Tiana Fujimoto wants you to overlook her.

Go ahead, take a glance at Fujimoto, the Hawaii soccer forward who stands all of five feet, and decide that someone of that diminutive stature couldn’t possibly be a serious threat. Just do so at your own peril.

Fujimoto, for the second straight season, has made herself a sizable danger in opponents’ 18-yard box. The junior is coach Michele Nagamine’s most consistent finisher with more than half of UH’s goals this season (six), good for second in the Big West Conference as UH (5-6, 0-2 BWC) heads into a crucial home weekend today against UC Santa Barbara (7-5-1, 1-1) and Sunday against Cal Poly (5-7, 1-1).

She also has to look straight up at many of the defenders who mark her; she’s tied with two other players as the shortest in the BWC.

"It’s intimidating at first," Fujimoto said. "I mean, you walk on the field and it’s ‘oh, shoot’ and you have to go play against a bigger player. But once I get the ball … size doesn’t matter to me once I’m playing."

Apparently not. The four-year All-State player out of Moanalua High is tied for seventh on the UH career goal list at 17, and is on pace to make the top five.

She became the sixth player in program history to notch a hat trick in UH’s 4-1 win over Idaho State on Sept. 13. Her last two years at Moanalua, she netted 53 balls.

Her innate ability to finish, and the relative drought of finishing strikes by UH’s other attackers, have placed outsized expectations on her mantle.

"I think that Tiana is going to get better as we get better," Nagamine said. "I think we’ve relied very heavily on her, and that creates a lot of pressure. She takes a lot of that role on her shoulders."

She might have to carry an even larger load today against UCSB. Two of UH’s key offensive players, sisters Krystal and Kama Pascua, could be out due to illness.

When Fujimoto scores, UH is 4-0. When she doesn’t, it is 1-6.

So yeah, there’s pressure. But much of that burden is self-imposed for the family resources major. Fujimoto is her own harshest critic.

"I never wanted to disappoint anyone, so I’m always hard on myself," she said. "And I feel like when I don’t do good I let down the team and everyone."

Growing up, Fujimoto’s father, Rod, stoked her competitive fire in several sports. Tiana’s temper would flare when her older brother by six years, Tyson — her only sibling — and a cousin would play games without her. She would jump in anyway.

"They taught me to be tougher," she said, smiling.

She’ll challenge 5-foot-10 players for headers and fight doggedly to get around them, often finding herself flat on the pitch in the process. But she gets by, that’s when her speed and low center of gravity make her truly dangerous.

"She brings a lot of heart and she works really hard," said tri-captain Karli Look, who at 5-2 can directly relate to Fujimoto’s vertical challenges."She has a very big presence on the field."

Nagamine took Fujimoto aside for a heart-to-heart after a frustrating first road trip of BWC play. UH came back 0-2 and Fujimoto was fouled and knocked off the ball repeatedly.

"Like any great forward, Tiana is very demanding of herself," Nagamine said. "Very emotional. Can be very raw sometimes. Because she demands a lot of herself and the people around her. And I think those are qualities that many goal scorers have. … They’re not the most, how would you say, happy-go-lucky types. They’re very determined and because Tiana is so little too, she’s had to fight and claw her way through everything."

She’ll keep clawing with six BWC matches remaining. Fujimoto trails only Cal Poly’s Elise Krieghoff, the national leader with a whopping 15 scores. Krieghoff and the Mustangs will be in action at the Waipio Peninsula at 5 p.m. on Sunday.