In what is becoming a happy holiday season, the University of Hawaii football team has received pledges from one of the state’s top offensive linemen and a junior-college defensive end.

Arasi Mose, an All-State blocker from Saint Louis School, and Mason Vega, a defensive lineman from Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser they will put their commitments in writing on Wednesday, the first day of the NCAA’s early signing period for football prospects.

“Since I was a little kid, I always wanted to play for UH,” Mose said.

Mose held firm to the Rainbow Warriors, despite a scholarship offer — and late push — from USC.

“My heart was still with UH,” Mose said. “I wanted to go to UH with their run-and-shoot program.”

Mose will be reunited with former Saint Louis players Chevan Cordeiro and Jonah Panoke. Cordeiro is a UH quarterback. Panoke, a receiver, gray-shirted this semester and will join the Warriors in January.

“Chevan always influenced me to come and block for him at UH,” Mose said. Playing on the 2017 state championship team with Cordeiro, Mose said, “was very fun” — and exhausting. “He just ran around too much.” Mose mused.

Mose moved from the Big Island to Kalihi when he was 8 years old. His father signed him up to play in the so-called big boys league. “I grew to love the sport,” Mose said.

His best training came at every Saint Louis practice, when he went face mask-to-face mask against defensive linemen Fa‘atui Tuitele, Gino Quinones and Stanley McKenzie.

“I think they’re the best D-linemen in the state, possibly the country,” Mose said. “It was a competitive practice. It was always a war. Every time we stepped on the field, we weren’t friends. We tried to get each other better. Like the saying goes, iron sharpens iron.”

Mose, who is 6 feet 4 and 350 pounds, has played every position on the offensive line. He projects to compete at guard or center at UH.

Several schools, including Virginia and Tulsa, were recruiting Vega. But he said he chose UH because of “the culture, the people, the comfortability I got there, and great football.”

Vega will enroll in January, then participate in the offseason conditioning program and spring training. He will have two years to play two seasons.

At the urging of his best friend’s father, Stephen Johnson, Vega decided to play football as a Los Osos High School senior. “He saw it in me before I even saw it, that I was a Division I football athlete rather than a basketball athlete,” Vega said.

Vega’s best friend, also named Stephen Johnson, attended Grambling State, transferred to a junior college, and then went to Kentucky, where he was the starting quarterback for two seasons. Vega has followed a similar path. Vega played as a true freshman at Portland State. He suffered an ACL injury in the spring before his sophomore year. After that, he transferred to Chaffey, where he became a physical and agile defender.

Vega was a middle linebacker at Portland State and eventually moved to the defensive line at Chaffey. He is 6 feet 3 and 265 pounds.

He credited Johnson’s father for fostering the football vision.

“I went with his advice and it worked out for me,” Vega said.