Moanalua CB Rashod Tanner comes down with an INT against Leilehua when the two teams met in late August earlier in the season. Michael Lasquero | SL

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The Oahu Interscholastic Association football season culminates this weekend when it crowns a trio of champions in Halawa Saturday.

The triple header at Aloha Stadium kicks off with the Division II title game between third-seeded Kaimuki (9-2) and top-seeded Roosevelt (9-1) at 2 p.m. The nightcap features second-seeded Kahuku (7-3) and No. 1 seed Mililani (8-3) facing off at 7:30 p.m. in the Open Division final.

While both of those games include defending champions in the Rough Riders and Trojans, a new titlist will be crowned in Division I, where second-seeded Leilehua (9-1), the No. 8 team in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Power Rankings, will meet top-seeded and 10th-ranked Moanalua (9-1).

The Mules knocked off defending league and state champion Waipahu by a score of 13-7 in last week's semifinal round, while Na Menehune secured their spot in this week's title game with a 21-14 victory over Kailua.

Both teams punched their ticket to next month's First Hawaiian Bank State Championships by reaching the OIA final. A year ago, both squads saw their season end abruptly after being upset at home in the semifinal round of the OIA tournament.

The teams met at Leilehua's Hugh Yoshida Stadium back on Aug. 30 of this season. The Mules struck early to take a quick lead, but saw Na Menehune reel off 24 straight points en route to a 24-20 win.

Moanalua took the lead for good on a 6-yard touchdown pass from quarterback RJ Javar to slotback Rudy Kealoha with 4:20 left in the third quarter. It got a couple of insurance scores within a minute of each other in the fourth quarter, when Javar completed a short pass from his own end zone to slotback Jansen York, who turned it into a 99-yard TD and linebacker Jett Tanigawa got his hands on a pass deflected by cornerback Rashod Tanner and returned it for a 32-yard interception and score.

Leilehua got a pair of touchdown passes from quarterback Kekoa Turangan to wide receiver Jonathan Vasquez in the closing minutes.

Since then the Mules have won six straight games. Na Menehune won their first eight games before falling to Damien by a score of 22-17 on Oct. 11, their lone loss on the year.

We caught up with the coaches, Leilehua's Mark Kurisu and Moanalua's Savaii Eselu, a few days before their title bout Saturday.

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

Mark Kurisu, Leilehua coach: "Blessed. Going into these last few games we've really had to refocus, have a change of heart. I think people have seen the growth from when we played Iolani to how we played (against) Waipahu and the change was just that our focus wasn't about trying to win every game and trying to make big plays, (but) we looked at it as an opportunity to just play together, so for these last few weeks our mantra, our motto has been ‘OMD.' One more day to get tighter as a family, to work, to learn, laugh, play and pick each other up. We think about as it as we would with our loved ones, if you could have one more day what would you do with it? It really hit home just last week when one of our offensive linemen lost his grandma, so that message of ‘OMD' rang true to him. Having that pressure of wanting to win isn't there, we're just out there working and good things happen when you put in the work, so we're very blessed to have that opportunity moving forward."

Savaii Eselu, Moanalua coach: "For us it would be eager. Eager, for sure. Just the opportunity to compete once again against such a prestigious program like Leilehua, I mean, that's great. That's perfect, that's the best way you want to go out, so what better way to end the OIA portion of the season against them and Kurisu and company, but eager would be the best word. We can't wait to play ball with them again and it's very cool that this time it's for very, very high stakes."

How close is your team to playing to its full potential?

Kurisu: "We're getting there, we're getting there. We still make some mistakes that we shouldn't be, but that comes with youthfulness, that comes with experience — sometimes a lack of — but you gotta go through it sometimes to be calm in that moment. I can't explain how crazy that Waipahu game was and just how tight it was for both sides of the ball. I thought both defenses did great, both offenses did what they did and we were fortunate to come out ahead, but Waipahu did a great job of stopping us on fourth-and-1 and so for us, it's just a matter of looking at what we need to fix and defensively just getting healthy."

Eselu: "I would say pretty close. The only reason is because every day, regardless of practice or game or whatever, our motto is ‘fourth-and-goal every day,' and that's kind of what we've prided ourselves on, built ourselves on, that way of life in terms of preparing week in and week out. It's say it's very close to its full potential. I mean, especially that the season is almost pau, you better reach your full potential soon or that's it, but I just feel we've got to continue to put our players and coaches in uncomfortable and chaotic situations in practice. If we do that, that's the only way you can reach your full potential and if we can make our practices harder than the games, then we'll have give ourselves the best shot and so I'd say very close."

Where has your team taken its greatest strides and who has been the driving force of that?

Kurisu: "Our greatest strides would probably be just the trust that they have within one another. We try to execute as best as we can, but it's when we struggle when the biggest growth happens — seeing teammates pick each other up, offense picking up the defense, defense picking up the offense, special teams so on and so forth — in those tough moments, seeing them stand by each others' sides and trying to work through it. Before we would be in the moment and maybe too into yourself that you don't hear other people trying to pick you up and going into this season, you hear the kids trying to pick each other up. Yeah, you might have made a mistake, but your boys are still here and got your back because it might be the other way around and we might make a mistake and need you to pick us up next time."

Eselu: "I would say the greatest strides have come in our training and preparation and that answer comes from last year's offseason, the 2018 offseason going into the fall season of 2018. It would be our training and preparation and I would have to credit that to a guy named Tosh Lupoi. He was my defensive line coach at Cal, but he was defensive coordinator at Alabama in the 2018 season. I went to Tuscaloosa with Tupu and Tyson Alulu, we went for a ‘Bama skills camp with Tupu and I got the opportunity to talk with (Nick) Saban, cruised with Lupoi and talked with him and Galu (Tagovailoa). I learned about this thing called the ‘Fourth Quarter Program.' It's pretty much Saban's program and with that I got a very strong sense of his program and really understood why ‘Bama was dominant. I brought it back to Moanalua and it worked out well to where the season was what it was last year and then the season is how it is currently this year. We've taken tremendous strides in the right direction with our training and preparation, but the coolest thing I learned with Saban's stuff is it's never about the individual — like the player or the coach — it's never about the individual, it's never about the wins, it's always about the process of being successful, so our version of the ‘Fourth Quarter Program' is all about respecting that process. The hot topic is winning and the scholarship offers, but to me those will come; it's always been about the process and there's where I think our team has made it's greatest strides, is in embracing that process to just make it ‘fourth-and-goal every day.' "

What would a win Saturday mean for this program and community?

Kurisu: "I guess validation that you can win from within your community. We can win from our community of Wahiawa and if everybody just commits and sees the small picture first in terms of the things that we want to teach, not just as athletes, but young men and students, that the greater reward will come later. It's always good to see the bigger picture, but the smaller snapshot will show our guys that they don't have to look anywhere else. Our community of Wahiawa has a tremendous amount of talent, tremendous amount of good kids. We had a team GPA of 3.2 this year, just one kid on (academic probation) who is brand new to our team, so I couldn't be prouder of what they've done and seeing these kids do community outreach stuff. They're taking these snapshots and now they're seeing this massive collage and it's just amazing to see. We could not do this without all of our families and spouses of the coaches, because both us and Moanalua are carrying this season out as long as possible and we couldn't do it without their support."

Eselu: "Well, history, for sure. A win — I'm pretty sure a win would be tremendous for the program and the community — and being that it's a championship game, it'll etch Moanalua football in the books forever, but I think it'll more so validate the overall team effort from top down, from principal (Robin) Martin) to athletic director (Joel) Kawachi, all the teachers, trainers and especially the parents, I think it'll solidify the efforts of our football family and just the overall Moanalua community. Shoot, even if we lose, credit goes to all the leaders and the people who got us to where we are now; it's a good position to be in … but we'd like a win though."

What did the first meeting against this week's opponent reveal to you about your team and theirs?

Kurisu: "Just growth, really. We gave up two big plays and they executed in the moment. They made a great 99-yard touchdown pass and all it took was one of our guys to misalign and the quarterback, wide receiver, line all did their job and hit it. Then we come back on offense, their corner (Tanner) makes a great play, a hustling linebacker (Tanigawa) makes a great play on the ball in the air and pick-6, but it showed our kids that despite those mistakes we had a shot. We lost by four (points), we had a turnover off a run, they got a score, we gave ourselves a shot on an onside kick, missed it, but even with that, it showed that we can battle through it and if we can eliminate our mistakes, good things really happen for us."

Eselu: "About our team, it revealed that we're resilient in a way where they can take on the coaching schemes, the game changing, the game planning, they can take it on the fly, especially with a team like Leilehua because they can attack you from any where, at any angle, at any moment's notice because everything is on the fly, so it revealed that we have what it takes to compete with the top dogs and Leilehua being one of them, but on the other hand it also revealed that Leilehua can blast you at any point in time if you fall asleep. They just have so many weapons, so much power and it's like a never-ending thing in Wahiawa — every year they always have studs that come out of there and this year's no difference and this week is no different. They're definitely battle-tested and I know they're hungry for great competition, too, that's what Kurisu and his staff do up there and I'm expecting nothing less than the best with that in terms of this week."

Complete the sentence: We will win Saturday's game if __________.

Kurisu: "We stay together, we stay united no matter what, just like how we did against Waipahu. No matter what the situation, to understand that these games are supposed to be hard, it's supposed to be tight, we've just got to stay locked into each other, not just offense, defense or special teams, but as a team."

Eselu: "If we take care of the little things, all the little things and that's just a generality, from the offensive line — I'm pretty sure everyone always says, ‘if we win the battle up front' — but I'm just speaking of it from how well of a preparation week will you have in terms of taking care of the little things. How well did you lift? How well did you run? How well did you take care of your grades? We will win if we take care of the little things."

Moanalua's only OIA championship came in 2009, when it hoisted the league's D2 title.

Leilehua is seeking its first league championship since 2007 and its fifth overall.

The winner of Saturday's game will secure a spot in the D1 state semifinals on Nov. 23, while the loser will have to travel off-island for a first-round game on Nov. 15.

Kickoff between the Mules and Na Menehune is slated for 4:45 p.m.