Farrington, Kapolei set for Saturday
By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer
After a week of uncertainty, the O'ahu Interscholastic Association Red football quarterfinal between Farrington and Kapolei has been set to go head-to-head against the Hawai'i-Boise State game on Saturday.
Kickoff for the Governors-Hurricanes games is 5 p.m. at Roosevelt's Ticky Vasconcellos Stadium, or at the approximate starting time of the Warriors' game at Aloha Stadium.
The other three Red quarterfinals will be played Friday. Kailua travels to Leilehua, Mililani goes to Kahuku, and Castle visits Wai'anae.
The White semifinals also are scheduled for Friday with Kaläheo playing at Moanalua, and Radford visiting 'Aiea.
Since before last week's Red opening-round games, the OIA knew Red quarterfinals were set for Friday at Leilehua, Kahuku and Wai'anae. But only yesterday, Roosevelt — Farrington's designated home field — was announced as a game site because the league was awaiting the field's availability because of a sewer problem since the Roosevelt-McKinley game on Oct. 9, OIA football coordinator Harold Tanaka said. Although repairs are continuing today, Roosevelt athletic director John Chung said the problem will be fixed by Saturday.
As for the 5 p.m. start, Tanaka said it was done so it "would be easier on the community" and it will "ease the traffic" situation.
Because there is little parking on campus, spectators are forced to park in the Makiki neighborhood. Chung said there were issues of cars blocking driveways and parking on lawns. He added that neighboring Stevenson Middle School will allow parking on some grass areas to help alleviate the parking situation.
Farrington coach Randall Okimoto and Kapolei coach Darren Hernandez said they didn't have issues with playing on Saturday against the UH game. Farrington's main concern was the home field advantage.
"Our kids love playing at Roosevelt," Okimoto said. "It's our home field and our community's, too. As long as we weren't playing at Kapolei or depending on how far we had to travel."
In 2006, Farrington played a quarterfinal against Mililani at Mililani despite being seeded higher than the Trojans to accommodate television.
The Hurricanes drew their regular-season bye on the final weekend and drew an opening-round bye for the playoffs, so they haven't played since their Oct. 2 win against Mililani. That suited the injury-riddled Hurricanes just fine.
"It give us an extra day to prepare and heal up," Hernandez said. "We had a two-week bye. For most teams, that would be a negative, but since we've been so banged up all year, it's a positive for us."
OC-16 will be televising the Mililani-Kahuku game, 7:30 p.m. Friday. It will not broadcast Saturday's Farrington-Kapolei game.
Tickets for OIA playoff games are $7 for adults and $4 for students.