Saint Louis WR Ricky Ahlo-Pinera and the Crusaders get set to take on national powerhouse Bishop Gorman. ScoringLive file photo

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The grind continues for Saint Louis School and it hasn't even started its Interscholastic League of Honolulu football schedule.

In their last non-league tuneup before their ILH season opener next week, the Crusaders (1-1), sixth in the ScoringLive/OC 16 Power Rankings, will take on nationally ranked and defending Nevada 4A state champion Bishop Gorman (1-0). Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Hawaiian Airlines Field at Aloha Stadium.

The game culminates a tripleheader at the stadium. An intermediate-level game between Saint Louis and 'Iolani starts at 2 p.m. to be followed by a JV game between the Crusaders and Kamehameha at 4:30 p.m.

Saint Louis has already played state tournament contenders Farrington (lost 39-33) and Baldwin (beat 46-0). Bishop Gorman, ranked 11th in the latest USA Today Super 25 national rankings, is coming off 27-22 nationally televised win against Our Lady of Good Counsel (Olney, Md.), which dropped from No. 9 to No. 20 in the USA Today rankings after the loss to the Gaels.

The game will be televised by Fox Sports West and is available on Direct TV or the Dish network; it will not be available on Oceanic Time Warner, according to Saint Louis athletic director Edward Paola.

This will be the Crusaders' most formidable opponent since playing De La Salle (Concord, Calif.) in 2002, losing 31-21, at Aloha Stadium. De La Salle won its third consecutive of four USA Today national titles in a row that season.

"It's a challenge the boys are up for," Saint Louis first-year coach Matt Wright said. "It presents a great opportunity for our young men to go out there and represent the state, represent the school on national television against a great team.

"They're very disciplined. That's what impressed me the most, on both sides of the ball, as well as special teams. They execute. That's what you want to see in a team at the highest level. They're ranked where they are for a specific reason.They have a great coaching staff that instills that in them."

The Gaels are led by fourth-year starting quarterback Anu Solomon, who has verbally committed to Arizona. The athletic and intelligent signal caller runs a multi-faceted offense that is balanced in terms of passing and running, Wright said.

"You'll see everything," Wright said. "You'll see empty (backfield), two-back, a pro set, ace, ace trips. You'll see almost like a Boise State-type offense. A lot of play-action. The quarterback Solomon is extremely talented. He scrambles, so it will be a challenge containing him and he makes good decisions. I think he's got a 40-to-2 touchdown-to-interception ratio from last year, so he doesn't make poor decisions…He's a great manager of the game. He understand the flow of the game and he understands what defenses are trying to do to them."

Soloman has passed for 7.215 yards and 101 touchdowns the past three seasons, according to the Las Vegas Sun.

Defensively, the Gaels use four-and three-man fronts, Wright said.

"Their two interior tackles impress me a lot," Wright said. "From an offensive stand point, that's something we've been trying to harp on, to get on their two interior linemen. Their linebackers are younger, but they're great readers in the run game and they get to where they need to be."

One of Gorman's defensive backs, Lorenzo Fertitta Jr., has verbally committed to Villanova, according to the Sun.

Saint Louis has its share of Division I prospects. Linebacker Colton Goeas has verbally committed to Tennessee, while wide receiver Jeremy Tabuyo has done the same with Texas A&M. Senior offensive lineman Reeve Koehler, who was once offered a scholarship by the University of Hawai'i while still in middle school, is undecided but regarded as one of the state's top recruits.

Meanwhile, two Hawai'i teams will travel to Corvallis, Ore., for a doubleheader Friday night.

McKinley (1-1) will take on La Salle Prep (Milwaukie) at 1 p.m. and Radford will play Crescent Valley at 4 p.m., both Hawai'i times, at Crescent Valley High.

La Salle is the defending 4A state champions, while Crescent Valley, a 5A program, finished fifth in its league last season.

The games will be streamed live on http://www.islandpreps.com.

There are significant Hawai'i ties to the McKinley-La Salle game, one of the reasons for this contest. La Salle's coach is Tim Bowman, a 1977 McKinley graduate who played at Linfield. Cho, a 1972 graduate of McKinley, played collegiately at Willamette and coached prep football and basketball in Oregon for some 30 years before retiring and moving back here to coach at his alma mater.

Radford's connection is that its athletic director Kelly Sur also is a graduate of McKinley ('78), where he and Bowman were teammates.