The main high school football headlines in Hawaii this summer heading into Saturday’s season opener between the Kahuku Red Raiders and the Saint Louis (Honolulu) Crusaders have centered around the status of Kahuku head coach Sterling Carvalho.

Carvalho was terminated in the spring following an investigation into allegations of misconduct. He then filed a lawsuit this summer seeking an injunction to reinstate him as the Red Raiders’ coach in time for this coming Saturday’s season-opener against the Saint Louis Crusaders. That injunction request was denied late last Friday, August 1, and Kahuku will play this weekend’s contest with Nihoa Pule as the team’s interim head coach while Carvalho’s case continues in the background.

Then just yesterday, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported some drama involving Saint Louis head coach Tupu Alualu prior to a scrimmage against the Farrington (Honolulu) Governors. Alualu, a former all-state running back for the Crusaders who later played for the Oregon Ducks and the CFL’s BC Lions, was approached by an unidentified spectator prior to the contest who took several swings at the coach.

The Star-Advertiser reported that the altercation was broken up, and it’s unclear what sparked the skirmish. It’s been an interesting spring and summer, to say the least, but by Saturday night, any preseason drama needs to be in the rearview mirror with the focus firmly on the task at hand.

Saint Louis (Honolulu) Crusaders at Kahuku Red Raiders

Saturday, August 9
Carleton E Weimer Athletic Field | 6:30 p.m. local (HST)/12:30 a.m. EST (August 10)
TV: N/A | Radio: N/A

Media Coverage: KHON-TV Channel 2 – Hawaii’s CW | Honolulu Star-Advertiser Newspaper | Aloha State Daily Website

School Social Media: Kahuku Athletics on X.com @KahukuSports | Saint Louis School on X.com @StLouisHawaii

These two teams have a long history of alternating reigns at the top of Hawaii’s high school football hierarchy with their previous meeting coming last November 29 in the HHSAA Open Division state championship game. Saint Louis won that contest 17-10 in a hard-fought duel at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletic Complex in Honolulu.

Charles-Titan Lacaden was the star for the Crusaders, running for 155 yards and both of the team’s touchdowns to lead the way. Lacaden, who is now a member of the home-state Hawaii Rainbow Warriors, put Saint Louis ahead for good in the third quarter after the two teams entered the halftime tied at seven apiece.

Lacaden’s performance helped the Crusaders overcome a strong passing night from Kahuku’s Matai Fuiava who threw for 206 yards and the Red Raiders’ only touchdown. The North Shore contingent’s inability to generate any offense on the ground, however, proved detrimental to their efforts to win a fourth-straight HHSAA Open Division title. While Lacaden is gone, many of the top players from both Kahuku and Saint Louis will be back on the field for Saturday night’s clash.

Top Recruits

• Saint Louis has the top offensive playmaker in the game in three-star senior quarterback Nainoa Lopes (Cal), and three-star offensive lineman Kamo’i Huihui-White (Cal) is a highly-coveted interior prospect. Three-star athlete Jahren Altura (Hawaii), meanwhile, is a shutdown cornerback for the Crusaders.
• Kahuku senior linebacker Talanoa Ili (USC) is the highest-rated prospect in the game with four stars. His defensive mates include two three-star cousins – safety Madden Soliai and linebacker Malaki Soliai-Tui – and they made their commitment to UCLA a family affair with a joint announcement this summer. On offense, Kekua Aumua (Florida) is the best tight end in the Aloha State.

It’s a family affair as Kahuku class of 2026 DB Madden Soliai follows cousin LB Malaki Soliai-Tui in their commitment to UCLA. Madden also talks a little about his commitment.

They added a little cultural element as well with UCLA-themed ‘ie lavalava@MaddenSoliai @soliaimalaki… pic.twitter.com/lReekXGodq

— Michael Lasquero (@MichaelLasquero) June 21, 2025

When Saint Louis has the ball

Both teams have a lot of talent returning, and for Kahuku, it starts with the state’s highest-rated prospect in the Class of 2026. Ili committed to USC on June 15, and he’ll lead a defense that wasn’t seriously challenged last year in games against Hawaiian competition. In 12 games against HHSAA opponents last year, the Red Raiders recorded three shutouts and held an additional four opponents to single digits. Only Campbell managed to top the 20-point mark as Kahuku finished 9-3 against intrastate opponents.

Ili’s linebacking mate is Malaki Soliai-Tui, who plans to play for Ili’s college rival at UCLA. But the tandem will make one last run together for Kahuku, and they’ve got plenty of help on the defensive side, including safety Madden Soliai – Soliai-Tui’s cousin who plans to join him at UCLA in 2026. Edge rusher Nui Meyers is committed to Idaho, and he’ll provide pressure up front to give Ili and Soliai-Tui opportunities to make big plays in the offensive backfield again. Soliai-Tui, Soliai, and Meyers are all seniors.

Even with all its talent on defense, Kahuku will have its hands full if it can’t contain Lopes of Saint Louis, the state’s top major-college quarterback prospect. Lopes threw for 2,055 yards and 19 touchdowns a year ago, and he’s The Sporting News Preseason Hawaii Player of the Year. He’s got a talented receiver in senior Jordan Nunuha who’s uncommitted but entertaining offers from the likes of Oregon and Washington. And big Huihui-White (6-4, 290), another senior who plans to follow Lopes to Cal, will provide protection upfront for the Crusaders.

When Kahuku has the ball

Kahuku has a big man on campus playing the quarterback position, too. Senior Fuiava hasn’t decided on his college destination, yet, but he does have an FBS offer from UNLV. He’s got a massive target in tight end in Aumua (6-5, 255), and wide receiver Christian Tupuola is a playmaker committed to the home-state Hawaii Rainbow Warriors as an athlete. Both are also seniors, but it’s a junior, Blake Alo, who could handle much of the rushing load.

Saint Louis’s defense has a star cornerback in Altura, another player being recruited as an athlete. He’s committed to Hawaii, too, where he’ll likely spend time defending his future teammate Tupuola. Two juniors will also be counted on to make plays for the Crusaders in lineman Rocco Malaki and linebacker TJ Alualu, both of whom remain uncommitted for now.

Keys to the game

Kahuku wins if the drama surrounding their former coach is behind them, and they can find a way at home to control possession and put some points on the board. They struggled to score at times in big games last year, only managing 21 or more points in five contests a year ago. They were 5-0 in those games and only 4-5 in all other games. That feels like a potential benchmark, and it they’re coming up empty when they have the ball with good field position, it could be a long night.

Saint Louis wins if they show up ready for a raucous road environment on the North Shore. The quarterback Lopes is the key here, and if he makes plays against Kahuku’s big defense, then it’s probably a good night for the Crusaders.

Looking Ahead

In the long-term, this game is more important in some ways to Kahuku. The two teams play in different leagues, and just like last year, the outcome of this game won’t ruin either team’s season at the state level.

Kahuku, however, has a huge opportunity, just like 2024, to make a big statement on the national scene. The Red Raiders have consecutive games against national powers Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas, NV) on August 30, and Mater Dei (Santa Ana, CA) on September 5. They are one of the few unranked teams entering the season that could enter the national title conversation in the, admittedly, unlikely scenario where they win both of those games.

Unlikely, yes, but Kahuku has surprised before. If they can beat Saint Louis in the opener and figure out a way to beat Bishop Gorman at home, then they will be ranked in the Top 25 heading into that September 5 trip to the Golden State to take on the preseason consensus national No. 1 Mater Dei. If they can’t beat Saint Louis at home, then it’s more likely Kahuku will be sitting at 2-3 after returning from that trip with tough league games against Campbell and Mililani still on the schedule.

Series history

Historically, Saint Louis is Hawaii’s best high school football program when measured back to the start of the Oahu Prep Bowl. The Crusaders’ championship history got off to a rocky start, though, in that first bowl game on November 23, 1973. As reported by Honolulu Star-Bulletin sportswriting legend Jim “Pancho” Easterwood in a game recap the following day, Saint Louis lost, 6-0, when the Wai’anae Seariders’ Victor Humalon found William Pimental on a 12-yard scoring strike with only 1:20 left to play in the game.

They ultimately lost their first three appearances in the Oahu Prep Bowl, including setbacks to Honolulu’s Radford Rams (1981) and the Leilehua (Wahiawa) Mighty Mules (1984). But Saint Louis’s run as one of Hawaii’s dominant forces in high school football truly began in 1986 when the Crusaders started a run of 13 straight Oahu Prep Bowl titles. That included five wins over Kahuku in that span.

But Kahuku’s five appearances in the bowl also signaled their emergence as Hawaii’s other top high school football program. The Aloha State then divided its prep football ranks into Division I and Division II in 1999, and the Crusaders and Red Raiders met again in the first HHSAA Division I state championship game. Saint Louis beat Kahuku once more for the Crusaders’ sixth straight victory over the Red Raiders in championship games.

But since then, it’s been a much more balanced affair. Kahuku beat Saint Louis in back-to-back Division I title games in 2000 and 2001, and the Red Raiders eventually won eight Division I state championship games – including five against Saint Louis. They were the dominant team of Hawaii’s two-division era prior to the creation of the Open Division in 2016.

Saint Louis and Kahuku have since combined to win every championship of the Open era with Saint Louis winning the first four Open Division titles from 2016 to 2019. Three of those came at the expense of Kahuku, mirroring the Red Raiders’ early difficulties against the Crusaders during the Oahu Prep Bowl era.

But just as Kahuku finally broke through in the early 2000s in the two-division era, the Red Raiders again rose to the top, appearing in the past four Open Division championship games while winning the first three. That streak, of course, ended last year at the hands of their nemesis when Saint Louis claimed its fifth title of the Open era and first since 2019.

Last year’s result was considered an upset, but looking back to those two close calls early last season, it’s clear in retrospect that Alualu’s troops were just getting the kinks worked out under new leadership. It wouldn’t surprise anybody in the Aloha State, if they meet once again to settle the Open Division championship in 2025. The question hanging in the balance then is whether last year’s win by Saint Louis was an aberration, or has the pendulum swung back to the Crusaders in this long championship history between rivals?