Neither the stage nor the moment ever got too big for Hilo, so – besides digging into the postgame spread – there were only a few things left for the Vikings to do Saturday night after most of the appreciative crowd had made its way out of Wong Stadium.

Kuresa Toledo cherished the moment with his ohana, Koa Kapahu tried to let it all sink in and Kaleo Apao, sounding as if he was ready to play another 48 minutes – going both ways – admired his team’s hard work while chartering the course ahead.

It’s a championship course.

“We finally made it,” Toledo, a standout senior defensive lineman, said after Hilo’s 26-7 victory against Maui in the HHSAA Division I football playoffs . “We made history, well-deserved, though. We put in the work and grinded it out.

“Big moment for us.”

Any by us, he meant all of us.

“Super thankful of the coaches, and we did this for our families (his parents are Lukas and Toafa), and the Big Island,” he said. “We put so much time and effort into this, we couldn’t let it slip this time.”

After outscoring the Sabers 19-0 in the second half to end a four-year state tournament slide that included losses of various degrees of disappointment and physical punishment, Hilo (9-2) is now ONE and seven in the D-I tournament and the BIIF is now ONE and 19.

“Just a lot of emotion,” said Kapahu, a senior center, as some of his teammates could be heard hottin’ and hollerin’ in the locker room. “Just trying to take in what just happened.”

Celebratory moments like these are one of the primary reasons why Hilo practices on Waianuenue Avenue until the sun goes down, and the Vikings long hours are not just confined to August through October.

It’s also the reason why Apao said he and some of his teammates would gather at 5 a.m. this week to hit the weight room in preparation for the title game against ILH champion Damien (10-3) at 5 p.m. Nov. 18 at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu. The Monarchs edged Kauai 13-10 in their semifinal on the Garden Isle.

“We’ve got to get this (title),” said Apao, the offensive alpha male of the semifinal. “(Early workouts) are what we have to do to get better, so that’s what we’re going to do. Every morning, 5 a.m. from here on out.”

“I just wish (the championship game) was this week,” he added.

In the week leading up to the game, coach Kaeo Drummondo lamented that his team had to wait two weeks to start the state playoffs, but the Vikings are used to the drill by now. When they take the field at Aloha Stadium, it will be their third consecutive game with a two-week layoff.

Drummondo said Hilo would “keep it simple” for the first of those two weeks, studying up heavily on Damien through film evaluation, while working on fundamentals and in the weight room.

The break gives the five-time BIIF champion Viks a chance to heal their bodies after a physical battle. The Sabers (5-6) might not have offered the challenge of the OIA or ILH teams in the four-team Open playoff, but Maui was bigger than Hilo is used to playing in the BIIF.

“We knew it was going to be a close physical game,” Drummondo said. “You just have to stay confident. You can not let doubt creep into your mind, because that’s that’s when you give up big plays.”

Winners of five of six coming, Maui, as expected, lined up in a three-person backfield and repeatedly tried to ram the ball down Hilo’s throat.

It worked once, in the second quarter, when workhorse Naia Nakamoto, listed at 5 feet, 9 inches and 205 pounds, broke around the left side on a counter for a 67-yard touchdown run, quickly equalizing Apao’s touchdown pass to Guyson Ogata.

“They were really quick and aggressive,” Toledo said. “They stick with their blocks, even when they’re beat.”

Nakamoto ran for 120 yards in the first half, but Hilo made adjustments and held the Sabers to just 52 total yards in the second half.

“We shifted the defensive line opposite of where the running back was lining up,” Toledo said, “so when they do run the counter, we could meet him in the hole.”

As expected, Maui was hellbent on limiting Kahale Huddleston, holding the senior to almost a 100 yards below his rushing average and forcing a fumble, Hilo’s third of the game, when the a defender met Huddleston to blow up a play.

Hilo’s offense made halftime adjustments, too.

“We pretty much put the D-lineman into the laps of the linebackers, creating lanes,” Kapahu said. “I’m grateful we executed in the second half.”

The Vikings failed to capitalize on the first of Micah Bello’s two interceptions when they missed a short field goal, but Apao started to keep more on the read option, ripping off runs of 34 (leading to Kaleo Ramos go-ahead touchdown) and 44 (setting up Keanu Keolanui’s field goal for a two-score lead).

Apao ran for 99 of his 131 yards in the second half, and quarterback/defensive back overcame two first-half interceptions in going 7 of 12 for 52 yards – Kainalu Tiogangco had three catches.

“They were keying on Kahale,” Apao said. “I told myself I had to make big plays.”

Bello’s second interception led to Huddleston’s 33rd touchdown of the season (counting a TD pass), and in some respects Hilo was lucky to have Bello, playing his first year of football, for the game.

The senior has committed to play baseball at Division I Saint Mary’s, and Bello missed the BIIF title game in October to attend a baseball showcase.

“He wasn’t guaranteed to play,” Drummondo said. “Thankful that his family let him play.

“I told him, you’re a baseball player, that’s where your future is. If he played football his entire football career he would have been a Division I defensive back.”

Long after most of the crowd had left Wong, Drummondo had only one complaint, and it involved one of those celebratory moments.

“They got me with the head with the damn (Gatorade jug),” he said.

He’ll probably be all too happy to take one more cold one.

Neither the stage nor the moment ever got too big for Hilo, so – besides digging into the postgame spread – there were only a few things left for the Vikings to do Saturday night after most of the appreciative crowd had made its way out of Wong Stadium.

Kuresa Toledo cherished the moment with his ohana, Koa Kapahu tried to let it all sink in and Kaleo Apao, sounding as if he was ready to play another 48 minutes – going both ways – admired his team’s hard work while chartering the course ahead.

It’s a championship course.

“We finally made it,” Toledo, a standout senior defensive lineman, said after Hilo’s 26-7 victory against Maui in the HHSAA Division I football playoffs . “We made history, well-deserved, though. We put in the work and grinded it out.

“Big moment for us.”

Any by us, he meant all of us.

“Super thankful of the coaches, and we did this for our families (his parents are Lukas and Toafa), and the Big Island,” he said. “We put so much time and effort into this, we couldn’t let it slip this time.”

After outscoring the Sabers 19-0 in the second half to end a four-year state tournament slide that included losses of various degrees of disappointment and physical punishment, Hilo (9-2) is now ONE and seven in the D-I tournament and the BIIF is now ONE and 19.

“Just a lot of emotion,” said Kapahu, a senior center, as some of his teammates could be heard hottin’ and hollerin’ in the locker room. “Just trying to take in what just happened.”

Celebratory moments like these are one of the primary reasons why Hilo practices on Waianuenue Avenue until the sun goes down, and the Vikings long hours are not just confined to August through October.

It’s also the reason why Apao said he and some of his teammates would gather at 5 a.m. this week to hit the weight room in preparation for the title game against ILH champion Damien (10-3) at 5 p.m. Nov. 18 at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu. The Monarchs edged Kauai 13-10 in their semifinal on the Garden Isle.

“We’ve got to get this (title),” said Apao, the offensive alpha male of the semifinal. “(Early workouts) are what we have to do to get better, so that’s what we’re going to do. Every morning, 5 a.m. from here on out.”

“I just wish (the championship game) was this week,” he added.

In the week leading up to the game, coach Kaeo Drummondo lamented that his team had to wait two weeks to start the state playoffs, but the Vikings are used to the drill by now. When they take the field at Aloha Stadium, it will be their third consecutive game with a two-week layoff.

Drummondo said Hilo would “keep it simple” for the first of those two weeks, studying up heavily on Damien through film evaluation, while working on fundamentals and in the weight room.

The break gives the five-time BIIF champion Viks a chance to heal their bodies after a physical battle. The Sabers (5-6) might not have offered the challenge of the OIA or ILH teams in the four-team Open playoff, but Maui was bigger than Hilo is used to playing in the BIIF.

“We knew it was going to be a close physical game,” Drummondo said. “You just have to stay confident. You can not let doubt creep into your mind, because that’s that’s when you give up big plays.”

Winners of five of six coming, Maui, as expected, lined up in a three-person backfield and repeatedly tried to ram the ball down Hilo’s throat.

It worked once, in the second quarter, when workhorse Naia Nakamoto, listed at 5 feet, 9 inches and 205 pounds, broke around the left side on a counter for a 67-yard touchdown run, quickly equalizing Apao’s touchdown pass to Guyson Ogata.

“They were really quick and aggressive,” Toledo said. “They stick with their blocks, even when they’re beat.”

Nakamoto ran for 120 yards in the first half, but Hilo made adjustments and held the Sabers to just 52 total yards in the second half.

“We shifted the defensive line opposite of where the running back was lining up,” Toledo said, “so when they do run the counter, we could meet him in the hole.”

As expected, Maui was hellbent on limiting Kahale Huddleston, holding the senior to almost a 100 yards below his rushing average and forcing a fumble, Hilo’s third of the game, when the a defender met Huddleston to blow up a play.

Hilo’s offense made halftime adjustments, too.

“We pretty much put the D-lineman into the laps of the linebackers, creating lanes,” Kapahu said. “I’m grateful we executed in the second half.”

The Vikings failed to capitalize on the first of Micah Bello’s two interceptions when they missed a short field goal, but Apao started to keep more on the read option, ripping off runs of 34 (leading to Kaleo Ramos go-ahead touchdown) and 44 (setting up Keanu Keolanui’s field goal for a two-score lead).

Apao ran for 99 of his 131 yards in the second half, and quarterback/defensive back overcame two first-half interceptions in going 7 of 12 for 52 yards – Kainalu Tiogangco had three catches.

“They were keying on Kahale,” Apao said. “I told myself I had to make big plays.”

Bello’s second interception led to Huddleston’s 33rd touchdown of the season (counting a TD pass), and in some respects Hilo was lucky to have Bello, playing his first year of football, for the game.

The senior has committed to play baseball at Division I Saint Mary’s, and Bello missed the BIIF title game in October to attend a baseball showcase.

“He wasn’t guaranteed to play,” Drummondo said. “Thankful that his family let him play.

“I told him, you’re a baseball player, that’s where your future is. If he played football his entire football career he would have been a Division I defensive back.”

Long after most of the crowd had left Wong, Drummondo had only one complaint, and it involved one of those celebratory moments.

“They got me with the head with the damn (Gatorade jug),” he said.

He’ll probably be all too happy to take one more cold one.