The defending champions of Leilehua earned their way into this year’s First Hawaiian Bank/High School Athletic Association State Football Championships by fighting through the ever tough divisions of the O‘ahu Interscholastic Association. The Mules (11-2) were the OIA’s third representative
The defending champions of Leilehua earned their way into this year’s First Hawaiian Bank/High School Athletic Association State Football Championships by fighting through the ever tough divisions of the O‘ahu Interscholastic Association. The Mules (11-2) were the OIA’s third representative to come out of the league and did not warrant ranking by the HHSAA.
Tonight at Aloha Stadium, the Mules take on the school that’s been making headlines all year long for its dominance in so many sports — top-ranked Punahou School of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu.
The Buffanblu (11-1) knocked off the then No. 1 Saint Louis Crusaders in the ILH championships to earn their second appearance in the state championship playoffs since 2005. Acquiring the No. 1 ranking, the Buffablu received the first round bye, then went on to beat Farrington in the semifinals.
This will be the third appearance for Leilehua in the five years under head coach Nolan Tokuda. But the unranked Mules first had to get through two ranked opponents — first, the No. 3 Baldwin Bears and, second, the No. 2 Kahuku Red Raiders in a game that went into overtime.
The Buffanblu are led by the force of quarterback Cayman Shutter and players Dalton Hilliard, Robby Toma and Manti Te‘o. Te‘o, a double threat who is an effective receiver and one of the country’s top high school recruits as a linebacker, is one of 12 finalists for the first ever prep Butkus Award — which will be awarded to the top linebacker in the nation.
In the Division II bracket, the ‘Iolani Red Raiders will be defending their title in the earlier matchup of the day. The Raiders (10-3) are looking to win their third state championship title in the last four years.
They will take on the unranked Radford Rams of the OIA who took the longest route to the title game. Radford first had to travel to Kaua‘i to play the third-ranked Kaua‘i Red Raiders, then traveled to Maui to play the No. 2 Lahainaluna Lunas.
This game just may serve as a rematch for some of the players who met in the championship game back in 2005 in which ‘Iolani won, 34-20.
The games will be broadcast on television (OC 16) on a tape delay, tomorrow and live on the radio (1420 AM). The Division II game will be shown at 7 a.m., tomorrow with the Division I game to follow.
The live radio broadcast from Aloha Stadium will start at 4:30 p.m. with the No. 1 ‘Iolani/Radford game, followed by the No. 1 Punahou/Leilehua game.
