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First place in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I Red may come down to a battle of attrition Saturday night.

Although both Kapolei and Mililani have held firm in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Division I Power Rankings throughout the first three weeks of the prep football season, both squads enter this weekend's showdown at John Kauinana Stadium dealing with a slew of injuries to key players.

The eighth-ranked Hurricanes (3-1 overall) continue to mix and match their personnel on both sides of the ball on a week-to-week basis.

Defensively, their linebacking corps has been particularly hard by the injury bug. Senior Tyler Vasega (knee), a team captain, is out indefinitely, while junior Rocky Savea (knee) is expected to miss his second straight game.

"It is what it is," Kapolei coach Darren Hernandez said. "We have to have that ‘next-man-up' mentality and everybody has to be prepared and ready at a moment's notice to jump in and contribute."

Another senior linebacker, Geoff Fiafaimane, who missed all of last season with a torn ACL, is expected to make his first start Saturday.

"We thought coming into the season that in our 3-4 scheme, that linebacker would be a strength of the team with Geoff, Rocky and Tyler — and Keanu Kelly — but we haven't played a single game with those three guys in at the same time," Hernandez said. "Linebacker is always an issue."

The offensive equivalent for the ‘Canes has been running back, where they lost last year's starter, L.J. Esperas, to an outgoing transfer, but have welcomed back junior Josh Kansana from a torn ACL he suffered last year and 285-pound Antoneo Brown, who did not play the first three games of the season.

Despite the multitude of injuries, Kapolei has won its last two games to pull into a tie for second place in the division at 2-1.

"We're very optimistic," Hernandez said. "Even though we've lost people, we feel like the guys that have had the opportunity to play have played well."

The Hurricanes' most productive offensive player has been senior slotback Jaymin Sarono (38 catches for 357 yards), who already has nine touchdown receptions, and is all over Mililani coach Rod York's radar.

"He's a playmaker, but then again, I know in that offense that anyone can pop up and it's kind of like ours," York said. "It's not one particular guy, it's whoever is the open guy, so we're not going to double him or anything like that, but we're definitely going to know where he's at on the field and play a little more attention to him because he gets most of the balls."

Sarono, who is averaging 9.4 yards per catch, has been on the receiving end of 40 percent of Kapolei's pass completions — a trend that Hernandez would like to see change.

"It's been a little bit of a struggle with (quarterback) Taulia (Tagovailoa) really only having one guy that has been there every game at 100 percent and it's been a revolving cast of receivers that he's had to try hard to develop a chemistry with, so that's an ongoing thing, but the good thing is a lot of guys have been stepping up," Hernandez said.

On defense, 6-foot-4, 270-pound Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa has been a one-man wrecking crew on the defensive line. Of his 10 total tackles, six have been for losses, including three sacks. Tagovailoa-Amosa has also batted away two passes and has one forced fumble and fumble recovery each.

"We've had some bright spots there, obviously Myron has been leading the charge," Hernandez said. "He can play different areas — nose guard, he can line up as a three-technique or a defensive end — and he can do a lot of things for us."

It will be the fourth opponent the Hurricanes have faced that uses a four-wide spread as its base offensive formation.

"I think that helps us," Hernandez said. "The fact that we see it every day in practice we have a familiarity with a four-wide offense. Obviously we have to execute on defense to stop them, but just seeing so many teams that run that spread, it helps our defense no doubt."

Across the field, No. 5 Mililani will be without two of its top receivers in wideouts Cy Kuboyama-Hayashi, who is coming off a 6-catch, 101-yard showing against Farrington Saturday, and Roman Tovi, who leads the team in touchdown receptions with two.

In their last two games, the Trojans (3-0) have rushed for a combined 553 yards, including 345 against Castle two weeks ago. Junior Kailiohu Kila (24 carries for 250 yards, 4 rush TDs) and senior Jalen Olomua (22 for 187, 2 total TDs) have shared the bulk of the work load, but Kila is likely to miss the game due to injury.

"It's all about our o-line," York said. "We work hard on our o-line, on execution and knowing who to block. Our coaches have done a lot of work with them as far as leverage and driving so that whichever running back executes and hits the hole, it's going to be good. We don't have one set running back. Right now it looks like Kila and Olomua are our producers, but we have two or three more running backs like Darius Muasau — who also starts at middle linebacker — so as long as our o-line is good to go, we feel our run game should be all right."

Senior defensive lineman Savion Fonoti did not play against Farrington after sustaining a calf injury two weeks ago. York said he is cleared to play, but is not 100 percent yet and may be held out of Saturday's game.

York said he has had to alter the format of his practices due a number of players playing both ways, including defensive back/slotback Kainalu Wong and Olomua, a running back and linebacker.

"This year we have to dedicate part of practice to do offense and then part of practice to do defense," York said. "The boys are jelling a lot more every week, but it's just taking us a little longer because our personnel is different here and there and this week we've got some injuries so we're trying to fill in here and there."

After winning their first two games by scores of 42-7 and 42-0, the Trojans had to stave off a pesky Governors squad Saturday in a narrow 31-28 victory and are in sole possession of first place in the OIA D1 Red.

"We needed that," York said. "We always need that; It's always good for us and gives us more experience. We call it ‘the grind.' We needed games like that. That's why at the beginning of the season we try to play the best and that's why we went to Liberty last year; that improved us. Definitely playing a physical team like Farrington was good because we showed some heart, we showed some character that they were able to not fold and they were mentally strong, so it was good to see that things we practice for actually showed up in games … the only problem, it seems like, is that Farrington left us kind of beat us."

Kickoff between the Hurricanes and Trojans is scheduled for approximately 6:30 p.m. The OIA office said that should the game be affected by Hurricane Lester, it would be rescheduled for Monday with a start time of 4 p.m. for the JV contest with the varsity game to follow.