks now, just getting worse. I’m down to 1 percent battery. Heading to the Apple store tomorrow morning. Ouch.
11:20 p.m.
Final: Punahou 24, Mililani 14.
Jerry Campany will have more in his game story and blog post later. Punahou did it, remarkably, with a reliance on their ground-and-pound game. Lining up their fullback and tailback in an I behind the left guard and tackle. Nothing fancy. Straight-ahead smashmouth football. It was something to see.
Mililani did well defensively much of the way, but the snap count really added up while the Trojans offense was up and down. By the fourth quarter, Punahou had control of the line of scrimmage for the most part. I don’t know how many teams will shut Punahou out in the first quarter again this year. But my gut feeling is Mililani’s defense will just keep getting better and is probably one of the state’s elite units right now.
Punahou’s composure — quarterback Larry Tuileta never lost focus even after getting sacked a bunch of times early — was key. Having that bulldozing power game is a tremendous weapon. More from Jerry later. I’ll have video highlights later, as well.
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