Castle quarterback Stephen Lee ranks eighth in D1 with 222 passing yards with one touchdown against three interceptions, and has completed 51.9 percent of his passes this season. Johnny Wilson | Special to SL

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Leilehua quarterback Kalanimoku Pauole (11) has thrown for a state-best 11 touchdowns against four interceptions with a 62.3 percent completion rate. His 737 passing yards rank third in D1. Jim Lebeau | Special to SL

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With a win over Castle on homecoming night this Friday the seventh-ranked Leilehua football team could leap-frog idle-Kahuku to the top of the Oahu Interscholastic Association's Division I Red standings.

The Mules (3-0) are posting astronomical numbers on offense, averaging more than 42 points and nearly 400 yards per game. Their defense has been just as impressive, having allowed less than 14 points and just over 135 yards per game.

Quarterback Kalanimoku Pauole has thrown for a state-best 11 touchdowns against four interceptions with a 62.3 percent completion rate. His 737 passing yards rank third in D1. Wide receiver Toma Savea leads all of Division I with 4 touchdown receptions. He also ranks fifth in receptions (12) and fourth in receiving yards (242).

The Knights (1-1) are coming off a bizarre win over Waipahu last weekend to say the least. With 4:22 left in the second quarter, a power outage Friday night forced the suspension of the game until 3 p.m. the next day. Castle scored the final 27 points of the game to run away from the Marauders.

Castle is averaging over 28 points and 205 yards per game on offense, while the defense is allowing 22 points and 258 yards per game.

Quarterback Stephen Lee ranks eighth in D1 with 222 passing yards with one touchdown against three interceptions. He is completing 51.9 percent of his passes. Wide receiver Chad Figueroa has 115 receiving yards (10th in D1) and averages 14.4 yards per catch (11th).

We caught up with the coaches of both teams a few days out from their game Friday at Hugh Yoshida Stadium.

ScoringLive: Describe your team's current situation in one word.
Nelson Maeda, Castle coach: "Banged up. Our status is our team is banged up. Some guys are injured and in the training room, so it's hard to get a solid 11 (players) on the field right now."
Nolan Tokuda, Leilehua coach: "Hopeful. Just with all the injuries that we have — we have about three people with season-ending injuries — so it's hard to get the true 22 best players on the field. We've mixed and matched and our 2's and 3's have been stepping up, so to be 3-0 with all the injuries that we've had is good. We'll be better once we get everyone healthy."

ScoringLive: How near or far is your team from playing at its potential?
Maeda: "I think we've got a long way to go right now. We would have hoped that, by this week, the fourth week of the season, we would be where we need to be moving the chains, disciplined on offense, disciplined on defense, and special teams making some big plays. but we're not where we need to be. It'll be a great challenge against Leilehua — they almost have video-game numbers with the scores that they have."
Tokuda: "We've still got a lot of ways to go. Things like execution, getting our routes right and penalties. We'll be at our potential once we can fix all of that."

SL: Which player(s) or position group has been a pleasant surprise so far?
Maeda: "It's hard to say, because we got taken it to is us by Campbell, then we had a bye, then we played Waipahu and they're kind of hurt with numbers so it's hard to say. I think we came into the season with the line as one of our strengths and they're still one of our strengths, but not to the standard that we need yet. Also, Chad Figueroa is one of our key guys and he's made some big strides. He's played cornerback and receiver for us."
Tokuda: "I'd say our defense. After last season (defensive coordinator) Mark (Kurisu) said we're going to go back to a swarming-type defense, play together, keep it simple. After each series, they used to say 'Shut D,' but at this point they don't say that anymore. They just say 'Step up,' and the defense has definitely stepped up after the Mililani (scrimmage)."

SL: What's your take on your opponent this week and how do you feel your team matches up?
Maeda: "They've got some talent out there at the skill-positions. They got some beasts. They're on a roll and we're rolling into their homecoming game so that's something we have to deal with and the bus ride. We'll be battling that traffic going out to the West side, but they're well-coached and they've built a tradition of winning. They're highly-successful and Nolan does a good job of scouting and preparation. On the offensive side they have some explosive guys in (running back Ikaika) Piceno, (running back Randy) Neverson and (wide receiver Toma) Savea. They have a lot of weapons that you have to deal with."
Tokuda: "We play Castle and we know that they're going to be physical, in-shape and well-coached. They will bring it for the whole game so we've got to match their physicality and intensity for all four quarters. It's also homecoming for us so our minds might be elsewhere, but we've got to get our guys focused and dialed in."

SL: Now that we are a few weeks into the OIA regular season, what are your feeling on the new divisions?
Maeda: "From the get-go — and I'm going to be honest here — I have said that I am not in favor of the new format. I've always been a proponent of the East-West. The big thing is traveling. We have three (other) road games where we're fighting westbound traffic on Friday afternoons — Campbell, Waipahu and Waianae — so our JV catches the traffic and the varsity catches the tail end of it. You also lose our on traditional rivalries because you don't have the Caste-Kailua or Kahuku-Farrington or Leilehua-Mililani and reasons were never given from top down."
Tokuda: "Interesting. In a sense, it's not too different as far as traveling to say, Waianae, but two or three weeks from now we'll be traveling to Kahuku and we're fortunate to have Kaiser at home this year. It would have been a challenge if we had to travel to all three in our schedule, plus the late starts and traffic. It took us one and a half hours to get to Waianae last week and ended up getting home close to 1 a.m. for the players for around 3 a.m. for us coaches, so it's tough."

SL: What do you think we can expect from Friday's game?
Maeda: "Hopefully we can try to hold their scoring down, but it's going to be tough to do, because they have lots of weapons. Our offense is struggling and Leilehua defensively is tough, especially their front seven is solid. If we can minimize mistakes and turnovers and play with some discipline, we can keep us in the game, but if we have to chase them and play from behind it's going to be tough. I'm hoping the homecoming festivities will be a distraction and they'll be looking at Castle and will take us lightly, but that's a longshot because Nolan does a good job. I'm just hoping it doesn't become a basketball score. It would be nice if we were keeping up with them, but we're not going to outscore people, so we have to slut it out and minimize their scoring."
Tokuda: "I think definitely it's going to be exciting. I'm sure coach Maeda will have a few wrinkles for us with four or five wide and them throwing it all over the place. He's going to try and light up the scoreboard and we're going to try and do the same."

The game between the Knights and Mules will follow 25 minutes after the conclusion of the 6 p.m. junior varsity game.