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There is no rest for the weary when it comes to playoff football and such is the case for the Kealakehe football team.

The Waveriders are wounded - having lost starting quarterback Tyler Yates to a broken bone in his leg Saturday night - but face their biggest game of the year Friday when Leilehua comes to town for an opening-round game of the First Hawaiian Bank/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I Football State Championships.

The Mules, ranked fourth in the ScoringLive/OC16 Power Rankings, finished as the third-place team in the Oahu Interscholastic Association and bring a 9-1-1 record to the Big Island. Kealakehe, tied for eighth in the SL/OC16 Power Rankings, won the Big Island Interscholastic Federation Division I title with a 10-1 overall record under interim head coach Sam Kekuaokalani.

Yates suffered a fractured fibula in Saturday's 60-18 win over Kea'au in the BIIF title game.

"He's going to be out and that's certainly going to hurt because he's part of the reason why we've come this far," Kekuaokalani said of Yates. "We're always strived to prepare our boys for the unprepared situation - which means that in our day-to-day coaching, we should be teaching the next guy and the next guy, not just one person."

Whatsmore, backup quarterback Jacob Ontiveros, who is the team's leading receiver, is questionable due to an injured shoulder suffered Saturday.

"Our next backup would be (John) Kamoku - he's been a rushing back for us," said Kekuaokalani.

"We'll look at him and we'll try our best, but it's going to be tough going with our third-stringer, but I think we'll be all right, we'll probably keep it simple. We're probably going to run a little bit more than usual."

The Waveriders have a proven running back in UCLA-bound Psalm Wooching, who has rushed for 816 yards and 14 touchdowns this season.

Defensively, Kekuaokalani knows his team will have its hands full with the Mules' high-powered passing attack. Leilehua averages over 32 points on 321 yards of total offense - including 282 passing - per game.

"They're a passing-type team, so we're really going to have to emphasize that this week in practice and hopefully make the adjustment and execute," said Kekuaokalani, who added that the loss of Ontiveros hurts them defensively, too. "We'd like him in the secondary to help cover, but we're unsure of his availability. Leilehua is great on the pass-rush blocking and I'm hoping that we can put pressure on them up front and hopefully distort their timing a little bit, but they've got a great receiver in (Jeremiah) Andrade, so stopping him will definitely be a tough task."

Andrade leads the team with 59 receptions for 779 yards and 11 touchdowns. Quarterback Kenan Sadanaga has completed over 67 percent (250 of 370) of his passes for 2,796 - tops in the state - with 37 touchdowns against 18 interceptions.

For Leilehua, traveling is nothing new as it has frequented the Valley Isle several times in recent years for first-round games against Baldwin. Mules' interim head coach Mark Kurisu said he will draw back on those experiences to help structure this trip.

"It's huge, it's helped us out in terms of planning, so we have a set schedule of what we want to do, where we want to go, when to rest, so that experience does help a lot, but we do have a brand new bunch of kids also, so it's a matter of continuing to be disciplined and follow our guidelines," Kurisu said.

Leilehua rebounded from a 9-7 loss to Kahuku in the OIA semifinal round with its 34-14 win over Campbell for third place.

"Even with that loss to Kahuku, we felt that we had momentum off of that game and we felt that defensively, we had some mistakes, gave up some yards and points that we shouldn't have," Kurisu said. "Offensively, we should have been able to put some points up on the board, but that was on me as a coach, not utilizing timeouts and taking time to make the best play possible for our group. We were going with the flow of things and that didn't work out, but coming out of that game, we did have a lot of confidence."

Kealakehe had the luxury of reviewing game tape of its opponents from televised games on OC16, but Kurisu said he has also acquired film on the Waveriders.

"We kind of have an idea of what they like to run, some of their strengths and we're just going to try and look at what we have in our packages offensively, defensively and on special teams and see what will help to make our team most successful," said Kurisu, who has cautioned his team not to take Kealakehe lightly. "They are their island champs - Big Island champs - and we're going to give them that same amount of respect as any other team that we play and we're just going to go out there, keep things real simple for our players."

The Waveriders opened the season with a 36-34 home win over Kailua, before suffering a 16-13 loss to Kamehameha-Hawaii, but ran the table in their last nine contests.

For both coaches, this was their first year at the helm of their respective programs. Kealakehe's Gary Clark has been on leave since early June, attending to personal business in Utah. Kekuaokalani, who is also the head boys basketball coach, served as an assistant under Clark.

Kurisu has been the longtime defensive coordinator for Leilehua under Nolan Tokuda, who took some time off after the birth of his first child several months ago.

The teams do not share any common opponents this season. Kickoff between the Mules and Waveriders is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Kealakehe Stadium.