One streak came to an end for the Kalani boys soccer team on Wednesday.
The one that matters the most, however, is still going strong.
The Falcons let up their first goal of the season with their starting goalkeeper in the game but remained without a loss after knocking off visiting Kaiser 2-1 in an OIA East match.
Junior Takahiro Kosins scored both goals for Kalani (8-0-1), which all but wrapped up the No. 1 seed out of the East heading into next week’s playoffs.
An unlikely loss to Kaimuki (0-9) in Saturday’s regular-season finale is the only way Kalani could get knocked from the top spot.
Either way, the Falcons will get a bye in the first round of the OIA playoffs, where they look to rebound from last year’s loss to the Cougars in the title game.
"This is a rivalry for us so any time you can get a (win) against these guys, that’s big," Kalani coach Michael Ching said. "I thought we had some great chances in the first half and it could have been 2-1 or 3-1, but the boys stuck with it."
Kosins drew a foul in the box in the 26th minute and calmly put the penalty kick in the lower left corner of the net to give Kalani a 1-0 lead.
The Falcons had only allowed two goals all season, both in a tie against Kalaheo in which starting goalkeeper Michael Stafford was on a trip and missed the game.
The Cougars (6-3), who are the defending OIA Red champions, got the equalizer in the 28th minute on a left-footed shot by senior Cody Kuge.
"That one was on me," Ching said. "I told them the wrong thing."
It remained 1-1 until the opening seconds of the second half when the Falcons kicked off from midfield and moved the ball quickly to the sideline. A pass up the field was controlled quickly by Kosins, who beat his defender one-on-one and put a shot into the net.
"Normally we kick it back and then push the ball up over the top, but our coaches told us to do something different," Kosins said. "We settled down a bit after that."
Kaiser tested Kalani’s stout defense twice late as Stafford made an unbelievable save on a header off a corner kick, leaping to punch it over the post.
He added another save off a shot by Spencer Burcham that originated from another corner kick.
"This is always going to be a tough game for us and I think the boys kept playing, kept pushing and tried to apply all of the techniques we teach in practice," Kaiser assistant coach Alex Ayala said. "You try to go hard at a team like this and these boys are great at when they get their rhythm of playing strong and that’s where those opportunities came from."
Kaiser head coach Marco Antonio Gloria was away on a business trip and missed the game.