EWA BEACH ― No. 5 Campbell did damage in the first half to overwhelm No. 12 Hilo, 54-14, in a non-league game at the Sabers' field Saturday night.

The Sabers (1-0 overall), who play in the Open Division, scored on the ground and through the air twice and recovered a fumble in the end zone to take a commanding lead in the first half.

"I'm going to give them the positives, we play hard and good at times, but we have to play good all the time and mistake-free football," Campbell coach Darren Johnson said of the season-opening win.

The Vikings (0-1 overall) are the reigning Division I state champions and brought over about 29 players because several were missing due to grades and injuries. Despite the lopsided result, Hilo coach Kaeo Drummondo saw silver linings for his team.

"We knew for weeks this would be the circumstances," he said. "Everybody has to be ready to play both ways somewhere. Some guys have to play all three phases of the game. If this team and program wants to continue to improve, if you're going to reach your goal, you have to come to Honolulu to beat a very good team. It was about getting them to travel together and bonding. It was about coming out here and getting reps and learning from the mistakes and progressing."

"They're scrappy, they're missing some kids. They're going to be good. He (Drummondo) told me they're going to be short-handed. They battled and they have good athletes," added Johnson.

Campbell to host short-handed Hilo Saturday night in our @HwnElectric GAME OF THE WEEK: https://t.co/69JEDwMafg pic.twitter.com/ZY4clb5hnP

— ScoringLive (@scoringlive) August 3, 2018

Campbell scored on Peter Manuma's 5-yard run that capped an eight-play drive. After the Vikings went three and out, Tamatoa Mokiao-Atimalala's 25-yard punt return and Sky Lactaoen's 14-yard run helped set up Pookela Piilani's 1-yard run, but the kick was no good for a 13-0 lead.

Kaniala Kalaola and Krenston Kaipo shared the quarterbacking duties in the first half. Kalaola, a transfer from Kapolei, finished the night with 77 yards and one touchdown on 5-of-8 passing. Kaipo, who was Campbell's starter last season, finished with 135 yards and three touchdowns on 7-of-11 passing.

"They're both playing good and we haven't stopped rotating them and they both scored in their drives and made good decisions too. They're a lot of pluses and having two quarterbacks is a plus," Johnson said of his two signal callers.

Campbell got three scores on the ground with Manuma leading the way with 85 yards and a score and Lactaoen adding 59 yards and another touchdown.

"You have to respect our run and we can throw it a lot better," Johnson said.

Kaipo came in late in the first quarter and threw a 34-yard touchdown to Jalen Henderson, and in the second quarter he later found Titus Mokiao-Atimalala for 19 yards to make it 27-0.

After a very short punt that landed on the Hilo 33, Campbell immediately turned it into points as Kalaola found Pokii Adkins-Kupukaa for 33 yards that took 14 seconds off the clock.

"Defensively, we have a lot of work to do. We have get back to the drawing board and make sure we can execute our base defense," Drummondo said.

The Sabers capitalized on a bad snap as the ball sailed over the punter's head and Bryson Tuisaloo recovered it in the end zone to give the home team a 40-0 lead with 2:37 remaining.

The Vikings cycled three quarterbacks throughout the game before settling on Kyler Aguiar, who rushed for a touchdown and passed for another. Aguiar finished with 126 rushing yards and had a 75-yard touchdown run with over two minutes left in the first half and tossed an 8-yard touchdown to Guyson Ogata late in the fourth quarter.

"Kyler stepped up for us and gave us something," Drummondo said. "Offensively, we have something to work with, we have to get more live reps."

Kaipo threw a 20-yard touchdown to Tamatoa Mokiao-Atimalala early in the third quarter to start running clock and Lactaoen scored on a 5-yard run early in the the fourth. 

Hilo had a chance to score on their 12-play opening drive in the second half and got all the way down to the Campbell 3-yard line but came away empty-handed as the Vikings turned it over on downs.

Despite the 40-point victory, Johnson feels there's a lot to work on before their Open Division opener Aug. 18 against Farrington. Campbell had 11 penalties for 136 yards.

"I wish we could eliminate penalties. There were questionable ones, but we have to eliminate them," said Johnson.

When asked what he wanted to address with the team moving forward, Johnson replied, "Discipline. Penalties helped them on their drives and we have to eliminate it that and we can't keep drives alive."

The Vikings return to Hilo and have several weeks off before starting Big Island Interscholastic Federation play against Hawaii Prep on Aug. 31.

"We get a handful of players back defensively. We know what our base defense is and have to be better with techniques. It is what it is, we have to realize who we are and go and improve," Drummondo said of things that need to be worked on.