Baldwin's Teva Eldredge and Farrington's Sanele Lavatai will face off in the opening round of the Division I state football tournament Friday. ScoringLive photo illustration

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The First Hawaiian Bank/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I Football State Championships get underway Friday with a pair of Oahu Interscholastic Association teams visiting neighbor island champions.

Farrington, the OIA Red runner-up, and Maui Interscholastic League-champion Baldwin will tangle in Wailuku at 6 p.m. while the OIA's third-place team, Campbell, and Big Island Interscholastic Federation-titlist Hilo meet in Keaau. Kickoff for that game is scheduled for 7 p.m.

The Governors (8-3) are coming off a 37-6 loss to Mililani Friday night in the OIA championship game, which brought an eight-game win streak to an end. They got off to a shaky start in 2013 with road losses to Waianae and Kamehameha, in which they totaled 192 yards of total offense and were outscored by a combined 71 to 19. During its winning streak, Farrington averaged 27.6 points offensively and allowed 12.9 points defensively per game.

Leading-rusher Sanele Lavatai (971 rushing yards, 13 touchdowns, 5.9 yards per carry) played linebacker last year and took some time this season to settle into the role of feature back. In the Governors' first three games of 2013, Lavatai ran for a 101 yards on 21 carries and two touchdowns. In his next five games, he racked up 704 yards on 101 carries and 10 touchdowns — including a 32-carry, 284-yard effort against Moanalua on Sept. 20. Lavatai, a 5-foot-10, 174-pound senior, has been limited to 166 yards on 43 carries and one touchdown in Farrington's last three games while dealing with a hamstring injury.

Junior Montana Liana is the trigger-man for the Farrington offense. The second-year starter has passed for 1,101 yards (110.1 per game) with four touchdowns against six interceptions. He has completed 85 of his 179 passes (47.5 percent) of his throws and averages 17.9 per attempt.

Despite the run-first attack on offense, the Govs have had relatively-balanced production. They had run for 1,397 yards and passed for 1,315. Putting points on the board, however, has sometimes proved difficult for Farrington. The largest margin of victory so far was a 21-point win over Kaimuki, which finished last in the Red East, and the Govs' highest-scoring effort — 41 points against Moanalua — was tempered by the fact that Na Menehune scored 38. Farrington averages 19.5 points and allows 19.2 points per game.

Jacob Baguio has a team-high 340 receiving yards on 20 catches with three touchdowns. In Farrington's last four games, Baguio has 18 grabs for 287 yards. He had five catches for 121 yards and two touchdowns in a OIA Red quarterfinal win over Kapolei less than three weeks ago.

Two of the state's best defensive tackles — junior Breiden Fehoko (6-3, 280) and senior Motu Heimuli (6-2, 266) — anchor the defensive front. Fehoko, who has one of the top recruits in the 2015 class, had seven sacks in a two-game stretch against Castle and Kailua earlier this season. Heimuli has filled the stat sheet with 10 sacks and even has a 5-yard interception return for a touchdown to his credit.

University of Hawaii-commit Manly "Pumba" Williams leads the linebacking corps, along with fellow seniors Aaron Kesi and Titus Lave-Paleafei. Roger "Tre" Boyd is a third-year starter at safety, while Jacob McEnroe, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound senior, is among the top cornerbacks in the state.

The Bears (6-4) have been the dominant force in D1 on Maui in the state-tournament era. First-year coach Keneke Pacheco has led the Bears through a difficult time while transitioning from former coach AJ Roloos, who resigned over the summer. Then there was the situation with linebacker Jordan Hoeim, Baldwin's top player who had committed to the University of Oregon after his junior season, but decided to retire from football and never played in a game this season.

Still, the Bears managed a 6-2 record in the MIL and fended off a resurgent Maui High team twice. Baldwin beat its crosstown rival 33-13 back in week 2 — a week after a crushing 55-0 loss to Saint Louis — and 7-0 in late September. Baldwin's other losses came against Lahainaluna (twice) and to Southern California powerhouse Mission Viejo in a non-league game.

The Bears have been outscored by opponents 259 to 229 despite a winning record. They were outscored 104 to 20 in the losses to Saint Louis and Mission Viejo. Their highest-scoring effort and largest margin of victory came in a 46-7 win over King Kekaulike less than two weeks ago. A week prior, however, they allowed 48 unanswered points in a 45-point loss to MIL D2 champion Lahainaluna on statewide TV.

Running back Dusty Flores has run for 848 yards (5.7 per carry) and five touchdowns. Flores has run for at least 125 yards in three games this season, including a 25-carry, 213-yard, 3-touchdown game against Kamehameha-Maui in week 5.

At the quarterback position, sophomore Taje Akaka-Foster will get the start at quarterback over senior Jeremiah Badillo, who has moved to receiver due to injuries to players there. Akaka-Foster, who is 5-foot-11 and 170-pounds, started against Saint Louis and completed 12 of 24 passes for 133 yards with an interception. Since then, he has is just 4-of-8 passing for 170 yards.

Slotback Kawelakeapono Kaeo-Mata, a 5-foot-6, 150-pound senior, leads the team in scoring, as well as receiving yards. He has 53 passes for 610 yards with seven touchdowns. Against Maui and Kamehameha-Maui in consecutive weeks, Kaeo-Mata caught 11 balls for 134 yards and 10 passes for 96 yards, respectively, with a touchdown in each game.

Among the defensive standouts for Baldwin are linebacker Tevarua Eldredge and two-way lineman Alexander Ezera. The Bears are allowing just under 26 points and 330 yards per game defensively, while averaging 23 points and 310 yards offensively. They have won four of their last five games.

The winner earns a semifinal date against tournament top-seed Punahou (9-0) on Nov. 15 at Hawaiian Airlines Field at Aloha Stadium.