Fittingly enough, the first Hawaii high school football game after Thanksgiving will have a familial feel to it.

Three-time defending state champion Lahainaluna will square off with Kapaa for the 10th time in seven years when the two teams take the field at Aloha Stadium Friday afternoon for the Division II state crown.

It's no secret that both teams are well-acquainted each other. In an impromptu moment Tuesday morning before the pre-championship game press conference, the coaches from both teams got even closer.

Lahainaluna co-head coach Dean Rickard said that they rode in the same car to save time and money.

"We ended up seeing them at the airport. We were all running late to make this meeting," said Rickard, who helped Kapaa coach Philip Rapozo and company bypass the need for a rental car.

"(The ride) was interesting. We didn't really talk about football. We just talked about things in general. That's the way it's been for the last six or seven years."

If you want the specifics, the Lunas are 6-3 against the Warriors since 2013, one year before Rapozo took over the program.

That's when the series really started to take off. In Rapozo's coaching debut, Lahainaluna came away with a 18-16 win to start the 2014 season, winning a back-and-forth affair before getting the game-winning touchdown from Makoa Filikitonga-Lukela with five seconds left in regulation.

The Warriors bested the Lunas in their next three meetings, twice in 2015 and in the 2016 preseason, but lost by a score of 21-14 in the 2016 state championship game when Lahainaluna secured its first crown.

The two teams did not meet in 2017, but Lahainaluna won the next three meetings, including a 21-18 victory in the 2019 preseason. It also includes the 2018 state championship game when Kapaa squandered a 26-7 halftime lead only to lose, 34-32.

Rapozo said his team isn't seek revenge on Friday, but redemption.

"It's nothing about revenge for us because revenge won't win a football game," he said. "We just want to come out here and perform. We know that Lahaina will. We're just blessed and we're thankful for another opportunity to play for a state championship."

Rapozo added that the championship loss a season ago has fueled the Warriors to get back to the title game.

"I think we learned a lot. I can see in the boys this year. The effort, the commitment, the leadership. They don't want that feeling again," said Rapozo, whose team built a 28-7 lead over Kaimuki in the semifinals before winning, 35-28.

"We were up on Kaimuki this past weekend. That was great for us because now we had to fight. I seen the leadership coming out, guys just pushing each other (and) we got to win the game."

Will we see anything different from the Warriors this weekend? Rapozo says no.

"We're not going to come out here and throw all kind of trick plays, cause we're not going to do good on that. We just got to stick to our game plan, be good on special teams as usual, alignment and assignment on defense and execution on offense."

Rickard echoed Rapozo's statements and added that in-game mistakes will define the outcome.

"The X's and O's, the kids have it all. It's who's going to make the last mistakes and who's going to have the less turnovers. That's going to be the factor in the game."

The Lunas (10-1) will be looking to win their fourth state title while the Warriors (8-1) are trying to win the first-ever state crown for the KIF.