By Reagan Paz

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With a heated rivalry in nearly all sports, MHS and the Leilehua High School Mules will face off in an intense battle for redemption during MHS’ homecoming football game on Sept. 27. Since last year’s game against Leilehua was their only loss in the regular season, they are looking to recover with a win this year.

“They’re an excellent team, great quarterback, awesome defense, unbelievable specialties, but at the same time that’s why we play the game as well. We feel we’re better than them and we’re going to see on homecoming night,” said Head Coach Roderick York.

At last year’s game, MHS came in short with an ending score of 13-17. This year, York hopes for a different outcome. “We didn’t execute, we didn’t protect the quarterback at all. This year, we hope to make it different,” he explained, “When we talk to our players we talk about execution, great effort and turnovers, win the turnover battle. We feel if we do those three things we should win every game. So hopefully we can avenge our loss last year.” The game had a total of five turnovers, which gave the Mules a lot of leeway to score several times against them.

Along with their execution and performance, there are other factors that MHS feels will push them to victory. “It’s going to make everyone play better knowing that we’re playing for the man next to us instead of just playing for yourself,” said Running Back and Linebacker Senior Dayton Furuta. Safety Senior Ian Herold-Namu added, “Once everyone is joined in and everyone is playing together, everybody’s playing for the guy next to them and it makes a big difference and I guess it makes everyone play better and it pushes everybody to the next level.”

How hard everyone works is another factor the team feels will affect the game’s outcome. “They actually play hard. We dish out 80 jerseys and there’s not a guy on our team that slacks. Our guys work hard and they have a good attitude about their teammates,” said York.

Since this will be the Homecoming game, the audience will be bigger and more spirited. “We love looking up in the stands to see, not just parents, but a lot of the students coming out for the game,” York expressed, “Everybody’s always dressed up, they wear makeup and costumes and paint their faces and that’s what it’s all about, the school spirit.”

However, the atmosphere during homecoming will pose a few challenges for the players. “(A challenge will be) keeping our composure because there’s a lot of hype on homecoming and there’s going to be a lot of distractions, so just staying focused on our game,” Furuta stated, “It’s homecoming so everybody’s going to have fun and stuff, but I guess being mentally ready when it’s game time.”

To ensure the desired outcome, players will be cautious during the game. “We just have to watch out for their trick plays and just their routes,” said Namu, “That’s what Leilehua’s known for.” York added, “We still are not playing our best on par yet, we make a whole lot of errors and we correct them every day and every game we hope to do better.”

The boys and their coaches hope for a win against Leilehua, not only to avenge their previous losses, but also to put on an entertaining show for homecoming night.