The ‘Iolani girls soccer program has waited 13 years for a keeper to fill Kristin Masunaga’s cleats.

It turns out it takes two.

Courtney Overland held an aggressive Punahou team to one goal in 100 minutes, and freshman Katie Yuu stopped two penalty kicks in the shootout as ‘Iolani beat Punahou 2-1 at Kamehameha to earn its first ILH title since 1999. ‘Iolani head coach Kristin Masunaga was the keeper for that 1999 state title team.

"It’s so special," Masunaga said. "I can’t really express it in words."

Masunaga’s best coaching move turned out to be a stroke of a pen. She wrote Yuu’s name on the bottom of the official roster before the game, saying "you never know" when asked if the addition would be the hero of the game. Her smile as she said it suggests that she did indeed know. ‘Iolani won the shootout 4-1.

After ‘Iolani’s Diana Lim made the first penalty kick of the shootout, Yuu stepped into goal and took over.

Yuu, who played junior varsity this year, dove right to stop Jensen Toner’s first penalty kick.

After Taylor Kipilii converted for ‘Iolani’s second goal, Yuu guessed right to stuff Dempsey Banks.

"It was all adrenaline," Yuu said. "The first one the coaches knew which way she would go, the second one I just guessed right."

Jill Shimabuku made one for ‘Iolani and Punahou’s Hiilani Thomas matched her before Kylie Takafuji ended it with ‘Iolani’s fourth goal in four tries.

"We are OK with tonight because we played really hard and played to the end," Punahou coach Starr Johnson said.

"It’s not a fun way to win or lose any soccer game. The thing about PKs is the win doesn’t necessarily go to the team that deserved it for 80 minutes, or in this case 100 minutes."

‘Iolani pressed the action initially, but Punahou struck first. Banks won a battle at midfield and headed it to Liana Lau. Lau took it to the corner, juked Kipilii to the turn and threaded a low screamer to Sammy Nishiyama directly in front of the goal. Overland had no chance.

"Those balls slotted across the goal are dangerous for both teams," Johnson said. "We talked a lot about getting numbers up there and both (Lau) and (Nishiyama) put it away. It was beautiful."

The Raiders responded immediately with the equalizer two minutes later when they planted their entire offense in front of Punahou’s goal and pounded away until Buffanblu keeper Noelani Kong-Johnson got screened while making a save and ILH scoring leader Kama Pascua emerged from the black hole with her 19th goal of the season.

"Oh my God, it was just chaos everywhere," Pascua said. "I just saw the ball bouncing around and I was thinking I am going to jump in there and finish it."

The second half was played in the middle of the field, with both teams refusing to budge. Pascua nearly ended it two minutes into overtime when she turned Kate Hamamoto and unleashed a powerful shot off the crossbar. The Buffanblu had their chances in the overtime, with Lau getting a clean shot but knocking it over the goal. Banks, Megan Ching and Nishiyama had golden chances for Punahou in the second overtime but missed.

"This is one of the things we always wanted," Pascua said. "Every single season, we wanted the ILH championship and now we want to accomplish our second goal and take home the trophy for states."

‘Iolani will get the ILH’s seeded berth in next week’s state tournament, while Punahou will have to play on the first day and will probably share a bracket with Mililani.

The ILH champion has won nine of the last 10 state titles, with the lone exception coming in 2009 when Punahou lost the ILH but beat Kamehameha for the state crown.

"We’re fired up," Johnson said. "It’s not the end of the season and we look forward to next week. (Not having the bye) is 80 minutes of more running, but it can also be an opportunity to get our feet under us."