The first of two regular-season meetings between Pac-Five and Saint Francis will take place at Hawaiian Airlines Field at Aloha Stadium Friday night. ScoringLive photo illustration

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The games have come few and far between for the Pac-Five football team.

The Wolfpack (2-0) have played just twice over the first five weeks of the season. By the time they hit the field for its Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division II opener against Saint Francis Friday night, it'll be 20 days since their last game.

Meanwhile, the Saints (2-2) will be coming off a one week break after alternating between wins and losses during the non-league portion of their schedule.  

Pac-Five won the last time the teams played — on Aug. 29 of last year — by a score of 26-21 behind four touchdown passes by quarterback Kainoa Ferreira.

With just four regular-season games for each team in the ILH this season, every game will be pivotal.

We caught up with the head coaches of both teams a few days before they face off this weekend.

ScoringLive: Describe your team's current situation in one word.

Kip Botelho, Pac-Five coach: "Inconsistent. Defensively we've been playing pretty well. Offensively we've been inconsistent. We've dropped so many passes, we'll execute on one play and then not execute on a couple plays. It's just been so up and down. I know we have a bunch of new receivers and that's probably it, so we've got to get better there. We've had so many opportunities to score the past two games. Against Waimea we dropped like four touchdown passes and against Kalani we had a lot of opportunities. Hopefully they'll get better and as they go, we'll go."

Kip Akana, Saint Francis coach: "Optimistic. We can play good football and we've shown the ability to play good football. We had an up and down preseason where we learned a lot about our team. We definitely found areas where we need work, but with six seniors we're primarily a young team, so we're hopeful but we really don't know which team is going to show up because we're so young. We know that we can show up on any given day and play with about any D2 school out there, but at the same time we've shown that we can give up early leads."

ScoringLive: What have you learned about your team so far this season?

Botelho: "I've learned that we're young in a lot of areas and then in some areas we have a lot of experience. Not a lot of experience as far as seniors, because we only have about 10 seniors, but more so as far as getting game time. We started a lot of sophomores last year and that was the majority of our defense, so they're back this year and that helped because they're a totally different group than lsat year. The other side of that is we're young on the offensive side. We had a senior crew last year. We have experience at quarterback, but the skills are so inexperience and upfront it's a mix. Injuries have hurt us, too. One of our starting receiver, Grey Ihu, injured his knee in the summer, our starting center is out with a broken foot, one of our starting tackles is out with a back injury and the other starting tackle had surgery on his hand."

Akana: "We've learned a lot of stuff. We've learned that if we maintain our focus and discipline for four quarters we should be in every ball game."

ScoringLive: What did the bye week(s) provide for your team?

Botelho: "It provided, in some sense, a chance to heal a little bit from injuries, but overall it's horrible. It's horrible not playing anybody for three weeks. I don't know what you're going to get Friday night. We don't know what we're going to get just based on the layoff. It's been hard for these guys to get motivated for practice. I constantly get on the guys to get the energy level up, so just not having games every week to look forward to is horrible to play through that.

Akana: "Well actually we didn't have a long layoff, whereas Pac-Five played two preseason games and Damien played three, we've played four. I think that's a good number if you space it out correctly, but because of our limited number of (regular) season games, we really want our kids to play to try to get as much exposure we can, but the double-edged sword that to is the more games you play, the more chance of injury there is. Our top two running backs went down. Our top running back got hurt against Konawaena, but we expect him to return, and a second running back went down against Murietta Mesa. As a brand new varsity coaching staff, these four games actually did help us because you get your feet wet in the heat of battle. The coaches have learned a lot about ourselves and about our team."

ScoringLive: How near or far is your team from playing at its potential?

Botelho: "There's glimpses of greatness in practices, but it's extreme. If we do put it all together we could be good, but I don't know. You don't know what you get out of 15-, 16-, 17-year olds every day so that's the question mark, but I'm hoping we're gamers. The last two games our defense played excellent. I watched the film and they graded out well, we're just waiting for the offense to catch up, so we'll see."

Akana: "Our team is just very athletic, very physical, (but) the execution and focus for four quarters, we haven't gotten that. You never feel like you're where you need to be, but our team has gotten better every week even though that score against Murietta Mesa doesn't show it. We're about as prepared as we could be going into the ILH season, but I believe that my team has endless potential. We're not anywhere near as good as we can be or hope to be, but we're headed in the right direction."

ScoringLive: How do you feel about the double-round robin format in the ILH this year?

Botelho: "I think it's good. It comes down to you've got to beat everybody twice. It's like a best-of-three series. You lose one and you've still got a chance, so I think it's good. I just wish there were more games."

Akana: "For me personally, on a competitive level, I like the fact that we're playing a double round-robin against D2-caliber schools. You get different opinions that if you play the D1 schools you get exposure, but just with the numbers, our school population, it just really puts us at an extreme disadvantage. I  would have liked to see an end-of-season, ILH championship tournament, but the ILH had decided to go with best record, double round-robin. I think for us new coaches and a young team it sets up good for us."

ScoringLive: What's your take on your opponent this week?

Botelho: "They're big, aggressive, they hit well, so it's going to be a challenge for us. They've won a couple intermediate championships, so they're doing something right over there. I know the administration is committed to football, so it'll be a good test for us. I hope it's a good game."

Akana: "Being that Saint Francis hasn't won an ILH game in our history, we have extreme respect for them. I know Kip Botelho personally and I have a lot of respect for their experienced coaching staff and their ability to prepare their kids and their team. I've watched them on film and they're a formidable opponent. They have a returning quarterback, but we believe there's advantages and disadvantages on both sides of the ball for both teams, so it will come down to execution on the field, but I don't think either team has a decided advantage going into this game."

Kickoff between the Wolfpack and Saints is scheduled for 7:45 p.m. Friday at Hawaiian Airlines Field at Aloha Stadium.