Mililani makes it back to top of league

The Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I girls soccer title did not elude Mililani this season.

The Trojans knocked off Pearl City 2-1 on Saturday night at Kapolei to capture their first league crown since 2013. A year ago, though, Mililani got something even better — the state championship — after coming up short in the OIAs.

With Saturday’s victory, the Trojans (12-1) avenged a 3-2 loss to the Chargers on Dec. 28 and now don’t have that same kind of sour feeling that eventually helped their motivation at states last year.

Instead, Pearl City is feeling a bit of that emptiness.

“It sucks to be undefeated,” Chargers coach Frank Baumholtz III said right after the loss, referring to the team’s spotless record entering the OIA final. “It doesn’t mean a thing to be undefeated and it’s not a good position to be in. You don’t want them concentrating on it and that’s why we didn’t mention it all year.”

It took a fantastic offensive play to keep Pearl City (12-1) from adding another OIA championship to the one it won in 2014.

With the score knotted at 1, Trojans outside fullback Kasey Isobe started off that glittering bang-bang-bang play with a crisp pass up to reigning state player of the year Tia Furuta, who immediately redirected it ahead to the speedy Kailana Kaeo. Two defenders converged on Kaeo, but she pushed the ball to her left and let go a left-footed bomb into the top right corner for what turned out to be the winning goal in the 75th minute.

“They (the two defenders) both hesitated,” Baumholtz said. “They should have kicked it out.”

Said Kaeo: “I just wanted to touch it past the defenders and get a shot and was hoping it would go in and it did.”

After a scoreless first 39 minutes, the advantage tilted to Mililani when Taylee Miyamura scored off Tehani Furuta’s corner kick for a 1-0 lead just before the half. The ball caromed off several players before Miyamura put it home — barely. The ball was about a half of a foot over the line when Pearl City defender Bethany Okuna booted it away. Play continued for about 30 seconds before the officials converged and called it a goal.

“You let the ball bounce on a corner kick, it’s going to be a goal,” Baumholtz said. “We can do better on the fundamentals.”

In the 45th minute, Chargers freshman Sunshine Fontes tied it up at 1, scoring on a booming shot from 25 yards out.

But the Trojans had the final say.

“It’s always great to be able to play in a championship game,” Mililani coach Ray Akiona said. “Especially against a top-caliber team like Pearl City.”