Mililani wins it in overtime

Who needs ketchup when you have more than enough hot sauce?

Apparently, Mililani senior Tyler Matas needed both.

Matas, who suffered from cramps that kept him from leading his team in the waning minutes of regulation, scored on a blistering shot 3 minutes into overtime to lead Mililani over Kalani 2-1 in an OIA boys soccer semifinal on Thursday night at Kapolei.

"I kept cramping, had to eat some ketchup just to go through it," Matas said. "I saw an open gap and just had to shoot it. I could have dribbled, but I just kicked it. It’s what I do."

Matas was being marked by Kalani’s Kazuto Moribe, who handled him for much of the regulation but gave him the slightest opening in overtime. Matas collected the ball near midfield and dribbled all the way down to the top of the box before unleashing a heater into the top right of the goal. Kalani keeper Shawn Donnelly left his feet to stop it, but the ball was too hot and curving too much.

"Some good work by all the team to get the ball into that position," Mililani coach Jeff Yamamoto said. "And it was a lot of individual effort by Tyler. He was coming off a cramp, so he sucked it up, but he’s a senior, so he’s going to push through everything."

The Trojans (10-0-1) stunned the Falcons (11-1), who had been outplayed for most of the game but forced overtime when Kevin Carroll, who suffered a rolled ankle in the first round but played through it, bent a perfect free kick from 30 yards out over the wall and past Mililani keeper Tyler Wilson in the 70th minute. Wilson, who has helped Mililani to nine shutouts this season, never had a chance.

"Those kinds of kicks, the goalkeeper had very little chance of stopping," Yamamoto said. "It was an excellent kick. We don’t like overtime — given a choice we would never go to overtime."

Mililani earned its score in the 18th minute of regulation when Douglas Curran flipped a shot right in front of Kalani’s goal and senior captain Jake Sagami headed it in from 10 yards out.

Donnelly had a play on it, but the shot was just too perfect. Kalani had not given up a goal since before Christmas and had not given up two scores in one game since the second game of the OIA schedule.

"I’m 6-foot tall, I just head in everything," Sagami said.

Miliani has won the OIA tournament 13 times and will face defending champion Kapolei in the final at 7 p.m. on Saturday at Kapolei. The Hurricanes stopped Mililani’s three-year run as OIA champs with a 1-0 win in penalty kicks in last year’s semifinals. That memory helped drive the Trojans’ senior-laden crew in overtime against Kalani.

"We play every game like it’s the last game," Sagami said. "The seniors have to win it, the seniors have to go all out. That’s all we were thinking before overtime."

Kapolei 2, Pearl City 0

Keo Ponce and Caleb Gouveia each scored a goal as the Hurricanes shut out the Chargers (10-2) to move within one victory of repeating as OIA champions.

Ponce broke through in the 39th minute after the Hurricanes (10-0-1) supplied constant pressure and Gouveia added the insurance in the 66th minute.

Kapolei moves on to play Mililani for the title on Saturday.