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You can’t keep the Punahou boys down very long.
The Buffanblu struck for their 19th Division I title in the 43rd year of The Queen’s Medical Center/HHSAA Boys Soccer State Championships on Saturday night.
Senior striker Kalen Halvorsen scored on a spectacular header in the 53rd minute to give Punahou a one-goal lead in the eventual 2-0 victory over Kapolei in the tournament final at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium.
Halvorsen crashed into Kapolei goalkeeper Makana Breault on the goal that came on a chip pass from Hunter DeTurk. The play started on Payton Sommer’s throw-in. It was the first state title for the Buffanblu (12-0-3) since 2011 and third under head coach David Trifonovitch.
“That ball that Hunter puts across the net on a funny little bounce and then Kalen is able to slip in and stick that in the net, that’s a huge game-changer right there,” Trifonovitch said. “It gave us more adrenaline to get us through the end of the game. If we didn’t have that adrenaline, it could have kept going back and forth and who knows what’s going to happen? It made them (the Hurricanes) flood forward; it made their defense suspect and then we get an easy clincher at the end.”
Hunter DeTurk ensured the victory in the 77th minute, sliding home a goal past Breault on a breakaway that came after Kapolei failed to clear the ball from deep in its zone.
“I saw that it was a bad bounce and I judged it and ran my butt off and tried my hardest and it eventually worked out for us,” Halvorsen said. “He (Breault) hit me in the face, but I still powered through. It’s my last year. We did it big. I’m proud of my team. The style we play is possession style and it worked out well.”
After a first half in which Punahou held a slight edge in field position, the whole second half was a blitz of near misses by both teams. In the first minute after the break, the Buffanblu’s Reo Nagai drilled a point-blank shot off the post after taking a cross from Duncan McKenna. Less than a minute later at the other end, passes from the Hurricanes’ Sean Yoshida to Kieran Raquedan and Shandon Hopeau resulted in Hopeau’s roller that went a foot wide.
Punahou keeper Tyler Ohata gave up only two goals in the state tournament and was named the most outstanding player. The Buffanblu gave up only two goals during the ILH season.
In the prior eight seasons, Kapolei (12-4-1) — which finished third in the Oahu Interscholastic Association and rallied with three state wins to get to its first state final — had gone as far as the state semis three times.
Before the go-ahead goal by Interscholastic League of Honolulu champion Punahou, Kapolei appeared to be gaining an edge in field position and the Buffanblu looked to be tiring.
“I thought it was a very free-flowing, fast-paced game, back and forth,” Hurricanes coach Ryan Lau said. “We both missed quality chances. Unfortunately, we gave up those two. That’s hard to take in this type of game. We wanted to take (the boys) to uncharted waters. We were getting the chances we wanted to, but it didn’t work out. Punahou’s program is outstanding.”
Hopeau, who had two goals in a 3-1 win over Kalani in the semifinals Friday, suffered through a rare game in which he didn’t score.
“Feeling kind of sad,” Hopeau said. “This is my senior year and I was hoping we’d come out with a win. Punahou is a really good passing team and it just spreads us out and it really brings out the 1-on-1 down the sidelines and that’s where we got beat a lot.”
For Punahou seniors like Christopher Brubaker, the state title was sweet.
“We got to the semifinals last year and the finals sophomore year and both years we felt like we could have gone farther, could have gotten the win,” Brubaker said. “This year, we got it and I know my team worked extremely hard for this. It feels great.”
Fifth place
Kealakehe 1, Kaiser 1
Third place
KS-Maui 1, Kalani 0
Goal scorers—Keal: Kolby Martin. Kais: Makana Srivongsana. KSM: Jake Mateaki.
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