HONOLULU — The Lahainaluna High School football team has made history for the Maui Interscholastic League over and over again — and on Thursday, the Lunas will do it one more time.

Top-seeded Lahainaluna will play second-seeded Iolani for the First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA Division I state crown at Skippa Diaz Stadium at 4 p.m. Thursday.

It will be the first appearance for the MIL in the D-I state football final. The Lunas (7-0) got there with a convincing 30-7 win over Konawaena on Friday.

With the likes of alum Josh Tihada — the all-time leading scorer in HHSAA football state tournaments for all levels — looking on after recently arriving home from his life as a walk-on running back at Nevada-Las Vegas, the Lunas felt the love from the throng of fans clad in red, white and black.

“We’re happy, everybody’s happy, I know the community’s happy,” Lahainaluna co-head coach Dean Rickard said immediately after the semifinal victory. “You know, moving to Division I and being in the title game after being in Division II all those years, just having that opportunity, it’s a huge thing for these kids.

“Maybe they’ll realize now that they do belong here and hopefully we will have a different mindset as we move into next week.”

The fans were out in force on Friday and Rickard expects more on Thursday.

“We always know that we have very dedicated and committed fans and we are very appreciative of them being here and we know they’ll be here next week as well,” Rickard said. “It’s always great to see those red shirts up in the stands.”

Lahainaluna senior Blare Sylva-Viela was thankful for the fans as well — the community’s love for the team is palpable.

“We just love it, they’re very supportive, it’s Lahaina where we’re all close, we all love each other,” Sylva-Viela said. “The fans, the support system is amazing.”

The Lunas’ win over Konawaena was their 10th straight state tournament victory, dating back to 2016 when they won the first of four straight Division II state crowns. Since going 5-3 in the MIL in 2016, they have won 31 straight league games and are 40-2 overall.

The Lunas have just 12 seniors on this team and only five had varsity experience before this season: Sylva-Viela, Shaun Kana, Christian Clarion, Koliniasi Latu and Noah Arase.

That group plus junior Ian-Jay Cabanilla largely played on both sides of the ball for most of the game against Konawaena.

“All of our skill-position players, the majority of them were going two ways.” Rickard said. “You could see on certain plays, the fatigue was starting to take effect. But, again, like we always tell them, ‘You have got to dig down deep.’ We try to push these kids to their fullest potential and they hung in there. We bended, but what was good was we didn’t break.”

The Lunas forced 10 turn­overs by the Wildcats while somewhat struggling on offense.

“It’s huge, I just want to go ahead and hug every defensive player, to tell you the truth,” Rickard said. “Because if not for them I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you and saying that we’ve got to prepare for next week.”

The Lunas’ leaders are always the seniors, but with the 2020 season being scrubbed due to COVID-19, this team has had to learn on the run.

“Those are the guys who are kind of leading the way, showing these younger guys because we’ve got a huge sophomore and freshmen class,” Rickard said of the five most experienced seniors. “I believe over 50 percent of the team is freshmen and sophomores and then a handful of juniors, so yeah, you could consider us a very young team.”

Sylva-Viela had 100 yards rushing and a touchdown on 17 carries, and he also chipped in eight tackles and an interception. He has been banged up all season with a balky right ankle, an injury he suffered on the first play against King Kekaulike on Oct. 29 in the second game of the season.

“Still taped up, still bothers me, but you know, it doesn’t matter though,” Sylva-Viela said.

Another senior, Anatello Flores, had a team-high nine tackles and an interception — his main responsibility for most of the season was place kicker and he had three field goals and three extra points on Friday.

“Feels so great to be here, super happy, super happy, you know,” Sylva-Viela said. “We’ve been working for this our whole lives, all of us.”

Now, it’s on to the Division I final.

Iolani won eight D-II state titles in 10 years from 2005-14, beating the Lunas for the crowns in 2007, 2012 and 2014. The Lunas won the last four D-II state crowns before moving up to D-I this year.

Thursday’s winner will be the first in state history to win both the D-I and D-II state football championships.

Sylva-Viela spoke early in the season about a possible matchup against the Raiders, and now it has come true.

“We’re hyped, man, like, we’re so hyped,” he said. “We’ve been working, we’ve been talking about it. A lot of our own people were kind of doubting us, but it’s good to show the doubters they were wrong. So, it feels great.”

Sylva-Viela takes his role as team leader very seriously.

“This shows the younger boys what’s the deal, this is how we play Lahainaluna football,” Sylva-Viela said. “Shows them you’ve got to come out every play, whack every play, and just play your heart out. We’ve got to set the tone for the young kids because they’re the future.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.

First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA State Football Championships

At Farrington

DIVISION I

Friday’s Results • Semifinals

No. 1 Lahainaluna 30, No. 4 Konawaena 7

No. 2 Iolani 21, No. 3 Aiea 0

Thursday’s Game • Championship

No. 1 Lahainaluna vs. No. 2 Iolani, 4 p.m.

DIVISION II

Wednesday’s Games • Semifinals

No. 1 Kapaa vs. No. 4 Hawaii Prep, 3 p.m.

No. 3 Kamehameha Maui vs. No. 2 Kaiser, 7 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 30 • Championship

Semifinal winners, 7 p.m.

OPEN DIVISION

Saturday’s Results • Semifinals

No. 1 Kahuku 21, Campbell 0

No. 2 Saint Louis 27, Mililani 25

Thursday’s Game • Championship

No. 1 Kahuku vs. No. 2 Saint Louis, 7 p.m.