The Punahou boys water polo team is back on top of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, and the Buffanblu had to come through two days in a row against a team that beat them twice during the regular season.

Griffin Bolan scored four goals and Josh McDonough added three — all in the third period — as Punahou beat host ‘Iolani 11-9 on Friday night for the overall ILH title.

Punahou forced the winner-take-all match by winning the league tournament title with an 8-5 victory Thursday over ‘Iolani, the regular-season champion and host.

"We always believed," said Bolan, who will attend Stanford next fall. "The first games (against ‘Iolani) we lost by one each time with, like, about 25 seconds left. We knew we had it in us to win."

Punahou had won 10 consecutive ILH boys water polo championships before ‘Iolani ended the run last year. The Buffanblu victory Thursday snapped a five-match losing streak to ‘Iolani over the past two seasons (three last year, first two this year).

Punahou scored three goals in a row in the second half Friday night to take control 11-8. McDonough scored with 1:09 remaining in the third, Brandon Imada scored with 21 seconds left in the period and Bolan found the back of the net with 5:57 left in the match to put Punahou (7-2) up three.

"Our focus for the entire game was defense," Bolan said. "We knew if we played good defense it would turn to offense and that’s what really helped us."

‘Iolani (7-2) made it 11-9 after Zalman Bernstein’s goal with 2:43 remaining, but Punahou was able to stall effectively in the final 90 seconds to pull out the victory.

"We had the lead coming in for most of the season and Punahou is a great team — they always fire back," said ‘Iolani assistant coach Keona Leong. "Hat’s off to them for closing the season very strongly."

McDonough, a Punahou senior, scored two of his three third-period goals on rebounds.

"The goalie had good blocks, but tips were right there, so I took advantage of it," he said.

The Raiders took a 5-3 lead late in the first half after power-play goals by Timmy Leong and Kaimana Rosso. Punahou tied it before halftime on Imada’s goal with 1:55 remaining — ‘Iolani was down two players at the time — and a score by Bolan with 17 seconds left.

"We kept our composure," said Punahou head coach Ken Smith. "We were getting in foul trouble. That was the best we kept our composure the entire season."

Punahou goalie Oliver Lewis finished with seven saves.

"It’s such a great feeling," said Lewis, a sophomore. "We’ve been working so hard the past month or so just for these two games. We knew it was going to come down to this, so it feels good."

‘Iolani’s Kacy Johnson, Leong, Michael Chen and Connor Grune each scored two goals. Goalie Jacob Baba had seven saves.

There is no state tournament for boys water polo because not enough leagues participate in the sport.