Chase for the Championship
Vikings have benefitted from rough start to season




After its first two games of the 2015 season, the Hilo football team was 0-2 and had been outscored 100 to zero. Fast forward nine weeks and the Vikings were hosting their third consecutive Big Island Interscholastic Federation Division I crown.

Now, with defending state champion Mililani looming as its next opponent this Friday, Hilo and interim co-head coach Kaeo Drummondo is hoping to draw from the lessons learned during a difficult non-league schedule as well as past state tournament experiences.

The Vikings (7-4) and Trojans (9-2) will face off in the nightcap of a doubleheader in the opening round of the First Hawaiian Bank/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I State Championships. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday at Hawaiian Airlines Field at Aloha Stadium.

Hilo opened the year with a 59-0 blowout at Punahou just days after its coach, David Baldwin, was placed on an indefinite leave for undisclosed reasons by athletic director Kurt Kawachi. Six days later, it faced another opponent from the Interscholastic League of Honolulu in Kamehameha, but suffered a similar fate in a 41-0 rout.

"We put together that preseason schedule for a reason and it was to test the kids," said Drummundo, who assumed the interim title along with Lisa Pana after Baldwin was placed on leave. "Our vision is to continue growing the program and eventually if you want to be the best, you have to play the test. You have to test yourself and we knew going into those two games what we were going against."

The Vikings put together a 7-2 record in the regular season and was seeded second in the four-team league playoffs. They posted a 35-0 blanking of Waiakea in the semifinals before venturing across the island to upend top-seeded Kealakehe in the championship game, 41-20.

In doing so, Hilo avenged a one-point loss against the Waveriders just three weeks prior.

"I think that with a lot of the battles that we've been through since August there's been improvements along the way," Drummundo said. "(Mililani) is going to be another talented team, just like Punahou and (Kamehameha), but we're a little more battle-tested now than we were then. I think we're executing a little bit more and a little better and a lot of the kids are a bit more experienced."

At the control of the Vikings' spread, four-wide offense is junior quarterback Kaale Tiogangco, who has completed 58 percent of his passes for 1,520 yards with 20 touchdowns against five interceptions. Tiogangco, who has also run for more than 300 yards and three five on the year, had his best statistical game two weeks ago against Waiakea when he threw for 242 yards and four touchdowns on 18-of-25 passing without a pick.

"Kaale's athleticism is what makes him dangerous," Drummondo said. "He's a dual threat for us with his ability to extend plays with feet and as the year went along he's grasped the offense a lot more, not just from a route standpoint, but also protection and he recognizes a lot of stuff pre-snap that's huge for us."

Senior running backs Pono Landford and Isaac Lerma have combined for nearly 1,000 yards and will be a key part of Hilo's offensive game plan against Mililani, Drummundo said.

"We'll count on them to run the ball for us and help us control the clock because it's a beast of an offense that we're going to be going up against with Mililani so hopefully we can depend on our run game and try and shorten the game for us a little bit," Drummundo said. "Hopefully we can keep Mililani off the field."

The Vikings are relatively balanced between the run and the pass on offense, where they average a healthy 30 points per game. Defensively, they have surrendered an average of 19 points against the opposition and have posted three shutouts — all coming within their last five games.

Drummundo pointed to a pair of all-league defenders as key components to the unit.

"Up front David Pakele, our defensive tackle, is going to have to be our anchor and on the back end, Rylen Kaniaupio, one of our outside linebackers, is a playmaker for us," Drummundo said. "We try to move (Kaniaupio) around, allow him to play in different spots and make plays for us."

Drummundo is well-aware of the weapons that the third-ranked Trojans possess offensively.

WHAT: 17th Annual First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA Division I Football State Championships, first round
WHO: Hilo Vikings (7-4/BIIF champion) vs. Mililani Trojans (9-2/OIA runner-up)
WHEN: Friday, 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Hawaiian Airlines Field at Aloha Stadium
TICKETS: Adults $9, students (grades K-12) $5, seniors (62-and-over w/ID) $5
PARKING: $3 (no tailgating permitted)
STATE TOURNAMENT HISTORY—Hilo: Fifth appearance (2000, 2003, 2013-’15), 0-4 all-time record. Mililani: Eighth appearance (2003-’04, 2006, 2010, 2012-’15), 4-6 all-time record.

"That's a hell of a running back that we're going to have to try to figure out how to contain," Drummundo said of University of Oregon-commit Vavae Malepeai. "I think our front four are going to have to play a huge role in that. Also our free safety has to help protect over the top on the pass on (Kalakaua) Timoteo and (Bryson) Ventura, two deep-threat receivers with great hands and speed, so we've got our work cut out for us."

Two years ago the Vikings made their first state-tournament appearance in a decade, but allowed 21 fourth-quarter points to Campbell in a first-round game played at Keaau High School and eventually fell, 42-27. Last season they held 10-0 halftime lead over Kahuku, but were shutout in the second half in a 20-10 loss at Aloha Stadium.

"For this particular team, I think that experience is huge," Drummundo said. "There's no substitution, there's nothing you can do in practice to replicate being in a big game and playing against the best competition in the state. We're kind of young so it's big that we have those fifteen, eighteen players that did travel here last year and played in the state game and came to the stadium, because we can't come in here and let the moment be too big."

Note: Mililani coach Rod York said on Sunday afternoon that senior quarterback McKenzie Milton, last year's All-Hawaii Offensive Player of the Year, could be medically cleared in time for Friday's game. Milton has missed four games due to a separation of the acromioclavicular joint in his right (throwing) shoulder. York added that freshman signal-caller Dillon Gabriel, who started three games in Milton's absence, suffered a fracture collarbone in the second quarter of the Trojans' 20-7 loss to Kahuku in last weekend's Oahu Interscholastic Association championship game.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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