Tie is enough to put Punahou in states

Punahou’s streak lives, but the Buffanblu kept it going by the narrowest of margins.

"By the skin of our teeth," Punahou coach David Trifonovitch said. "We got done what we needed to do, but I still think the boys can play a little bit better. Kamehameha brought it hard and were winning every ball and it’s hard to recover from that."

Antonio Espinoza scored both of Punahou’s goals and the Buffanblu tied the Warriors 2-2 at Alexander Field on Saturday to secure the ILH’s second berth to the state tournament.

It is Punahou’s ninth straight year in states, giving the Buffanblu the chance to reach the state title game for the fourth time in five years. Kamehameha has not made the big tournament since 2011.

Punahou needed only a tie in the final match of the regular season, and it spent much of the final 40 minutes on Saturday one kick away from eating that result. The Buffanblu finished the regular season 6-3-3 for 21 points, while Kamehameha ends its campaign 5-2-5 for 20 points. ‘Iolani sapped all of the drama out of the regular season early on, going 12-0 to leave the other two fighting for the scraps. Punahou had a loss to Pac-Five and a tie with Mid-Pacific to its detriment, while Kamehameha stumbled with two ties with Mid-Pacific and one with Pac-Five.

Espinoza scored the first goal of the first half on a cross from Alec Dinsmore in the 10th minute, then fended off a Kamehameha assault until TJ Fitzsimmons earned a direct free kick in the 32nd minute and blasted a goal around Punahou’s five-man wall at the top of the box. The teams, which played to a 1-1 tie in the regular season, went into halftime tied.

Kamehameha’s hopes dimmed in the 55th minute after the skies opened up when Espinoza flew into a scrum in the middle of the box and drew a foul. He then lined up and beat the Kamehameha keeper for a 2-1 lead, leaving the Warriors 25 minutes to score two goals while holding the Buffanblu scoreless.

"I’m proud of the way the boys played — they played with class," Kamehameha coach Jorge Barbosa said. "No chippy stuff, no dives, if you know what I mean, for the other side. What they do and what we do is different, it’s just unfortunate that only two teams go."

Kamehameha got that goal back in the 62nd minute when Joshua Rosenberg went up for a header in the box and drew a foul. Weli Alamillo stepped up and drilled the equalizer. Kamehameha went for a full assault after that, earning four clean looks at the goal but not converting. Punahou keeper Henry Engel only had to make one difficult save during the stretch, as fullbacks Casey Nahm and Tyler Mar ruled the box, forcing the Warriors to try to do their damage from long range.

It helped that Engel had been there before. In what could have been the last match of the season, the senior’s mind took a brief trip back to his team’s most disappointing loss during his career.

"It brought back memories of last year’s final," Engel said of the loss to Kalani in penalty kicks. "It was 2-2 and I was in goal and I was like ‘You know what? Last year we got out and this year we have got to do it.’ It’s my last year and I know we can; we are bonding strong right now. I actually had a really, really good feeling."