Kapolei coach Darren Hernandez hopes to have Alton "Panaewa" Julius back in the starting lineup at quarterback when his team visits Kahuku in an Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I quarterfinal football game Friday night, but all is not lost offensively for the Hurricanes if the senior misses his second straight game.

That's because Kapolei has a promising understudy in sophomore Leonard Lee, who has shown improvement in back-to-back starts while filling in for the injured Julius (hip pointer/groin strain).

Lee threw for 246 yards in his first career varsity start two weeks ago at Aiea on 14-of-26 passing (53.8 completion percentage). He threw a 42-yard touchdown pass, but was also intercepted three times in the 12-0 win over Na Alii.

A week later, Lee completed 17 of 28 passes (60.7 percent) for 216 yards with four touchdowns against two picks in a playoff win over Castle.

"Offensively, with our starting quarterback on the sideline, I thought our sophomore played well in his absence," Kapolei coach Darren Hernandez said after the 34-0 blanking of the Knights.

Lee completed passes to eight different pass catchers and showed some nice touch on several rollouts, bootlegs and play-action passes. He was not sacked in the game.

"It felt good," Lee said. "They wanted me to grow up fast, but that's the name of the game at quarterback, so I do whatever I gotta do to help the team."

Defensive back Malik Smith, who scored on a 65-yard fumble return against the Knights, credited Lee for stepping up.

"I feel like he's doing a great job for Panaewa, especially because he's just a sophomore, but he's doing a good job out there, completing great passes and throwing on the money," Smith said.

Hernandez said after the Castle game that if Julius was healthy, he would start at Kahuku Friday.

"With Julius at quarterback, we're more of a power-run team and more of a play-action pass team and with Leonard we tried to spread it out a little bit more," Hernandez said. "He threw the ball to a whole bunch of different receivers, so we're pretty happy about that. He's really pretty accurate with the ball, so we thought he did well."

Hernandez said the two interceptions against Castle were not Lee's fault.

"Those were actually on the receivers," Hernandez said. "They ran wrong routes, so those two picks were actually on the receivers. They shortened up the route and he threw it where he thought they were going to be."

The longtime coach knows that it will take an even better effort to survive and advance this weekend.

"You've got to play perfect and flawless when you play Kahuku at Kahuku," Hernandez said. "It's going to be a tall task for us and we've had a real tough schedule, so I think our team is pretty battle-tested. Hopefully we'll be healthy and everybody will be returning (Friday).

In addition to Julius, Kapolei also played without its second-leading tackler in linebacker John Rosa-Sinclar, who was out with a concussion last week.

The Hurricanes' defense didn't miss a beat without Rosa-Sinclair, posting their third consecutive shutout.

"We wanted that shutout real bad, because that's three weeks in a row," Smith said. "We'll try and get another one (this) week, too."

Kickoff between Kapolei (4-4) and fourth-ranked Kahuku (6-1) is slated for 7:30 p.m. Friday at Carleton E. Weimer Field.