No. 9 Hilo can claim a sixth straight league crown with a win over Kealakehe Friday night. ScoringLive photo illustration

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No team was a greater beneficiary of last weekend's slate of upsets in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Football Power Rankings than the Hilo Vikings.

Hilo, winners of its last seven games since a season-opening 40-point loss at Campbell, moved up five spots from 14th to ninth in this week's Power Rankings. The top-seeded Vikings (7-1 overall, 7-0 league) will be trying for their sixth consecutive Big Island Interscholastic Federation Division I championship when they host No. 2 seed Kealakehe in the league title game Friday.

The Waveriders (6-3, 5-1) are seeking their first BIIF crown since 2012. They won three straight games since a 45-23 regular-season loss to Hilo on Sept. 21 until a 16-3 loss at Konawaena last week in a game that had no bearing on the postseason.

The defending D1 state champion Vikings rode the momentum of a 21-point first quarter  and scored in each period in the first game, which took place at Kealakehe.

This weekend's rematch will take place on the other side of the island, in Hilo. The winner will claim the BIIF's lone berth in next month's First Hawaiian Bank Division I State Championships.

We caught up with the head coaches of both teams a few days before their showdown.

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

Sam Kekuaokalani, Kealakehe coach: "Jelling. I guess we're peaking at the right time. We're just now getting things together, both the run and the passing game. We are coming together, I think — I believe — at the right time."

Kaeo Drummondo, Hilo coach: "Building. I think we're still a work in progress with this group. I think the feel in practice and the feel in games has been consistent improvement, but I think that there's still a long ways to go. When you put on the film and you watch our last few games, there's some good happening but at the same time there's still a lot of areas that we can improve in."

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

Kekuaokalani: "We're a lot closer than we think we are and I hope I say this right, but what I mean by that, is we are maybe just one step away, as opposed to one block away — if that makes sense — from really doing some good things here, so we're pretty close, as opposed to being further away."

Drummondo: "We've consistently been getting better. I think every week you want to try and play the perfect game, how close you get to it? It's hard. I don't think you're ever going to play the perfect game, but you try and for us, biggest thing is unforced errors — staying onsides, not jumping offsides, making sure we're taking care of the football, alignment, assignment, especially defensively — so for us, in order to get to our maximum potential it's about minimizing our unforced errors and game planning. It's hard to tell how far or how close we are to it. From our perspective we are gauging it by are the kids executing the techniques and schemes we're trying to go over, and if they are then we can call it a success."

ScoringLive: Who or what is the heart of your team?

Kekuaokalani: "The heart of our team would probably be our line, our o-line. That would probably be the best. To put specific individuals besides the o-line, it would probably be guys like Ikaika Pali, Koarii Atkinson-Sioloa — these guys, they're the heart of the team, so to speak — on the o-line specifically, it would be guys like sets Setu Vole, Alan Awana and Shea Kedekein, these guys would be considered the heart of the team."

Drummondo: "That's a tough one this year. It's not like we have that one explosive playmaker, like we had last year with Kahale Huddleston. I think overall i've been happy just with the overall team effort that we've had. I think from the offensive perspective, we totally had to rebuild the o-line and we've been happy with the way they've executed all season. We're happy with how we're starting to develop offensively as far as what we want to do, where we can to go with the football. Our quarterback, Kyan (Miyasato) is doing a lot better job of managing games and getting the ball to our receivers, and our running back, Kaleo Ramos has been consistent for us and running the ball well. Defensively, it continues to be a work in progress. We're trying to build an entire new front and they're slowly starting to learn what we want and need out of them, so overall it's just good to see a total team effort. How do you fill the void of playmakers that are gone on both sides of the football? The simplest way to answer that is by everybody stepping up and filling it a little bit more."

ScoringLive: Which game this season has proven to be most beneficial for your team?

Kekuaokalani: "I would say the Desert Hill game in Utah. That would be the most beneficial, just becoming exposed to that level of football, just that quality of a program — not to say that the quality of programs here are not that good — but in Utah it was meeting the guys, seeing what they do, basically before practice, in school, while going to class, out of class or after school, before practice, during practice and after practice, meeting their coach, seeing how they prepped and then also while we were there we were able to visit three different colleges that are three different levels, namely UNLV, Southern Utah University and Dixie State, so that whole trip was a whole benefit but the game itself was an eye-opener for us. It really helped us to prepare a lot better when we got home and when we got home, our season opener was against KS-Big Island, and it was a shootout and that was a good game, too, but I think the most beneficial game was Desert Hills. I think coming away from that game gave us a lot of insight and things we needed to improve upon for sure and things we didn't do so well at."

Drummondo: "That's a tough one. Honestly, I think all the games were equally important for us as far as building chemistry as a group and at the end of the day in the BIIF you play to be one of the top two seeds in your division and you want to be top seed because you want home-field advantage, so probably going out to Kealakehe and winning there early in the season and putting ourselves in the driver's seat to secure home field for the season was probably a good springing board for this year."

ScoringLive: What are your thoughts on this week's opponent and the problems they present?

Kekuaokalani: "Hilo, definitely we respect them, they're a respectable team, They won the state championship last year, they've got a great coaching staff, so they've got a great team, period. They play all together really well, they listen to their coaches, they seem very disciplined, coach has them doing what they need to do in order to win and I know they had a good preseason and season as well, so they've got a lot of good things in their favor right now. It's going to be a tough one for us."

Drummondo: "I think Kealekehe is the same as they have been. They're big, they're physical, they have athletes on both sides of the football, so I'm expecting them to be excited about this game. It's a one-game opportunity to win the league championship and go to states. Offensively, they're an explosive team and can make big plays, so defensively we gotta recognize formations and where their playmakers are at and limit the big plays, play good, fundamentally-sound football try to take the ball away. Defensively they throw a few different looks at you, so you just gotta get the offense prepared for what to expect and distribute the ball to where it needs to go. We have playmakers on the outside, so we have to find them and let them make plays for us."

ScoringLive: How different is your team from the first meeting?

Kekuaokalani: "It's different in the sense of personnel. We didn't have the personnel that we did when we first played them initially. We were down a quarterback at the start, we didn't have Kainoa Jones at the time — he had to sit out because of a previous unsportsmanlike conduct penalty from the previous game — and I don't think our running game was as good as it is now from the first time we played them. I think we're better prepared this time — that's the hope, that's what we're planning for."

Drummondo: "I think we're different. We watched the film of our first game on Saturday together and especially from a defensive perspective i think a lot of the IQ mistakes we made that game for the most part have been corrected. Hopefully some of the execution stuff will be clean up as far as alignment and assignment. At the end of the day, we gotta clean it up Friday night. Offense and  special teams, I'd like to think we've steadily improved. Of course, over the course of the season from then to now there's hiccups in games, but you've gotta get over adversity. Overall I think we've improved and I hope that shows Friday night not just in the score, but in how we execute on the field."

ScoringLive: Complete the sentence: We win Friday's game if _________?

Kekuaokalani: "We win Friday's game if we play a perfect game. Simple as that. We need to play a perfect game — no mistakes — and basically stop them from executing their game plan, so I think that's as simple as that."

Drummondo: "We win Friday's game if we are focused on the task at hand and it really started (Monday) with our game week preparation, so for us in our program, it's not really about Friday night, it's about today's practice — Monday through Thursday — and come Friday night, it's no different than any other game. It's about executing, taking care of the football and being a part of a team. If we execute then the scoreboard will take care of itself. ‘Just go out there and take care of every snap.' "

Kickoff between the Waveriders and Vikings is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Dr. Francis Wong Stadium.