Kalani blanks Waiakea, 4-0

Kalani’s lone loss of the season might turn out to be its biggest victory.

The Falcons shook off a scoreless first half to beat Waiakea 4-0 in the first round of the Outrigger Hotels & Resorts Boys State Soccer State Championships at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex on Wednesday.

Kalani suffered its first loss of the season in the OIA semifinals when it fell to Mililani in overtime, robbing it of a chance of a first-round bye at states. The Falcons move on to play ILH champion Punahou tonight at 7 p.m. at the main stadium, knowing that they got their 40 minutes of subpar soccer out of the way before the quarterfinals.

"I think we played a lot tighter in the first half," Kalani coach Mike Ching said. "This is the first time this group of seniors even has been in the state tournament. We had such a successful regular season and we really, really wanted to play in the stadium so I think we didn’t play our game to begin with."

Kalani broke through in the 48th minute when Yoshinori Tamokai was taken down in the box on his way to the goal.

Kazuto Moribe took the penalty kick and, after staring down Waiakea keeper Ray Jay Iyo for a good 10 seconds after the whistle, chipped the ball into the left side of the goal.

"I’ve never seen him miss a penalty kick," Ching said. "He is a very special talent."

With that kick, the jitters were gone. Scott Manago scored on a defensive breakdown in the 63rd minute, Leo Klink outdribbled Waiakea’s defense for a score in the 78th minute and Moribe added the final goal from near midfield in the 80th minute.

Waiakea got four good looks at the goal in the first half, three of them by Nu‘ulaiti Aiava and one by Cameron Boucher, but was unable to convert.

"It looked pretty promising," Waiakea coach David Urakami said. "We talked about not changing anything between the first half and the second half but I think we just got tired and Kalani is a good team, too."

Now the Falcons move on to play Punahou, a rematch from the preseason, when the teams played to a draw. Don’t read too much into that, though. If Kalani comes out as flat as it did against gritty Waiakea, its first state appearance since a trip to the finals in 2007 will end quickly.

"We are ready for Punahou," Moribe said. "We are going to get them, too. I know they are tough, but I think we’ve got it."

Pearl City 3, Lahainaluna 1

Tyler Terashima and George Georgiev scored a minute apart as the Chargers (11-4) knocked out the Lunas (10-4-1).

Pearl City, which stopped its first losing streak of the season, moves on to play top-seeded Mililani after losing to the Trojans 2-0 earlier this year. Christian Cardenas-Ayala brought Lahainaluna within a goal in the 50th minute but Christian Nakabayashi sealed it for the Chargers in the 70th minute.

Kapolei 2, Moanalua 0

Reynaldo Arellano scored on a scramble in front of the net in the 20th minute and Archie Ryales added another score in the 32nd minute as the Hurricanes (12-1-1) shook off a loss to Mililani in the OIA championship to beat Na Menehune (9-3-2).

"It is nice to get the first-game jitters out of the way," Kapolei coach Bryce Kaneshiro said. "I think the boys are happy for the win but they know they are going to have to play better in the next round."

Kapolei moves on to play MIL champion Baldwin at 1 p.m. in the main stadium.