Farrington's Sanele Lavatai tries to break free from a Baldwin defender. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Punahou quarterback Larry Tuileta makes a throw against Kamehameha. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Back in early August, when both teams were still deciding on their lineups, Farrington visited Punahou for a Saturday afternoon scrimmage. Fast forward a little more than three months and the teams will meet again, this time with their seasons — and a state-championship game appearance — on the line.

The Governors (9-3) and the Buffanblu (9-0) will square off in the 7:30 p.m. semifinal of the First Hawaiian Bank/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I State Football Championships Friday at Hawaiian Airlines Field at Aloha Stadium. The game will follow a 4:30 p.m. semifinal between Mililani (10-1) and Campbell (9-3).

Farrington, the Oahu Interscholastic Association Red Conference runner-up, is coming off a 21-3 quarterfinal win over Baldwin at War Memorial Stadium in Wailuku Friday. The Governors are 0-4 all-time in the state semifinal round. The Govs, who wore special "DO29" decals on their helmets for fallen-teammate, Dayne Ortiz. The senior cornerback went missing one day after Farrington's 37-6 loss to Mililani in the OIA title game while fishing with his family. Many of his teammates honored Ortiz by bleaching their hair blonde — like Ortiz — including Okimoto, who bleached his ponytail.

"The win was bittersweet — we're still thinking about our lost teammate, Dayne Ortiz — but we get to advance and that's a good thing," Farrington coach Randall Okimoto said. "It's nice to be one of the final four teams to play."

In the win over the Bears, junior quarterback Montana Liana threw for 196 yards on 14-of-27 passing and threw a 12-yard, second-quarter touchdown pass to Jacob Baguio, who finished with eight receptions for 115 yards. Senior running back Sanele Lavatai rushed for 105 yards and junior Sitaleki Hufanga ran for 75 yards. Lavatai scored on a 9-yard touchdown run in the third quarter and Hufanga added a 7-yard, fourth-quarter touchdown run.

The Govs accumulated 211 rushing yards and 407 yards of total offense and limited the Bears to just 111 yards of total offense, including just four rushing yards (0.2 yards per carry).

Defensively, seniors Roger "Tre" Boyd, Manly "Pumba" Williams and Jacob McEnroe each recorded an interception while Breiden Fehoko, Motu Heimuli and Alu Taito each came up with a sack.

Farrington is averaging 19.7 points and 239.9 yards (123.7 rush, 116.2 pass) per game offensively and allows an average of 17.8 points and 226.5 yards (91.4 rush, 135.2 pass) on defense. The Govs began the season 0-2 with non-league losses at Waianae (33-16) and at Kamehameha (38-3) before reeling off wins in nine wins in their next 10 times games, including eight straight.

"Punahou is so talented and so well-coached," Okimoto said. "In every aspect of the game they do well — offense, defense and special teams. When I spoke about it with the team, I told them that we really have to play our best game, but the good thing is we haven't done it yet. There's still a lot of potential for us."

Punahou, who won the Interscholastic League of Honolulu for a third straight year, is the top seed in the six-team tournament and had a first-round bye. The Buffanblu are the lone remaining undefeated team in Division I and have not played since they beat Kamehameha, 38-12, in the ILH Postseason Final on Oct. 25.

"It's always great to have some time to rest and rehab, so we're grateful for that opportunity and Farrington is a big challenge,"said Buffanblu coach Kale Ane, whose squads have lost the last two D1 state championship games to Kahuku. "They are extremely athletic, they have a young man (Fehoko) that has been offered by Alabama and rightly so, they have a 350-pound defensive tackle (Nolan Eseroma) who can move and aggressive defenders behind him, so it will be a challenge for our offense."

On offense, the Buffanblu are led by several of the state's statistical leaders in senior quarterback Larry Tuileta (1,923 pass yards, 60.5 completion percentage, 20 TDs, 3 INTs), sophomore running back Wayne Taulapapa (891 rushing yards, 6.9 yards per rush, 12 TDs) and junior wide receiver Kanawai Noa (41 receiving yards, 887 receiving yards, 21.6 yards per catch, 8 TDs).

"Their offense has a mobile lefty quarterback who can throw it, they have a tremendous running game — and they got to rest their running back (Sanele Lavatai) for the second half of last week's game — so they should be ready to roll," Ane said. "Then they have the 'Bamboolas' on the O-line, good receivers on both sides, so it will be a great challenge for us to play them and we're looking forward to it."

Punahou's defense is led by arguably the state's best player in junior Canton Kaumatule, who has played in just two games this season. The 6-foot-7, 275-pound defensive end has battled nagging elbow and ankle injuries this year, but is a game-changer when he is playing.

Other defensive standouts are linebackers Tumua Tuinei, Boyd "Kalama" Chung and Ronley Lakalaka, as well as defensive backs Cole Obana and Joe Augafa.

The Buffanblu have outscored opponents 357 to 79 in 2013, and allow just 8.8 points and 205.6 yards (80.3 rush, 125.2 pass) per game. They average 39.7 points and 429.4 yards (186.8 rush, 242.7 pass) offensively per game.

Punahou is making its fifth state-tournament appearance and is 6-3 all time, including a 4-0 mark in the semifinals.

Farrington and Punahou have two common opponents this season: Kamehameha and Mililani. The Govs lost to both teams by a combined 75 to 9 while the Buffanblu beat both teams (Kamehameha twice) by a total of 86 to 26.