Jim Lebeau | SL

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A season-ending 28-0 loss at the hands of Farrington in the quarterfinals of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I tournament was how a tumultuous 2015 season ended for Campbell.

It was their second loss in 14 days against the Governors, but the Sabers can get their redemption Saturday when they travel to Roosevelt's Ticky Vasconcellos Stadium for a regular-season showdown against Farrington.

Campbell (0-1) is coming off a 38-0 loss to Kapolei last week, while Farrington will be playing its first game of the season.

We caught up with the heads coaches of the Sabers and Govs a few days before they square off.

ScoringLive: What have you learned about your team thus far?
Amosa Amosa, Campbell coach: "Well, I think despite the score being 38-0 (against Kapolei last Friday), I really thought there were a lot of good things we did that night and of course, we made a lot of mistakes and need to correct that, but the greatest thing is that those mistakes are correctable and I know we can do that better than we did against Kapolei."
Randall Okimoto, Farrington coach: "It's nice to be able to scrimmage some good teams like Kamehameha, Punahou and Kahuku. Anytime you play teams of that caliber, I think it makes both teams better and not only us, but them as well, so our guys are pretty much battle-tested and now it's for real and everything counts, so we'll see how it goes."

ScoringLive: How similar or different is this team from last year's?
Amosa: "I think this year we're a lot more talented. This year, I think our defense this year brings a little bit more speed and we've got some good linebackers this year with some young guys filling in, so definitely on both sides of the ball we're more talented. Offensively, we have (quarterback) Kawika (Ulufale) with one year under his belt and a lot of returning guys and I think we can improve upon our ability to move the ball consistently. We've just got to find the end zone and part of the problem Friday was that we weren't able to punch it in. Part of that was coaching, part of that was execution. I took the blame for the loss. Offensively, I have to put us in a better position to be more efficient and then defensively, when there's opportunities we have to make plays, so there's a lot of things that we need to work on."
Okimoto: "Similar in a lot of ways to years past, where you have a senior crop that leaves and then you have young underclassmen that come in and they have to learn about varsity football and the added work that they need to put in that they need to compete at this level, so that's every year, that's the cycle. As far as last year to this year, this year we have more guys with better attitudes I would say, but then it's still early, so we'll let the season play out and later I can make a better comparison."

ScoringLive: What are some of the difficulties your team has gone through this season?
Amosa: "As talented as we are, I think our execution level really needs to improve because we took a look at our film from Kapolei and all the things that we called are things that were there, but it's just a matter of everybody executing and doing what they're supposed to do per play so that's one thing we need to work on with our kids; narrowing things down and doing the things we do well for it to work consistently."
Okimoto: "Even if we have a new field and we do get to practice on the field, but at the same time you can't kick the ball over the fence because if you do you can't get it because it's a construction site, so that doesn't help. Not having the lights operable doesn't help with the time of practice as well. You still have to share the field and when you share the field, you're limited in space and we still only have a window to work around. Those are difficulties we face every year and then hopefully next year we can alleviate that with having the lights and having later practices and having the whole field for both teams."

ScoringLive: What are your thoughts on how the schedule worked out for your team?
Amosa: "I think the schedule is good. We had scrimmages against Pearl City and Saint Louis and then we played Kapolei, so we've seen a variety of teams and styles already. Kapolei throws the ball a lot, but maybe they weren't as physical a team as Saint Louis. Farrington is very physical and they're going to try to run the ball down our throats, so I like the schedule set up the way it is. Then we've got Kaiser and Aiea before we get back to Kahuku. I think the schedule really fits our team this year really well."
Okimoto: "I like the fact that we play on Saturdays. The only thing I don't like about it is we miss the (University of Hawaii) games, but other than that I like the extra day of practice and I also like playing on a Saturday because there's no school on that day and you've got the day to just focus on the game. Every game for us is on a saturday. I like that."

ScoringLive: What's your take on your opponent this week?
Amosa: "The last three of four years we've had our opportunities going up against Farrington. When Farrington starts lining up to run the ball against our defense and run it down our throats, we have to stop it and make plays. Every year they've been successful in doing that: running the ball and eating up clock. I know they didn't have a preseason (game), so they've had two weeks to prepare for us and they'll be well-rested. We expect a typical physical Farrington team and to try to run on us, so it's up to us to stop their run and slow it down and we have to stop (running back) Challen (Faamatau). The offense just has to move the ball, be successful in the red zone and get some points to help our team that night. It's going to be a tough game for us, everyone has to come and play that night to give us a chance to win."
Okimoto: "Campbell is always competitive. They've got good athletes, good coaches and so we've got to make sure we start from the beginning of the game being focused. There's no time to wait until things happen so that we can respond. It's important that we start early. Campbell is very competitive, they have a lot of players and athletes that come out for the team and are very talented. Our first three games are pretty tough with Campbell, Kailua and Mililani, so week after week we've got to make sure we're ready to play."

ScoringLive: Which position group(s) need to play particularly well Saturday?
Amosa: "I think the guys up front. The more and more I look at the years that we've been successful, our line play is pretty sharp. We were able to run the ball consistently and definitely we were able to control the front line, so if there's any group I'm going to ask a lot from this week, it's our offensive line and defensive line. They have to control the line of scrimmage for our team to have a chance to hang with Farrington."
Okimoto: "I would say everyone for me; it's hard to pinpoint one area. We stress the fact that each phase of the game is important: offense, defense and special teams. We split it up in to one-third each, so every group needs to play and we need to play as a team, because you don't want one group taking on the burden or trying to win the game on its own. It just doesn't work that way. Every group needs to bring their game and when they're in the game, because we've got players that share a position — for example, the quarterback position, where we have two guys that play and I can see them playing equally, or even the running back position, when I have to give Challen a break, or the fullback position, or the receiver position — a lot of the positions are shared, so when each player is in a game, they've got to make the most of their opportunities."

Kickoff between the Sabers (0-1) and Governors (0-0) Saturday is set for approximately 6:30 p.m. at Roosevelt's Ticky Vasconcellos Stadium.