Castle and Moanalua will face off Saturday night at Mililani's John Kauinana Stadium. Leighland Tagawa | SL

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It's not often the sequel is better than the original, but this one has a chance.

For the second time this season Castle and Moanalua will face off on the gridiron, and if the first meeting was any indication of what to expect Saturday, we could be in for another thriller when the teams play in the nightcap of a semifinal doubleheader at Mililani's John Kauinana Stadium.

The Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I playoff game between the fourth-seeded Knights (4-6 overall, 4-3 league) and the top-seeded Na Menehune (8-0, 7-0) will follow approximately 25 minutes after the conclusion of a D2 semifinal between Kaiser and Kaimuki at 4:30 p.m.

When the teams played in the regular-season opener back in week 2, the result was a wild prep football game, to say the least.

Despite being out gained in total offense 419 yards to 79, Castle came up with five defensive touchdowns and held a 36-34 lead with minutes remaining in the game. But with just one minute and 57 seconds left, Moanalua dialed up some magic with a hook-and-ladder play for a 73-yard touchdown and the game-winning score.

Emergency quarterback Ezra Grace slung a fourth-down pass to CJ Paleafei, who then pitched it to a trailing Micah Kim, who took it the rest of the way and into the end zone.

Na Menehune coach Savaii Eselu says his team has come a long ways since that first meeting.

"We're a very different team. A lot of communication has increased, the level of play has increased and what we call loafing — just standing around doing nothing — was so high that game versus the past five, six games, so that says that we're all playing at a high level and everyone kind of knows their role, knows their place and it's fitting that peaking at the right time," said Eselu, whose team is one of just four unbeatens remaining statewide.

"It's almost a 180 (degree pivot) from that August 10th game. It's pretty crazy how fast we got here," he said.

A big part of Moanalua's offensive success can be traced to the play of its quarterback, Nick Au. The senior has completed 69.5 percent (212 of 305) of his pass attempts and leads D1 in passing yards (2,411) and passing touchdowns (28) against 11 interceptions.

Au has thrown at least two TD passes in seven of his team's eight games this season. He posted a season-high 385 yards on just 13-of-18 passing in last Saturday's 56-6 rout of Nanakuli. Au threw seven TD passes to seven different pass-catchers.

"In terms of last week he did a very, very good job. He followed the game plan and he's starting to show streaks of a general-like mentality — just being that field general — and it's pretty exciting to see because now he can put it all together. Throughout the season it's been a growing and building process," Eselu said of the second-year starter.

Eselu noted that the guys catching the passes play a big part in the equation, too.

"It's a good mixture of Nick not just targeting one guy. It's a matter of, ‘hey, if you want the ball, you've got to work hard on your route and the ball will come to you,' " Eselu said. "It's good fun seeing and it's kind of by design, but since I've been coaching here I don't think there has ever been numbers like this before, so it's awesome to see that you have more than 30 touches in a season amongst four, five, six different people."

Na Menehune have four receivers with at least 28 receptions and 340 yards on the season, led by Rudy Kealohi's team-high 54 catches for 566 yards — which is tied for second and fifth, respectively, in D1.

"They're very good at executing," Castle coach John Hao said of Moanalua's prolific offense. "Taking chances is not their big thing; it's just getting the short game done and making sure that they just get yardage on each play."

While the offense is averaging better than 36 points and 330 yards per game, Moanalua has also gotten the job done on defense. Opponents are averaging a mere 12.9 points and 172 yards per game this year.

"Defensively, that interior is stout," Hao said. "Their front seven (defenders) are just great. I mean, they got speed, they have strength, they have size."

Hao's squad has had a roller-coaster like season. The loss to Moanalua was part of a four-game losing streak to open the year, but the Knights bounced back by winning their next four games to close out the league schedule. They enter the postseason however, having been dealt a couple of losses by Iolani (41-14) and Damien (26-10) in back-to-back weekends.

"Their confidence is still high. I think we've identified why the execution part from the last two games wasn't there. We made the correction and the kids are all for it, so they're really excited for this game. They know it's either do or die from here on out," Hao said. "We've been through a lot of trials and tribulations on the team and it's made these kids a lot stronger going through what they went through. This week we put in some changes here and there, but it just comes down to the kids executing on game day."

While it's been 10 weeks since the loss to Moanalua, Hao said the heartbreaking defeat is still fresh in the minds of his players.

"That first meeting I think, of course, it's embedded in our minds with the very last play from their offense and I'm sure it hurts everybody, so in their mind they want to make sure it doesn't happen again, but our team has morphed into, I think, a more well-rounded team," Hao said. "The offense slowly came around. If our offense even scored a couple that game I think we would have won, but we really struggled then."

The Knights are averaging 22.8 points and 227.6 yards per game offensively and allowing 32.2 points and 340.9 yards each time out defensively. The numbers may be skewed, however, as they allowed a combined 130 pounds in their first three games of the season.

"They are definitely resilient," Eselu said. "They kind of went through the gauntlet on the field and off the field. It's kind of like us with our situations on the field and off the field. Coach Hao has done a great job so far and I'm sure they're very excited, so I'm expecting them to come out full go, full speed."

Among the standouts for the Knights has been senior Senituli Punivai. The Swiss Army knife-like utility player has done a little bit of everything this season, including leading the team in passing yards (495), passing TDs (6), rushing yards (986) and rushing TDs (11). Punivai accounted for three TDs against Moanalua in the first meeting, returning a pair of interceptions for scores — 86 and 78 yards, respectively — and rushing for another touchdown.

Eselu said accounting for the versatile senior will be of utmost importance Saturday.

"Whoever is on him and wherever he is, that's going to be key because we know he's one of their main guys so we're gonna try and follow him. Wherever he goes we will have to track him down. At the same time, we know they use him at the quarterback position, so it's kind of a hard situation, but wherever he is, that's going be the key matchup," Eselu said.

The other D1 semifinal features third-seeded Waipahu (6-4 overall, 5-2 league) visiting second-seeded Leilehua (8-2, 6-1) Friday night.

The semifinals winners advance to the OIA D1 title game on Oct. 26 at 7:30 p.m. at Aloha Stadium. Only the league champion will advance to November's four-team First Hawaiian Bank D1 state tournament.