Kahuku's Chance Maghanoy battles Kapolei's Keoni Taylor for the football. The Red Raiders scored 26 unanswered points after trailing 7-0 after the first quarter to post a 33-19 win over the Hurricanes in the teams' last regular season meeting on August 15, 2014. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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All cylinders were firing for the Kapolei offense in Friday's 49-28 season-opening win over Kaiser.

This week, however, with powerhouse Kahuku set to visit the West Oahu campus, there may be some engine trouble.

It's no knock on the Hurricanes — who amassed 479 yards against the Cougars — as the Red Raider defense showed why it is arguably the best in the state last week.

Kahuku, the fourth-ranked team in the Hawaiian Electric Division I Power Rankings, allowed just 18 yards of total offense and forced four turnovers in a dominating 50-0 win over the Sabers Friday.

"It's a typical Kahuku defense: they're tall, they're rangy, they're strong and they run to the football," Kapolei coach Darren Hernandez said. "They're strong everywhere and their (defensive backs) look very good, too. It's hard to find any weaknesses on that defense."

Against Campbell the Red Raiders got a pair of defensive scores on pick-6s by Stokes Botelho and Tema Lindsey and Manaia Atuaia recovered a blocked punt on special teams. Botelho, a junior cornerback, also took back a second interception later in the game, but the touchdown was called back due to a penalty after the change of possession.

"Our offense exceeded expectations last week, but we can't expect them to put up 49 points every week; the defense and the special teams will have to contribute," Hernandez said in respect to the Kahuku defense.

Kapolei, the No. 7-team in the power rankings, is looking a lot like a MASH unit, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. Inside linebacker Geoffrey Fiafaimane, a 6-foot-2, 245-pound junior, is out for the year with a torn ACL. Fellow linebacker Jericho Kahooilihala, a 6-foot-3, 230-pound senior, will miss Friday's game with a calf injury. Whatsmore, sophomore Josh Kansana — who was projected to be the starting running back — is also out for the year with an ACL tear. Both Fiafaimane and Kansana were injured in a scrimmage.

"We're still dealing with the loss of Kansana," Hernandez said. "We were relying on Fiafaimane to be our big hitter and a big run stopper, so that hurts right there off the bat, and Kahooilihala is a returnee and is in that rotation at inside linebacker, so that's two guys that we really could have used to stop that great ground attack of Kahuku."

Hernandez said junior nose guard Noah Punahou Mahelona (6-0, 280) will also likely miss the game with a multitude of ailments.

"He is going to go to the doctor on Thursday to see if he's cleared to play, but he hasn't been practicing," Hernandez said. "All of those guys are right up up the middle for us and they're not going to be there and that's where Kahuku likes to run the ball, so we'll see how we do."

Hernandez said there's nothing surprising about Kahuku's offense.

"They're so physical," Hernandez said. "I was watching film of them. They do such a great job of blocking the perimeter, the outsides and their offensive line comes off the ball hard. The passing game is a little behind, but the running games look to be typical Kahuku run game: a lot of that outside zone and a slew of running backs they can lean on to run the football."

It's a luxury that even Kahuku first-year coach Vavae Tata said took him by surprise last week.

"Just the stable of guys that we have in the backfield running the ball," said Tata, whose team spread 38 carries across seven different ball carries.

Sefa Amepersoa, a 5-foot-11, 205-pound senior, had team-highs of 14 rushes for 82 yards. Kesi Ah Hoy, a 6-foot, 215-pound junior, carried 12 times for 74 yards and Harmon Brown, a 5-foot-11, 185-pound junior, added 41 yards on five rushes. Ah Hoy and Brown each found the end zone twice.

The Red Raiders attempted just three passes last week. Junior Jordan Mariteragi completed one pass and was intercepted twice.

Still, Tata is pleased with his team's progress so far.

"I think we're right where we want to be," Tata said. "Obviously we want to establish the run game, which we did, and then we started to go away from it. Our quarterback threw two interceptions, but we're just got to stick to that Stanford mentality: smash mouth on offense and get after it on defense."

Tata took notice of the Hurricanes' prolific offensively performance last week.

"They're very explosive and they're moving the ball," Tata said. "I think Kapolei is shifting to the spread offense, like everyone else on the island — which is great — and I think they have playmakers at receiver and a quarterback who likes to run the ball when he feels pressure."

Kapolei went from a methodical, run-first offense to a no-huddle, spread attack under first-year offensive coordinator Galu Tagovailoa.

"It's almost the same look for us defensively, because Campbell is also a spread team, so I just want to see what our defense can do against their offense," Tata said. "If they do their assignments and do what the call is — what the offensive call is, what the defensive call is — it could be what it could be. If we can be successful as far as executing our game plan and our assignments, then we should be fine."

The teams met twice at Carleton E. Weimer Field last year. Kahuku won both times, including a 9-0 win in the quarterfinal round of the league tournament.

Kickoff between the Red Raiders (1-0) and Hurricanes (1-0) Friday will follow 25 minutes after the completion of the 5:30 p.m. junior varsity game.