Campbell has less than a week to try to ensure history does not repeat itself.
The Sabers, fresh off a win over Leilehua in the OIA quarterfinals, put together a nice enough game that it should be able to soak it in for a while. But Campbell won’t have that luxury with No. 2 Mililani looming on Thursday in the semifinals.
If anything, Campbell should be familiar with the way Mililani coach Rod York does things. The Sabers will be meeting the Trojans for the sixth time in three seasons and have lost all of them.
The Sabers probably hope that the lessons taken from a 57-28 loss to the Trojans earlier this year will give them an edge. Fix those things that went wrong in the second half of their televised regular-season game, and they will be in a ballgame this time around.
History doesn’t look at it that way, though.
Mililani won the regular season meeting between the schools pretty easily the last two years, and grew the margin even further in the next clash. In games between OIA teams who met each other a second time, the winner of the first game has won 21 of 28 times in the last five years and nine of 11 in the last two years.
That stretch gives York the decided advantage over Campbell coach Amosa Amosa, with York’s boys winning six of seven meetings between the two titans.
Despite all of these gloomy numbers, some things are looking up for Campbell.
Campbell moved the ball on Mililani’s defense earlier this year, with Ezra Savea passing for 235 yards, Terell Johnson rushing for 143 and Jayce Bantolina catching 111 yards worth of passes. It was the first time Amosa had ever had a back eclipse 100 yards rushing or a receiver break the century mark against York. And they made it look pretty easy.
Here is the rushing yardage for Campbell’s lead back against Mililani since 2009: 59, 50, 22, 43, 54, 6, 143.
Mililani doesn’t have to force the ground game like Campbell does, Vavae Malepeai has already had games of 187 yards and 145 yards against the Sabers with a 76-yard effort thrown in. The Trojans’ only receiver to go over 100 yards against Campbell in the series was Deshawn Duncan-Benson with 101 in Amosa’s lone win over Mililani.
Amosa Amosa vs. Rod York
2010: Mililani 48, Campbell 12
2011: Campbell 32, Mililani 12
2012: Mililani 46, Campbell 26
2012: Mililani 42, Campbell 14
2013: Mililani 42, Campbell 21
2013: Mililani 41, Campbell 7
2014: Mililani 57, Campbell 28
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