A statewide audience will be watching when Lahainaluna and Baldwin take the field at War Memorial Stadium in Wailuku Friday night. Sean Nakamura | SL

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For the first time ever, a regular-season prep football game on a neighbor island will be televised live statewide this weekend.

OC16 takes its show on the road to War Memorial Stadium in Wailuku for a Maui Interscholastic League game featuring perennial powers Lahainaluna and Baldwin Friday. The broadcast starts at 6:30 p.m. with kickoff slated for 6:37 p.m.

“This has been a six-year effort to make this happen and we’re excited about being able to finally do a true MIL game,” OC16 sports director Dave Vinton said.

 OC16 has previously done first-round Division I state tournament games from Maui, but never a regular-season contest.

“As a statewide company, Oceanic has to be on the others islands and Maui is a good place to start,” Vinton said. “We’re treating this game like a full-blown production just like it were on Oahu, except it’s on Maui.”

Vinton said the costs of shipping the production truck and flying the crew to and from the Valley Isle can be more than $10,000.

“Basically, we were able to find some money because sponsors helped fund the costs and my boss, Mitzi Lehano, shifted some of the budget around,” said Vinton, who noted they are saving money by catching the last flight out of Kahului that night.

It works out nicely for OC16, which is celebrating it’s Silver anniversary of airing prep sports in 2013.

“That’s not the only reason, but it adds up to the perfect storm of making it more special,” Vinton said. “Twenty-five years ago, it started with just a handful of OIA football games. It’s certainly grown since then and this is a nice indication of where we’ve come in 25 years. Hopefully we’ll have more and more to come.”

Vinton said he expects a large crowd at War Memorial Stadium come Friday.

“From what I’ve heard from Maui people is that we’re being really, really well-received,” Vinton said. “It’s not like Baldwin-Lahainaluna wouldn’t have already had a big crowd, but what I’ve heard is that with the added attraction of TV, it’s like the circus is coming to town and I’m told it should be a full house, standing-room only type crowd.”

Kanoa Leahey will handle the play-by-play duties, while former Baldwin quarterback and current Kamehameha-Maui assistant Jordan Helle will provide color commentary. Jenn Boneza will be the sideline reporter.

The Lunas (8-0 overall, 6-0 MIL) are the top-ranked team in the ScoringLive/OC16 Division II Power Rankings while the Bears (5-3, 5-1) are the first-place Division I team in the MIL. Lahainaluna beat Baldwin, 28-7, when the teams met the first time this season on Sept. 13.