[ NFL ISLANDERS ]

St. Louis-Kahuku rivalry
kicks up in Baltimore

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Associated Press

The St. Louis-Kahuku football rivalry sparked up a bit in Baltimore yesterday when Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala of the Pittsburgh Steelers went head-to-head against Maake Kemoeatu of the Ravens.

Kemoeatu, who went to Kahuku, made three tackles in Baltimore's loss, but two of those tackles were hits on Fuamatu-Ma'afala, a St. Louis alumnus.

Fu rushed eight times for 21 yards as the Steelers (4-3) took over first place in the AFC North. Most of his carries were late in the game when Pittsburgh worked on preserving its 13-point lead.

Kemoeatu, a rookie defensive end, has 14 tackles for the season. Yesterday, at the team's Ravenszone.net Web site, Kemoeatu was one of four Ravens to choose from as an answer to this poll question: "With the Ravens' injury problems, which player has stepped up the most?" He got 6 percent of the votes.

Pittsburgh starting defensive end Kimo von Oelhoffen, who grew up in Molokai, made two tackles.

Ashley Lelie, Hawaii's all-time leading receiver, continues to make clutch plays for the Broncos. His 40-yard catch of a Brian Griese pass on a third-down situation late in the game virtually wrapped up Denver's win over New England. After the play, Griese took a knee twice to finish it off.

Lelie also ran a reverse, his second in the last two weeks, for a 4-yard gain.

Teammate Jason Elam, Hawaii's career place-kicking leader, continued to struggle on kickoffs and he had a rare bad game on field goals.

Coach Mike Shanahan said earlier in the week that he might bring in someone else to handle kickoffs because of Elam's poor performances. The 10-year veteran did nothing to quiet Shanahan's skepticism. On his five kickoffs, only one made it past the New England 10. The other four went to the Patriots' 10- , 11- , 12- and 14-yard lines.

Jeff Ulbrich made six tackles in San Francisco's victory over Arizona. The former Hawaii linebacker, who missed two games with a knee injury, has 25 stops for the season.

New Orleans running back James Fenderson (Hawaii) carried the ball once for 6 yards in a loss to Atlanta.

Seven others with connections to the 50th state played yesterday: starting centers Dominic Raiola (St. Louis) of Detroit, Olin Kreutz (St. Louis) of Chicago and Kevin Mawae (dad grew up in Hawaii) of the New York Jets, starting guards Kynan Forney (Hawaii) of Atlanta and Chris Naeole (Kahuku) of Jacksonville, starting tight end Itula Mili (Kahuku) of Seattle and backup offensive lineman Adrian Klemm (Hawaii) of New England.