Kalae Akui and the Hilo Vikings take on Alfred Failauga and the Waipahu Marauders Saturday afternoon for the Division I state title. ScoringLive photo illustration

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Waipahu's Cody Marques hands the ball off to RB Alfred Failauga in the Marauders' season opener against Waianae. CJ Caraang | SL

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Vikings and Marauders will converge at Aloha Stadium this weekend.

The Vikings are in possession of an elusive treasure and the Marauders want to wrest it away.

But we're not talking about gold or silver. Instead, the prize up for grabs is made out of koa wood.

Defending state champion Hilo will tackle Waipahu Saturday afternoon in the First Hawaiian Bank Division I Football State Championships title game at Hawaiian Financial FCU Field at Aloha Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 4:30 p.m.

The Hilo Vikings, the BIIF Division I champion, won their first-ever state title last season with a 35-19 win over Damien while the Waipahu Marauders are seeking their first state crown in school history after moving up from Division II a year ago.

It will be Hilo's second time on Oahu in 2018. The Vikings (9-1) traveled with a limited squad to face Campbell in the first week of the season. The Sabers won convincingly, 54-14, but Hilo coach Kaeo Drummondo said the contest was worth it as his squad ripped off nine straight wins since then.

"Although that game was tough for us to swallow and it was a tough physical game, it paid dividends for the players that traveled and played, and it just gives them a glimpse of the type of competition that you're going to expect to play if you make it to states and if you're fortunate enough to make it to the state championship."

The Vikings held off Maui to reach the title game, 35-24, but the Marauders (9-4) had an even tougher task in their semifinal matchup against Iolani. Waipahu trailed 19-7 at the half, but rallied to win it by one point, 20-19, against a team that beat the Marauders early in the season, 55-14.

Waipahu coach Bryson Carvalho is hoping that his team can continue to ride the momentum against Hilo.

"Talk about true spirit of Marauders," he said. "That's kind of what we want to do and that's kind of the motivating factor going into the game. There's no other team that they want to face, but the defending champ. There's no other team that we wanted to face last (game), but Iolani. We wanted to make sure that we proved a point and we want to make sure we prove a point again Saturday night against the Vikings."

In order to do that, the Marauders will have to clean up a lot of self-inflicted mistakes. In their semifinal win over Iolani, Waipahu drew 23 flags resulting in 244 yards in penalties.

"First and foremost we got to be more disciplined," said Carvalho. "I don't mind the holding call, I don't mind the effort penalties, you're trying…but it's the stupid penalties, it's the 15-yarders after the whistle. That kind of stuff we have to make sure that it's totally wiped out.

"It's been addressed the last week and a half and we're going to continue to address it throughout the whole week and hopefully we'll be ready to go on Saturday."

Outside of that, the Marauders have been a prolific team, especially since the start of the postseason. Although it lost four games during league play, Waipahu was able to avenge a 50-20 homecoming loss to Leilehua in the OIA D1 semifinals before going on to beat Castle for the league crown, 32-3, one year after winning the OIA D2 title.

The numbers speak for themselves. Offensively the Marauders are averaging 321.8 yards per game behind a balanced effort between first-year starting quarterback Cody Marques and junior running back Alfred Failauga.

Waipahu's Cody Marques hands the ball off to RB Alfred Failauga in the Marauders' season opener against Waianae. CJ Caraang | SL    Purchase image

Marques' touchdown-to-interception ratio is even at 10 and 10, but he has been a steady passer with 2,146 yards on a 60.9 percent completion rate. Failauga, who was the OIA D2 Offensive Player of the Year as a freshman, has already rushed for 1,012 yards and nine scores despite missing four games with a broken left hand injury.

The Marauders' defense has also played better since suffering back-to-back losses towards the end of the regular season. Waipahu did not allow a TD during the OIA playoffs and has recorded 11 total interceptions in three postseason games. Safety Deacon Kapea leads the effort with a state-high nine picks, three of which came against Iolani.

Drummundo said he is "very impressed" with what he has seen from Waipahu this year.

"Their players are well-tested," he said. "I think they do a lot well. They're big, they're physical. I think the biggest difference between their physicality and some of the other teams that we've played is that their athletic."

The Vikings rode workhorse RB Kahale Huddleston (1,463 rush yards, 206 total points scored) to the state title last year, but have been more balanced in 2018.

Three receivers shoulder the bulk of the load in Kyler Aguiar (30 catches, 565 yards, eight TDs), Guyson Ogata (27 receptions, 452 yards, nine TDs) and Kalae Akui (32 catches, 402 yards, four TDs). Kaleo Ramos has also proved himself to be a stable RB with 730 rushing yards on a 5.9 yard-per-carry clip.

The key has been the quarterback position however. Junior signal-caller Kyan Miyasato was on academic probation to start the year last season and was not with the team during the state tournament. This year is a different story.

"Kyan has come a long way," Drummondo said of his QB, who has thrown for 1,532 yards and 20 scores. "Mentally understanding the offenses and coverages and not getting down on himself. It's a long game, you have to learn how to move to onto the next play because the next play can always be a positive one for us."

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Led by guys like cornerback Elijah Apao and rover Kahiau Walker, the Vikings have pitched four shutouts this season, but Drummondo knows its going to be a tall task trying to stop the Marauders' offense.

"They have a lot of long athletic players, they have some shifty playmakers. A lot of problems that you probably have to face no matter who you play at this time of year."

The game will follow the D2 title game matchup between Lahainaluna and Kapaa and will precede the Open Division championship between Saint Louis and Mililani.