HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Thursday evening Konawaena will face Hilo for the 13th time since the west side boys joined the Division I in 2019.
After 6 years, the wildcats have mauled the Vikings leading their rivalry with a 9-3 record
Hilo is entering the game 2-2 on the season most recently falling to Keaau in the Big Island Interscholastic Federation opener.
“Came out flat against Keaau kind of battled, which is fine, you know, we’ll take that as a learning experience.” Hilo head coach Kaniala Estrada told Hawaii News Now.
However, they did get a big comeback win over Leilehua on Oahu two weeks ago.
Quarterback Austin Augiar — better known as Boss to his teammates — has led the Vikings the past 2 years to winning seasons, but fell to the Wildcats twice in 2024.
“It would mean a lot (to get a win over Konawaena), my past two years onvarsity, we lost to them,” Augiar said. “It would mean a lot if we won.”
Meanwhile Kona, who fell to California’s Truckee and Kahuku says losses to stiffer competition taught them valuable lessons.
“We felt we battled at times and so we came out of that with a good learning experience for ourselves,” Konawaena head coach Brad Uemoto said. “To be able to correct the things we did bad and also move forward and improve on the things we did well.”
Konawaena bounced back, getting their first win over Kamehameha Hawaii last week, but did it without three year starting quarterback Keenan Alani who went down with a shoulder injury.
“I’m not gonna rush him back, just being in a short week,” Uemoto said. “I just wanna make more of a long-term decision for him and not force him in early and kind of have a shoulder injury lingering for his career, so we’re just gonna play it safe.”
Freshman Elston Hooper was brought up from JV and now looks to face his first D1 opponent.
“For him to come in and produce the way he did was a really big thing for our team and it just shows what his potential is for the future in our program.” Uemoto said.
Kick off between the Viks and Wildcats is set for Thursday in Kealakekua.
Watch the matchup Thursday night live on KFVE, coverage starts at 7:00 p.m.
The game will also be streamed online, a link to the game can be found here.
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