Running Kainoa Brown and the Kapolei Hurricanes will take on the Campbell Sabers in a key Red West tilt Friday. Evan Asato | SL

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For Darren Hernandez's Kapolei Hurricanes and Amosa Amosa's Campbell Sabers, it's deja vu all over again.

For the second consecutive year, the teams meet in the final week of the regular season with nearly the same playoff implications on the line as when they played last year — which Kapolei won by a score of 35-34.

Campbell (5-2 overall, 3-2 OIA Red West) and Kapolei (5-2, 3-2) are tied for the third spot entering their game against each other Friday at the Sabers' home field.

Mililani has clinched the division's top seed and one of two first-round byes for the Red West in the 12-team Oahu Interscholastic Association Red Tournament. Waianae, which is alone in second place, has completed the regular-season and has a bye this weekend.

Campbell can overtake the Seariders for the No. 2 spot with a win over the Hurricanes Friday to earn the other first-round bye. However, a loss could drop the Sabers as low as fifth. A Kapolei win would give the Hurricanes the third seed, but a loss could drop them as low as fourth. Campbell holds the tiebreaker over Waianae, but the Seariders hold the tiebreaker over Kapolei.

Nearly the same scenario played out in the final week of the 2012 regular season. The game was tied at 13-apiece at halftime, before the Hurricanes scored 22 third-quarter points to take a big lead. The Sabers nearly came back with 21 fourth-quarter points, but ultimately fell short.

Hernandez and Amosa are both alumnus of Campbell. The pair were two years apart (Hernandez graduated from Campbell in 1982, Amosa in 1984) and both played at the University of Hawaii. Hernandez is a former head coach at Campbell before he left to start the Kapolei program in 2000. Amosa served as Sabers' offensive coordinator under Hernandez.

Both coaches took time out of their schedules earlier this week to share their thoughts on their teams, their opponents and their intertwined pasts.

ScoringLive: Describe your team's current situation in one word.
Darren Hernandez: "Resilient — because of our ability to bounce back and comeback in the second half of games. When we've faced some adversity, our guys have stepped up and played through injuries, penalties, fumbles, turnovers — they just keep fighting to the end."
Amosa Amosa: "Opportunity. We have a big opportunity to situate in a good spot for the playoffs. It's not too often that we get this great of an opportunity to control our own destiny. What a great opportunity; if we win this week, we're second. If we lose, we're fifth."

SL: How near, or far, is your team from playing at its potential?
DH: "I'm still waiting for our team to play at its potential. We probably have not played two good quarters back-to-back. We'll play maybe a good second and fourth quarter or a good first and fourth quarter, but we haven't been able to put together a consistent, solid four quarters yet."
AA: "I think we've shown some glimpses of it. Every game we have shown some of our ability and our potential in regards to our execution level on offense and defense. Every week what we try to do is to perfect our side of it and get our players executing their assignments every day."

SL: What was your team's biggest win this season?
DH: "It had to be at Leilehua. Simply because that was a huge game for us and that kind of set us up to play for one of the top three seeds in the Red West at the end of season."
AA: "I think our biggest win probably — not to take away from any other team — is the Waianae game, because we knew Waianae had an awesome team. The week before we played them, they executed a great game against Leilehua, so we knew coming into that week it would be a tough game for us."

SL: Which of your losses this season has done the most good for your team?
DH: "Definitely the Mililani loss. We gave up 35 points and that was our first regular-season game and at the time, I thought the sky was falling and it really looked bad, but in retrospect, 35 points was the least they scored against any red west foe, so (the loss) was not so bad considering the way they ran through the division."
AA: "I think the Leilehua loss, because that was a game that we really felt we had a great chance of winning, but due to things we were committing and unnecessary things, we didn't give ourselves a good chance to win. We learned a great deal from that game in terms of if you don't execute and play to your ability and keep making silly mistakes, we're not going to win games if we continue to do that."

SL: Where are the toughest places to play in the OIA Red West?
DH: "Has to be Waianae. Just the whole atmosphere and the tradition and mystique of Raymond Torii Field right on the beach. The fans are really loud and do a great job. That's what makes this last loss for us disappointing, because we were right there, but fumbled it away."
AA: "I've got to say to Mililani. Those guys at home are pretty mistake-free and their fans and their whole community comes out to support them."

SL: How important is it to you to win your last game before the postseason?
DH: "I think it's very important because want to go into playoffs with momentum, which is huge. You want to make sure your team is playing its best football at that time and losing a game — even if you played well — is not a great way to go into the postseason."
AA: "I think it's super important. For us, this is a game where we literally can control our destiny in regards to playoff and seedings. Like I told my kids, every week the stakes go higher and higher and every night we have to come ready to play or else we're going to lose, so this week is of the utmost important to us."

SL: What is this game like for you, given your relationship with the head coach of the opposing team?
DH: "Amosa is my friend and we grew up together, played college, high school together. so there's no animosity between he and I, we're friends. I think people make more of it than it is because I coached there and graduated from there, but there's no animosity between us at all."
AA: "Me and Darren coached together — I enjoyed those years — and we're still good friends. We keep in touch and for me, I have a lot of respect for him and his staff. Some of his staff are my good friends and vice-versa. For me, I always feel that i'm behind him because he's got the experience having coached at Kapolei and at Campbell. I know we're rivals, but I don't think of it as rivals at all. We're still good friends and have a lot of respect for each other and it's a matter of our players executing the game plan."

SL: What's your take on your opponent this Friday?
DH: "They're a tough team. They blitz a lot, they're strong defensively and they run the ball surprising well. They have a dangerous quarterback that can make plays with his feet and through the air and they're just an all-around tough, solid football team."
AA: "I know they have a pretty awesome running game and their defense is pretty stout, so for us preparing for them this week, we will have to stop their run and force them to be one-dimensional. Offensively for us, we really have to be efficient when we have the ball and our defense will hopefully continue to give us opportunities to score some points. In the Red West any given night, anybody can win, so we're not looking at all past them. We're not going to take them lightly at all and we're doing our best to prepare."

Kickoff between the Hurricanes and Sabers is set for 7 p.m. The game will be televised live statewide on OC16.