Iolani quarterback Reece Foy scrambles to find a receiver in a regular season game against Pac-Five. ScoringLive file photo

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Radford running back Chris Jackson carries the ball in the OIA White title game against Nanakuli. ScoringLive file photo

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The Iolani football team is hoping the old adage that "history repeats itself" holds true come Saturday, while Radford is hoping the third time will be the charm.

The Raiders (7-3) are seeking their eighth trip in nine years to the title game of the First Hawaiian Bank/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division II Football State Championships. Iolani has won six of the nine state crowns since the inception of the D2 tournament in 2003, including the last five, dating back to 2007.

"The past really doesn't have any bearing on what will happen Saturday," Iolani coach Wendell Look said. "It's a whole new tournament with a one-game deal, one-game shot. We do have some veteran, senior guys who have gone through it two years now, but they're still kids and they're anxious, probably excited and obviously a little nervous. We're going to rely on some young kids - sophomores and juniors who don't have that experience - so I'm sure they'll have some butterflies going in."

Iolani won the Interscholastic League of Honolulu championship for the ninth consecutive season, with its only losses against Division-I foes Saint Louis, Kamehameha and Punahou.

"Anytime you can survive the ILH season and be fortunate enough to get into the playoffs, going through the rigors of the ILH and playing teams like Kamehameha, Saint Louis and Punahou, it will help you prepare for a team like Radford, who is big, athletic and very physical," said Look, who is in his 22nd year at the helm of his alma mater.

The Raiders, who have not played a game since a 28-10 win over Pac-Five on Oct. 27, drew the tournament's No. 1 seed and a first-round bye into Saturday's semifinals.

"Having that time off can be good and bad because it can re-energize the team and let the injuries heal for this final run, but then the bad part is we ended the season really well - that Pac-Five game was probably one of the better games of the year - and we would like to ride that momentum," Look said. "That's where the maturity and experience of the older guys have to kick in and carry the younger ones until they get their game tempo back."

Meanwhile, Radford (11-1), the Oahu Interscholastic Association White Conference champion, was the lone league titlist to go unseeded. The Rams rallied to edge Kauai, 22-21, in a first-round game in Lihue last Saturday.

"Our young men are growing and they're growing by facing some tough times like our whole travel situation on Kauai last week," Radford coach Fred Salanoa said. "We left at 8 a.m. for a 2:45 p.m. game and we had just a 25-by-30 foot tent that could only fit three-quarters of our team underneath - not including our coaches - and we returned that night at 11 p.m. These young men have really proved that they're able to face adversity and overcome some tough circumstances to endure until the end."

The semifinal between the Raiders and Rams is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday and will follow an earlier semifinal between Nanakuli and No. 2-seed Lahainluna at 4 p.m. Both games will be played at Hawaiian Airlines Field at Aloha Stadium.

The teams have met in two previous state finals with Iolani coming out on top both times. The Raiders won, 34-20, to claim their first state crown back in 2005 and also won in 2008, by a score of 35-20.

"Iolani is such a well-coached team and coach Look and his staff do such a tremendous job getting those undersized guys who may not be the average football player, to go out there and play this game of football at a high level," Salanoa said. "They have great discipline and you can see why they're consistently in the state championships every year. We're just going to go out there and try to play good football, make the least mistakes and hopefully have a shot at dethroning Iolani."

The game features two of the state's best Division II quarterbacks in Iolani's third-year starter, Reece Foy, and Radford's Cody Lui-Yuen.

Foy, a 5-foot-11, 173-pound senior, has completed 67.5 percent of his passes (181 of 268) for 2,096 yards with 26 touchdowns against five interceptions. He leads a Raider offense that averages 33.7 points and 345.5 yards (227 .8 pass, 117.7 rush) per game.

"He's a great quarterback and he's a three-year starter and when you have a quarterback that can run your system and is confident, that can go a long way," Salanoa said of Foy.

Chad Hanaoka (58 receptions, 626 yards, 9 touchdowns), Tanner Nishioka (51-607-11) and Chase Kanekuni (27-379-3) are Foy's favorite targest in the hurry-up version of the run-and-shoot offense Iolani employs. Running backs Yuuya Kato (107 rushes, 626 yards, 9 touchdowns) and Kody Mento (57-211-3) are the leading rushers, although Foy has shown he can scramble for first-down yardage, as well.

"Everything for us starts up front," Look said. "We have to be able to protect and run the ball a little bit. Radford brings a lot of pressure and they're very aggressive up front and they try to create a lot of havoc and chaos," so we'll have to be able to recognize and protect and run block in order for us to be able to move the ball," Look said.

Kato also plays linebacker on defense, which allows 29.2 points and 320 yards (158.1 pass, 161.9 rush) on average. Other standouts on that side of the ball include linebacker Josiah Situmeang and defensive backs Max Look, Joshua Conlan and Andrew Okimura. Look, who is the head coach's nephew, is especially dangerous on kickoff and punt returns. The place-kicker is Jordan Genovia (31 extra points, 2 field goals).

"Practice has been good - it's kind of like going back to summer training camp: basics and fundamentals," Look said. "Because we didn't know who we would play (until Saturday), we just tried to focus in on what we were doing and that's how we were trying to keep the rust off and remain sharp in our execution."

Radford, which has won its last five since its lone loss of the season to Kaiser, puts up similar numbers offensively as Iolani, but has a slight edge statiscally on the defensive side of the ball.

The Rams average 36.8 points and 343.7 yards (227.8 pass, 115.9 rush) on offense while allowing 13.2 points and 239.3 yards (101.3 pass, 138.1 rush) by opponents this season.

"Their O-line gets off the ball real well and they have good balance in a sense where they run the ball real well and their quarterback is a big threat," Look said of Lui-Yuen. "He's a big kid back there and he does a good job of distributing the ball. They protect him real well, so for us, we have to make teams one-dimensional. If teams are going to try and pound it on us and we can't win the up-front game, it's going to be a long night for us."

Lui-Yuen, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound junior, has completed 50 percent (173 of 346) of his pass attempts for 2,664 yards with 31 touchdowns against 13 interceptions. He was 20-of-34 at Kauai Saturday for 180 yards with one touchdown, but was intercepted twice.

"Cody's grown a lot as a young man and as a quarterback, but he still has a lot of work to do and a lot to improve upon," said Salanoa, himself a former Rams' quarterback who went on to play collegiately at Eastern Washington. "He's started to understand the expectations of being the quarterback and the defenses and the schemes and the things that we want him to be able to do to be one of the top quarterbacks in the state."

His favorite target is sophomore receiver Jameson Pasigan (53 receptions, 794 yards, 11 touchdowns), but Chris Jackson (27-389-3) and Zach Tinao-Rabellizsa (19-305-6) have shared the workload. Jackson, a 5-9, 175-pound senior running back, has run for a team-high 789 yards on 137 carries (5.8 per rush) and eight touchdowns.

"Chris Jackson means everything to our offense," Salanoa said. "We have some seniors on the O-line and a lot of guys that surround Cody and that's what its all about in a team sport like football. You have to be able to rely on your teammates and trust in your teammates and your teammates have to be able to trust in you and so Chris means the world to Cody and our offense and our team. He's a big piece of that puzzle."

The Rams are led defensively by linebacker Mana Kakiwa, who also sees time on offense. In Radford's 21-6 win over Nanakuli in the OIA White title game, Kakiwa notched four tackles, including one sack, forced a fumble, intercepted a pass and ran in a 10-yard touchdown. He caught the game-winning two-point conversion pass from Lui Yuen late in the win over Kauai.

"Like I've said before, Mana is the best player on our team and I'm not going to hide that," Salanoa said. "He deserves that recognition because he works so hard and he's just one of those guys that wants to see the team succeed."

Other defensive standouts include linebackers Amu Poe and defensive backs Ammon Seei, Mason Manuma, Logan Soakai and Cayman Conley. Conley (53 PATs, 2 field goals) also handles all kicking duties for the Rams.