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Iolani football coach Wendell Look does not mince his words when asked what his team's approach will be for Friday's regular-season finale against Saint Louis II. 

The Raiders (5-0) have locked up the Interscholastic League of Honolulu's lone berth for the Division I state tournament a few months down the road. The Saints (1-0), meanwhile, are ineligible for postseason consideration. 

Friday's game between Iolani and Saint Louis II — scheduled for a 3:15 p.m. kickoff at Kozuki Stadium — essentially has no bearing for either team, at least, as far as the league standings go. 

Look could not disagree more. 

"This is going to be a test of their maturity, the character of this team and to see where they're at," said the 30th-year Raiders coach. "If they want to be a championship team, championship teams don't take games off."

Iolani secured their spot in states with a 38-0 thrashing of Damien last week. 

"I think any time you can have something that's kind of guaranteed, there's always some sense of relief in there," Look said. 

He was quick, however, to caution his team about looking ahead beyond the Crusaders. 

"But I told the kids after the game that we've got one more game that we're finishing and whatever it is — whether it's a drill, a game, a practice — we've got one more game left in the season and that is the one that is coming up and that's why it's the most important game," he said. "Regardless of the stipulations our focus is one week at a time and this is our next game."

Iolani's defense has been stingy, to say the least. Opponents are averaging a mere 5.4 points and 112.6 yards per game. 

The Raiders have posted shut outs in three of their five games this season, but Look noted that unlike Damien and PAC-5 — which employ run-heavy offenses — Saint Louis II will test their sturdiness against the pass. 

In their only game this season — a 34-14 win over Damien back on Sept. 17 — the Crusaders posted 431 total yards, including 336 through the air and three touchdowns on 30-of-47 passing by quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, who was not intercepted. 

Against Kamehameha II, Iolani allowed 202 passing yards by the Warriors, but got a pair of interceptions from Jacob Gaudi to help his team hold on for the 35-20 victory. 

"Kamehameha threw the ball well against us, obviously, Saint Louis is a passing team and we haven't faced a true passing team and so this will be a good test for us to see where we stand in that regard," Look said. 

Sagapolutele's favorite target against Damien was 6-foot-2 sophomore wide receiver Kache Kaio, who hauled in touchdown receptions of 24, 15 and 36 yards — all in the first half — and finished with nine catches for 172 yards. 

"I think we have a good corps of receivers, so whoever we line up against, that's gonna be a matchup issue that they're gonna have to account for because especially with Kache, he's so big and fast, how do you stop that guy?," Saint Louis II coach Dillard Spray said. "And it helps that he and my quarterback have been playing together for years, so their timing is just great."

Spray also feels that another key matchup within the game Friday will be when his offense faces the Raiders' defense. 

"I think their hybrid defenders versus our offensive line; I think that's gonna be key because they're so athletic and they come from all angles," Spray specified. "My o-linemen better have their head on a swivel, keep their shoulders square and just know that just because they show a three-man front, they're bringing someone on every day."

Gaudi, a 5-foot-9, 170-pound junior, and Stirling Sakashita, a 5-foot-10, 165-pound senior, are among the Raiders who play the hybrid position. 

On the other side of the ball, running back Brody Bantolina has been a study in consistency. The 5-foot-8, 160-pound senior is averaging 6.6 yards per carry and 101 yards per game. He has scored a team-high 10 touchdowns this season. 

Iolani is averaging 157.2 rushing yards per game and 147.8 through the air. Junior Micah Hoomanawanui has passed for 659 yards, six TDs and one interception in his first season as the starter. The 5-foot-11, 165-pound quarterback has completed 54.9 percent (56 of 102) of his passes. 

"I think it's a work in progress," Look assessed. "I think Micah's in a great situation, not only because he has a run game that he can rely on, I think he's got more than adequate receivers, enough weapons around him for him to have to just run the offense; He doesn't need to do anything heroic, just run the offense, then we'll be efficient and effective."

While Friday's game will be the last in ILH play for the Raiders, the Crusaders are just getting started; they will be playing four Fridays in a row beginning this week, until their season finale against Kamehameha II on Oct. 22. 

"Right, so it's funny that their season is coming to an end and we still have a month," laughed Spray, who has been the Saint Louis JV coach for the last three years. 

Both Saint Louis's and Kamehameha's JV squads were "promoted" to D2 this season, as a means to fill out the varsity schedule for the private-school league, but are both ineligible for the state tournament. 

"I'm excited because, I gotta tell you, as a player having played against Iolani and having coached against them for many years, I see them every year and one thing for sure about Iolani is they are very technically sound. I mean, it's hard to find flaws in their game and if you make mistakes, they will make you pay," Spray said. "We watch film and you don't see a lot of mistakes, but they just do their thing; they like to play field position and they're very methodical, very uptempo and as soon as you give that ball up on your side of the field, they're gonna make you pay, so I'm excited, I think it's gonna be a good challenge for the boys."

Like every other team, the Crusaders have had to endure their share of hardship related to COVID-19 protocols. They had their first scheduled game (against PAC-5 in late August canceled. Later, the ILH announced that the game had, in fact, been rescheduled to Oct. 15. 

"It's been kind of a lot of anticipation and it just seems like every day I'm waiting to get some kind of email, but the challenge, of course, is keeping the kids motivated and having them understand that we live in unprecedented times and it's tough to even put together a practice schedule because you don't even know who's gonna be in practice, but we're getting by," Spray said. "Like everybody else, we're getting by."

Spray was pleased with what he saw from his team in what little game action it has had. Saint Louis II jumped out to a 21-0 first-quarter lead on the Monarchs en route to the 20-point margin of victory. 

"Oh, that was huge and only because I was concerned that a lot of these boys — if not all of them — never played on TV and they knew it was gonna be televised and I was concerned," Spray admitted. "I tried to keep them grounded, explaining to them about the situation and I was hoping they wouldn't come out flat, or try to play outside themselves, but it worked out really great and maybe because there were no fans, they forgot that they were on TV."

But, as any coach would surely mutter, there was certainly room for improvement. 

"We had some hiccups. We had nine penalties, dropped balls, we fumbled the ball three times, we didn't capitalize on a lot of red zone chances, but all in all, these kids, for their first real game, they played really well; I was very pleased," Spray assessed. 

As a means to help keep the competitive juices flowing during their bye weeks, the Crusaders got creative. 

"I wanted them to get the feel of a game day, the pre-game experience and a game day experience, so we actually split our team into two and we went throughout practice that week as if it was a game week, so Thursday we did our pregame and on Friday we actually drew uniforms and one team was home, one team was away and we played each other just to get them some game time situations and they were really, really excited," Spray said. 

The creativity proved to be beneficial and the competition in practices have remained at a high level, much to Spray's delight. 

"Even though they knew we were scrimmaging each other, in their eyes we were playing a game, but you definitely gotta get creative when you have those long periods," he said. "You can't beat up on each other every day, so you get creative, but the main goal is we stay in shape and get our mental reps, if anything."

As for Look, who is also the ILH football coordinator, he is pleased with what his team has been able to accomplish so far, but the wins are a secondary achievement to being able to conduct a season at all. 

"Every week is kind of a crapshoot of how all different kinds of things can go and what happens on the field is probably third on the list of priorities, so again — knock on wood — to have gotten this far in the season, I think, is a win for everybody and yeah, we're happy, obviously, with how the wins and losses have gone, but we're just happy that kids can play," Look said. 

The game will be streamed live on Iolani School's YouTube channel.