The Kamehameha boys soccer team is writing quite a compelling script for itself.

The Warriors prepared for a must-win game with a writing assignment and hit the field as intense as ever to beat Punahou 3-1 at Kamehameha on Friday.

Kamehameha was coming off an ugly 2-1 loss to Pac-Five that forced the team to believe it has to win out just midway through the season. Beating the defending champions is a good start.

"We need every game from now on because of that loss," Kamehameha coach Jorge Barbosa said. "We have our backs against the wall and all we did today was take a step forward, we still have that wall right behind us."

The Warriors (3-2, nine points) moved closer to the top two with the upset, one point behind Punahou (3-1-1, 10 points). ‘Iolani leads the race with 13 points at 4-0-1 after beating Saint Louis on Friday night. Only two ILH teams get into the state tournament and there is no conference tournament.

Kamehameha doesn’t play Punahou again after dropping a 1-0 match to the Buffanblu in the season opener, and the Warriors believe they have to win each of their next five games, including two against ‘Iolani, to reach the state tournament. The journey continues on Tuesday against Mid-Pacific. Punahou plays Saint Louis the same day.

"We just have to drop it and let it go," Punahou coach David Trifonovitch said. "Hopefully we can get through ‘Iolani with a win; that’s going to be a tough one, but we can’t play lightly against Saint Louis, Mid-Pac or Pac-Five because all of them have the potential to upset somebody. That’s what happened to (Kamehameha)."

Kona Gaison struck first for the Warriors, getting a long pass from Nahoa Salera and beating Punahou keeper Connor Goo top right in the 37th minute.

"It was just good effort from my teammates," Gaison said. "Just good ball play, When I saw Nahoa running, I knew he would get it back to me and I just made my run."

The goal fired up the Warriors even further, leading to another long ball two minutes later that Salera corralled and headed into the goal when Goo came out to field it.

Kamehameha made it 3-0 after the break when Punahou briefly fell apart. Tx Tario stole a pass from Punahou defender Royce Romero in front of the goal and blasted it past Goo before Romero could recover.

The Buffanblu scored in the 64th minute when Antonio Espinoza beat previously perfect Kamehameha keeper Cheyne Holt. It was too little, too late for the Buffanblu, though, and they threatened but did not score the rest of the way.

Following the loss to Pac-Five, Barbosa gathered his boys together in the rain and gave them a writing assignment. The usually animated coach asked each member of the team to write a sentence explaining a thing they can do individually to help the team, and another saying what the team could do better. Two days later they shared their prose with the coach and the team hit the field like there was no tomorrow.

"I told them ‘It was beautiful stuff you guys wrote,’ " Barbosa said. " ‘But it doesn’t mean anything until you show me tomorrow.’ They decided they needed to play like they know how, like Warriors. They came out on fire today and hopefully we can continue it."