When Kamehameha faces Del Oro Friday, it will be without one of its top defensive players in cornerback Dylan Kane, who suffered a forearm injury and will likely miss a few games. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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The Kamehameha football team will fly nearly 2,500 miles to make its 2014 season debut. The Warriors will take on perennial Northern California power Del Oro (Loomis, Calif) Friday night as part of the Honor Bowl.

The Honor Bowl, which features 20 teams playing 10 games over two weekends at two different sites in Northern and Southern California, is a fundraising event for military veterans.

Del Oro is the host for the Northern California games, which will be played Friday and Saturday at the Golden Eagles' home field, while Oceanside, just outside of San Diego, is the Southern California host site.

"I have a connection with some of the coaches over there and they invited us to participate in the Honor Bowl," Kamehameha second-year coach Doug Cosbie said. "I told them that 'we'll come if we play you,' and knowing them, knowing their coaches, I knew they would be a good team and they were able to work everything out."

Del Oro went 13-3 last season en route to its third Sierra Football League title since 2010. It also captured the Sac-Joaquin Section and Northern California Division I crowns before falling in the CIF Division I State Championship game.

"They are traditionally one of the better teams in Northern California," Cosbie said of the Golden Eagles. "They've won some state titles in the past, so they're really a good program. They're fundamentally sound, they play hard, they're well coached and last year their JV and freshman teams went undefeated, so it'll be a really good test for us."

With the Warriors' scheduled season-opener at Waianae back on Aug. 8 was canceled due to the threat of Hurricane Iselle, Cosbie said his team is eager to hit the field Friday night.

"I think the boys are happy just to play anybody at this point," Cosbie said. "It's been a long six or seven weeks since we started, so they're excited for this week, to play a really good team from California. We got to work on a couple of things since we didn't have a game for a few weeks, but ultimately you get better by playing games and competing. If we had three or four games under our belt, we'd be further along, but it is what it is and now we started a good stretch here where we have games seven weeks in a row so we're looking forward to playing."

Kamehameha will be without one of its top defensive players in cornerback Dylan Kane, who suffered a forearm injury and will likely miss a few games. Kane, the reigning 100- and 200-meter state track champion, is verbally committed to the University of Oregon.

The Warriors depart for Sacramento Thursday afternoon. Friday's kickoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. Hawaii time. Cosbie said they will attend Saturday's UC Davis-Stanford football game before returning home Sunday.