With its league playoff berth unexpectedly secured beforehand, Farrington rambled past Moanalua, 28-7, yesterday to clinch home field advantage in next week's O'ahu Interscholastic Association tournament first round.

The Governors, No. 9 in the ScoringLive-OC16 power rankings, improved to 5-3 overall and finished fourth in the OIA Red Conference Eastern Division at 3-3. They will face West No. 5 seed 'Aiea (4-4) on Friday, most likely at Roosevelt's Ticky Vasconcellos Stadium, according to OIA football coordinator Harold Tanaka.

Moanalua fell to 4-4, 3-3, and will travel to West No. 4 seed Radford (4-4) in Friday's first round.

Both Farrington and Moanalua clinched their playoff berths Thursday afternoon, when Roosevelt (2-6, 2-4) forfeited its Oct. 1 victory over Moanalua due to an ineligible player.

But Govs coach Randall Okimoto said that was not announced to his team until Saturday, and they still approached yesterday's game as if a lot was at stake.

"We always want to win every game, especially after a hard loss (at Kahuku last week)," Okimoto said. "You want to go into the playoffs with some momentum."

It took awhile, but Farrington slowly built that momentum in the hot afternoon sun yesterday at Vasconcellos Stadium.

The Governors took a 7-0 lead three minutes into the second quarter after Scotland Smith's 12-yard touchdown run and Andrew Gangloff's extra point, then made it 14-0 with 6:59 remaining in the third quarter after Jared Hakuole's 5-yard TD on a quarterback keeper.

Na Menehune cut the lead in half three minutes later on Dillon Turk's 4-yard scoring pass to Richard Villasenor and Lee Arakawa's PAT, but Farrington stretched it to 21-7 after Tavale Masalosalo rambled 22 yards for a touchdown on the third play of the final quarter.

The Govs essentially sealed the game with 6:09 left when Leland Mitchell recovered a fumble in the end zone.

Although Moanalua was grateful for its playoff berth via the Roosevelt forfeit, Na Menehune coach Arnold Martinez said his team has much work to do before Friday.

"It's a second life for us," Martinez said, "but we gotta fix a lot of things. We were doing some crazy stuff out there."

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