Hawaiian Electric Game of the Week
Short-handed Hilo to open against Campbell




The last time the Hilo football team took to the gridiron, the result was the biggest win to date for the program and a historic Division I state title.

This is not that same team.

The Vikings, ranked No. 12 in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Power Rankings, will open up their 2018 campaign by traveling to Oahu for a non-league game against No. 5 Campbell Saturday night.

A new season means a slew of new faces for Hilo, which is coming off a 10-1 record a year ago. These days, third-year coach Kaeo Drummondo makes little mention of 2017's achievements.

"That is done. That 2017 state championship is done. This is a new group of characters who have to create their own identity and this is the first step for them to do that," Drummondo said.

The Vikings graduated 25 seniors last year and return only "eight to 10" guys who got significant playing time.

"It's a different group of leaders that we will be looking to step up," Drummondo said.

Hilo will be without about 15 players for the game due to a multitude of reasons. Drummondo said he expects to bring over 30 able bodies, but seven of them will likely go down to the JV team for the regular season and of those, five or six are freshmen.

"It'll be a thin group. It's frustrating because we schedule these tough (non-league) games and we'll be without about 15 guys who are either first string or in the rotation. Even if we had those 15, it would still be a monumental task so we gotta try and shorten the game," Drummondo said.

As a result of the limited roster, Drummondo has altered his game plan for Saturday and will opt for a ball-control offense.

"We're almost preparing for this game with a scheme we won't be running (during the season), so it's almost a one-game thing for us, but that's the circumstances we're faced with," he said. "It's a double-edged sword because we've got a lot of kids who need to get their feet wet against a very competitive Campbell team, but at the end of the day we'll be a better team for it."

Junior Guyson Ogata will get the first crack at quarterback for the Vikings, to be followed by Kyler Aguiar and Kalae Akui. All three will also rotate at wide receiver and may even see time at defensive back.

"We're gonna need him to step up and be poised," Drummondo said of the 5-foot-5, 148-pound Ogata. "We're gonna need him to be the leader that can help calm some nerves on offense."

Others expected to see two-way duty are linemen Sione Holani and Lawaia Enos, along with Kahiau Walker and Kainalu Lewis — a pair of linebacker/safety types — and cornerback/running back Elijah Apao.

"We've got a lot of green players in positions they're not used to being in, so I want to see how do we respond to the athleticism and physicality that Campbell brings, can we execute the things we need to execute and come out and compete," Drummondo said.

Campbell, meanwhile, expects to be near full strength Saturday.

It will be the first opportunity for the Division I-Open Sabers to mesh their many new pieces acquired over the offseason. Among those are wide receiver tandem Titus and Tamatoa Mokiao-Atimalala, along with quarterback Kaniala Kalaola — all of them transfers from Kapolei.

"We're trying to put pieces together and trying not to start like we're in day one. The kids have been working hard and we want to see the product now," Sabers second-year coach Darren Johnson said.

Johnson said both Kalaola and incumbent starter and fellow senior Krenston Kaipo will see time at the quarterback position Saturday.

As for what Johnson hopes to see out of the season opener?

"I want to see our kids playing fast to the football on defense, I want to eliminate penalties that we're better than and we're mature than, I don't want to see fundamental mistakes and penalties and I definitely don't want to see no personal fouls," he said.

Defensively, the Sabers are led by a junior trio of three-year starers in linebackers Tyrese Tafai and Jeremiah Tauai, along with safety Pokii Adkins-Kupukaa.

"I think the biggest difference for us is maturity," Johnson said. "Our younger guys that played from when they were freshmen, they're really starting to mature and they're stronger, they're bigger — they're definitely faster — and they're starting to understand more and it's actually infectious on the rest of the kids."

Johnson ensured that his team isn't looking past the D1 Vikings.

"They're the reigning D1 champs and when we went back and looked at the film from when they played Damien (in the state final), they play good football. They were executing and you could tell they are a well-coached group and that staff has been together for a while so we definitely aren't going into this thinking that ‘we got this.' We know we're going to be in a game," Johnson said.

Kickoff between the Vikings and Sabers is scheduled for approximately 6:30 p.m.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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