Christopher Brubaker wasn’t about to let opportunity pass him by.

In a key, wind-blown late-season boys soccer match against rival Kamehameha on Saturday, the Punahou midfielder came through in the clutch by drilling home two goals within the final three minutes for a 2-0 victory.

With the dramatic goals, Punahou avoided a scoreless draw that appeared imminent moments earlier. The Buffanblu (6-2-1) also broke a tie in the ILH standings with the Warriors (5-3-1) for second place and gained ground for an all-important state-tournament berth.

Both teams are still looking up at first-place ‘Iolani (7-1-0). Two of those three teams will qualify for states.

"Talk about the most exciting last few minutes of a match," Punahou coach David Trifonovitch said. "We kept pounding and pounding and were not really settling the ball down most of the time and finally did it. Kamehameha hung in there for 70-plus minutes.

"This was huge. We really needed those three points (in the standings)."

Brubaker paid a heavy price before his heroics. Early in the second half, he received his third yellow card of the season and will sit out Wednesday’s showdown at home against ‘Iolani.

After a mad scramble outside of the Kamehameha box, Brubaker collected the ball and fired a low shot to the low right corner past Warriors goalkeeper Ikaia Chu for a 1-0 lead with about three minutes to go.

Brubaker sent a similar shot into the net two minutes later, after some pinball action in the same area and a spin move past a Warriors defender.

"The first one, I was in the right place and trapped it and hit it in," said Brubaker, whose wind-aided corner kick with about eight minutes left was punched out of danger by Chu. "On the second one, there were a lot of players around and it somehow opened up and I got lucky with the (spin) move."

Punahou enjoyed a distinct field-position advantage throughout. Junior striker Jet Toner hit the post in the first half, and senior Gordon Kowalkowski’s header hit the crossbar in the second.

Buffanblu goalkeeper Connor Goo thwarted Kamehameha’s best scoring chance — Charleston Mahiai’s point-blank shot after a through ball from Keola Norton in the second half.

In the first half, Goo stopped Noah Rosenberg’s 47-yard direct kick with a two-handed punch that caromed 20 yards back downfield.

"That first goal shouldn’t have happened," said Rosenberg, who turned in a solid game at center fullback for the Warriors. "It was one of those moments where all of us (in the backfield) weren’t working hard for a split-second."

For coach Jorge Barbosa and his Kamehameha squad, it’s do-or-die time. The Warriors have three games remaining, including two tough ones against ‘Iolani and Mid-Pacific.

"We will be trying to regroup and working on getting the boys to believe," said Barbosa, whose team stayed alive until the final regular-season game but did not make it to states the past three years.

"We really can’t match the talent or the soccer DNA of Punahou or ‘Iolani," Barbosa said. "We don’t have the same depth. We broke down a little bit and it was ugly in the last few minutes when they got a few cheapie goals.

"These kids never give up, though, and that keeps us in the games. They’re relentless."

Including a 2-0 win over MPI last week, Punahou has won two big games in a row.

"They played with heart for that long (all the way until the end) for this win," Trifonovitch said of the Buffanblu. "With these two wins, we have picked up momentum. The kids are playing with a desire that sometimes went missing earlier in the season."