Kapolei's Cypress Navarro-Acio and the Hurricanes travel to Central Oahu Friday night to take on Mililani's Jvon Cunningham and the Trojans in a rematch of last year's OIA Division I title match. Leighland Tagawa | SL

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Before the calendar turns to the new year, a pair of old foes will face-off in a pivotal boys soccer match in central Oahu Friday night.  

Defending Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I champion Kapolei will visit John Kauinana Stadium for a 7 p.m. showdown against Mililani in a rematch of last January's league final. More importantly, the winner will assume at least a share of first place in the Western Division at the midpoint of the 10-game regular season.

Hurricanes coach Ryan Lau, however, is taking the game — and its final result — with a grain of salt. After all, his team fell to the Trojans, 1-0, in the regular season last year before it avenged the loss with a 3-0 win in the OIA title match. The teams also met for third place in the state tournament, which Kapolei also won by a 5-1 margin.

"Even with the outcome of (Friday) night, it's still a long ways to go," said Lau, who along with fellow co-head coaches Mark Ishii and Neal Sakauae, earned All-OIA West Coach of the Year honors last season.

"It does position you up for the playoffs, but it's a good test for us before the year-end. We're looking for a competitive game, obviously there are things that we want to establish in the game other than the result, but we both know that we're going to be better down the road so we're kind of used to for both programs to be at this point at this time of the year," Lau said.

Kapolei (4-0, 12 points) enters the game as the No. 3 team in this week's ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Power Rankings, while Mililani (4-0, 12 points) slots in at No. 2. The teams are tied with Campbell (4-0) and No. 8 Pearl City (4-1) atop the seven-team D1 West going into the weekend.

The Trojans are in the midst of an arduous yet familiar three-game stretch that started with last Friday's 2-0 win at Pearl City and wraps up next Friday at Campbell.

"Unfortunately our schedule doesn't change year-to-year, it stays pretty similar," said Mililani coach Steve McGehee, whose team has scored 20 goals and allowed just one through its first four contests.

"We know that we have a few games in the beginning that we should be able to deal with and then we hit the meat of our schedule — Pearl City, Kapolei, Campbell — all in a row, which, at least historically has determined where all of us shake out, so it creates a lot of work and not necessarily a lot of prep time for this (part of the) season," McGehee added.

Both Mililani and Kapolei took off-island trips for preseason tournaments within the past month. The Trojans finished third in the 48th Annual Ka Makani Soccer Classic on the Big Island, while the Hurricanes finished eighth in the Lotto Sport Western Showcase — which featured top-tier teams from Arizona and California — in San Clemente, on the southern edge of Orange County.

"It's kind of like the Iolani Classic for soccer," Lau explained. "I think it was a good experience for the boys. We're the first team since Iolani went way back. We played some good competition, so I think it was a good evaluation for us on what we need to do back home."

Although Kapolei went 0-3 in the loaded field, the overall experience was a very positive one, according to Lau.

"It gave us an accelerated opportunity for the team to get to know each other — it's a new team, new makeup — I think as far as the chemistry, usually things that probably occur in January or so, prior to the OIA playoffs, the trip offered an opportunity for the team to get to know each other a little better," Lau added.

Likewise, McGehee said the Trojans' island hop provided much the same.

"It was a good learning experience. We didn't go out there necessarily to win, we were there to kind of have a good bonding experience," said McGehee, whose team went 2-1 on the Big Island, with its lone loss coming to Kamehameha-Hawaii in the tournament semifinals.

"We dropped a game we probably shouldn't have, but we got a chance to go up to Mauna Kea and the boys got to see what's going on up there and that actually was probably more lasting than any game for the group, so we definitely had some character-building moments and coming off of the HPA tournament we had a real good understanding of our identity — where we were strong and where we needed work," McGehee said. "Some of the areas of concern that I had at the beginning, well, they're still there, but we at least know the personnel that we need in the right times to be in games."

Mililani graduated 11 players from last year's squad, but returns an experienced nucleus that centers around senior midfielders Liam McGehee — the coach's son — and Jvon Cunninghham. The pair earned All-Hawaii first and second team honors last year, respectively.

"We're lucky to have those two and a few others that really kind of lead the lines for us. They're our senior leadership and our captains this year along with a couple other guys that really, where they go, the team goes, so they've been able to get the guys to buy in to work hard and get them to do what the coaches are asking them to do," McGehee said.

Liam McGehee, who will sign with Whitworth University in February, scored the lone goal in the regular-season win over the ‘Canes last December.

"I think it all starts with Liam and Jvon, they are the engines of the team and everything offensively goes through them somehow, at some point," Lau said.

Meanwhile, Kapolei also returns a pair of All-Hawaii performers in first team forward Tommy Mascaro-Keahi and second team defender Cypress Navarro-Acio.

"They will be very difficult to deal with individually," McGehee said. "Tommy and Cypress are just real standout players for them and they look for each other a lot, so we'll have to be able to tolerate and really kind of stop them from making too many penetrating movements toward us, especially in the final third."

Lau said the senior duo share a similar perspective on the pitch.

"They both approach the game from a kind of 'get-after-it' mindset. They both embrace what they are, what their skills are and they both lead by their play and take it to the opponents versus letting the game come to them; they both have a real competitive mindset," Lau noted.

Mascaro-Keahi, who is signed with Cal State Northridge, has scored a state-best 14 goals this season. Navarro-Acio was the lone Kapolei player selected to the Western Showcase All-Tournament Team; he is still mulling his college options.

Another pair of seniors, midfielder Joe Wren and forward Hunter Hoogenwerf, picked up first- and second-team All-OIA West recognition last year, respectively, and provide further experience. Wren is signed with Utah Valley University.

"Hunter up front is also a handful and defensively they're solid," McGehee said. "They're a fairly well-balanced team and they got a good runout when they went to the mainland to find out who they are, war their strengths are, what their weaknesses are and how to move forward in the season."

One area where Mililani will have a decided advantage is in goal with three-year starter Nicholas Gaston between the posts.

"The crazy thing is he only starting playing (goalie) three years ago because he wanted to make the varsity and he asked me how he could do it and I told him that it wouldn't be as a field player, so he's put in a lot of effort into becoming a goalkeeper and he's developed into probably one of the best in the state at this point," McGehee said.

McGehee is in his 20th season with the program overall and sixthas head coach. He was a longtime assistant to Jeff Yamamoto, who coached the Trojans to five state championships — all of them with McGehee on staff — in his 20-year tenure from 1995 to 2014.

"It's an interesting development; I've been here a fairly long time and remember when Kapolei had only freshmen, so it's been interesting to see their development as a program and how far they've come," McGehee said. "It's one of those things where you have two quality programs that know each other real well and tend to be seeing each other more than once a season, so you know you're up against it no matter who the personnel is; it's always going to be a battle."