Alfred Failauga and the Waipahu Marauders host Samson Rasay and the Kailua Surfriders Saturday night to close out the regular season. ScoringLive photo illustration

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Waipahu football coach Bryson Carvalho doesn't typically like to talk about the past, but he certainly wouldn't mind if history were to repeats itself for his Marauders starting this weekend.

Just as it did last season, Waipahu (3-5 overall, 3-2 league) will close out the regular season against Kailua (4-5, 3-2) Saturday night. Both teams have already punched their ticket to the four-team Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I tournament, but the winner will be seeded third and the loser fourth.

"I think this year kind of reminds me a lot about last year," Waipahu coach Bryson Carvalho said. "It's kind of the same scenario, same situation — we win this game and we're third again, we go to Leilehua (for the semifinals) again, and it's kind of very similar to a year ago."

A year ago — to the day, in fact, of Saturday's matchup — the Marauders rallied from an early deficit to a 12-6 win in overtime with Alfred Failauga's 8-yard touchdown run serving as the winning score.

Waipahu went on to upset second-seeded Leilehua on the road in the semifinal round. Its win over Kailua ignited a five-game win streak to end the 2018 season, which included an OIA championship and culminated with the first state championship in school history.

"In the win-loss category there's some frustration there, but maturity-wise I think we've grown," Carvalho said. "We're starting to figure things out a little bit and we're hoping, like a year ago, we blossom at the same time."

Unlike their 2018 schedule, however, the Marauders are coming off of a bye last week and have not played since a 44-41 overtime win against Aiea on Sept. 27.

"The bye came at a good time. it allowed us to kind of rest up a little bit and move some guys around. There's some adjustments that we're making personnel-wise," Carvalho said. "We just want to make sure we've got guys in the right spot going into the playoffs, whether we have guys going two ways or switching guys to the other side of the ball, we just want to make sure we're in the best position to win for each game going forward."

Despite the changes in personnel, one thing is certain: Failauga will be THE running back and focal point of the Waipahu offense — just as he has been for much of the past three-plus seasons. While the 2019 schedule has been a tumultuous one for the Marauders, Failauga has been steady, if not astounding. The 5-foot-11, 190-pound senior has run for a state-best 1,593 yards and 17 touchdowns.

"It's a no-brainer: he's Alfred," Kailua coach Joe Wong said of Failauga, the state all-time leading rusher. "They put the workload on him. You can see that by the touches that he has a game, sometimes 35 to 45 carries a game."

Wong isn't exaggerating the numbers: Failauga has 220 rushing attempts in seven games played this season, an average of 31.4 carries per game. He had back-to-back games of 39 attempts in games against Castle (338 yards, 5 TDs) and Leilehua (182 yards, TD) and topped that a few weeks later with his 42-carry effort against Iolani (281 yards, 2 TDs). Failauga is coming off a 31-carry, 281-yard, 5-TD performance against Aiea.

"It's going to be a good test for our defense to play assignment football out there and if we do, I know we're a good tackling team and we rally to the ball, but we have to be on our toes at all times because he's a very good player and he's proven it against everyone that he's played against, so we just have to do our job and not do our own thing on the football field and if we do that collectively as a defensive unit I feel we'll be fine," Wong said.

The Surfriders have been tough against the run for most of the season, holding opponents to an average of 71.6 yards per game. Until a 28-12 loss to Damien at Aloha Stadium late last month, Kailua had not allowed any team, let alone individual rush for triple digits. However, the Monarchs tallied 237 yards from its ground game, led by Amo Sulu's 179 yards on 28 carries.

"I feel that wasn't our best effort against Damien, but it's good that we were there (at Aloha Stadium), because I feel that if we do everything right, we'll be back in that stage again, in that stadium setting," Wong said. "(Prior to that game) we haven't been in the stadium in a long time and maybe at one point in the game it fazed them, so it's good to have that wake-up call early and I don't think we played our best football."

Kailua was unable to overcome those big-game jitters against the Monarchs, but showed some resilience in a come-from-behind win over Castle last Saturday to clinch a spot in the playoffs.

The Knights led 21-6 midway through the second quarter, but the Surfriders reeled off 20 unanswered points and pitched a second-half shutout to rally to the 26-21 victory.

"I think this past weekend was good for us, to be in a hole. You never want to be in a hole, but you could see them keep their composure and their character and trying to right the wrongs out there on the football field," Wong said.

Since an 0-3 start to the season, Kailua has gone 4-2, including wins in three of its last four games. Like the team itself, running back/slot back Samson Rasay is coming on strong as of late. The 5-foot-9, 185-pound senior ran for 190 yards on 25 carries against Castle. His 5-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter proved to be the winning score. Rasay also caught a TD pass from quarterback Cameron Friel just before halftime.

Friel, a 6-foot-4, 205-pound junior, has passed for 1,197 yards and 17 TDs. In his last four games, Friel has 12 TD passes to one interception. The Surfriders have their share of options when it comes to the passing game. Koalii Kohatsu (30 receptions, 333 yards, 6 TDs), Kamryn Kahoonei (12-230-4) and Raynen Ho Mook (22-229-4) have shared in the wealth, along with Rasay (18-186-1).

Carvalho said its the other side of the football, however, that has him worried the most.

"They're very big up front, they're physical, their D-line is huge — they're massive and our o-line is very small, so we got some concerns there up front — and they're physical. I mean, look at last week, they were down in the first half and ended up coming back and any time you've got a team with that kind of attitude and mantra it's hard to go up against," Carvalho said. "If you look at their losses, a lot of them were close games, so I don't let the record dictate how tough of a team they are. I think they're a very good football team and we've got our hands full on Saturday night."

Perhaps it is for good reason that Carvalho is concerned. After all, his defense has allowed 234.9 passing yards and 332.1 total yards per game this season.

Those numbers don't exactly tell the whole story, however. There has most certainly been growth beyond the statistics.

"You're starting to see our kids starting to come together," Carvalho said. "You always want to go in and win every game, but I really believe that there's some kind of learning lesson in all losses and for me, as long as the kids take something from it and learn from it."

Carvalho said a 2-5 start to the season has resulted in a lot of self-reflection for his team.

"They learned to re-evaluate themselves and how they prepare, watching film more, how they practice; all those little aspects are really important," Carvalho said. "I told them it's so important for them to watch film and see the guy that they're going to go up against every play, see his tendencies, see his shortcoming, see his strengths — it's so important — and I think for a little bit we took that for granted and we started to get back on track and we're starting to do a lot better now, which is good."

Wong has seen much of the same type of growth from his bunch and is hoping to borrow a blueprint from Carvalho and the Marauders the rest of the way.

"It's all about timing in football and playoff time, I mean, you get hot at the right time and anything can happen; look at what Waipahu did last year," Wong said. "I feel by us winning last week, having an awesome showing in all three phases of the game and then coming to play Waipahu this week, it's everything. It's basically the same scenario for us and them as well because they're coming off of a win over Aiea before their bye, so there's no telling what can happen. Playoff time, it's about who rises to the occasion and I'm hoping that my team is the one that catches fire from here on out."

The winner of Saturday's game will visit Hugh Yoshida Stadium to face No. 2 seed Leilehua, while the loser will travel to top-seeded Moanalua in the semifinals next weekend.

Kickoff between the Surfriders and Marauders is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at the Masa Yonamine Athletic Complex.