Kalani chased down every ball sent in by Kaiser’s aggressive attack. The effort on defense allowed the Falcons to chase down an OIA boys soccer title.

Takahiro Kosins scored the game’s only goal as Kalani stopped Kaiser 1-0 in Saturday’s OIA Division I championship game at Kapolei. The Falcons (13-0-0), last year’s state runners-up, now get a first-round bye in the state tournament that starts Feb. 24.

“It was one of our biggest goals, especially since we’ve never won it (the OIA) as a school,” said Kosins, who scored his 28th goal of the season. “Winning it just helped us make history. It’s one of our biggest besides winning states and it gives us a bye going into states.”

Kaiser (9-3-1) kept the ball in their half of the field for the majority of the second half, pressing forward at a far more aggressive pace than the first half. Kalani’s defense ran all over the field trying to stop Kaiser’s attack. The pressure rattled Kalani, which sent every player except Kosins into the defensive formation.

“I don’t know why we didn’t handle the pressure moment,” said Kalani coach Michael Ching. “Maybe we saw 1-0, seeing that championship and panicked a little bit. We gave up a lot of corners and yet we were still able to do it. We played pretty good defensively. They didn’t have a lot of wide-open chances. I’m very proud of how we did it.”

Kalani kept two defenders near Kaiser’s Makana Srivongsana, the speedy freshman forward who scored 21 goals this season. Kalani also played without starting fullback Toshihiro Kosins, who rolled his ankle in Thursday’s semifinal.

“Their players can just cut, cut and play the ball perfectly,” Takahiro Kosins said. “It was kind of hard without my brother on defense. Our players really stepped in. We kept our offensive pressure and it balanced out and helped us win.”

Kalani goalkeeper Brandon Kim stopped several shots by Kaiser early in the second half and another in the 72nd minute by Hunter Yamanaka. He made a diving stop in the 76th and stopped another shot in the closing minutes to preserve the shutout.

“It’s a young team, we only have two seniors,” Kaiser coach Marco Antonio Gloria said. “We had some good configurations in the second half, putting them together, but by then it was too late.”

Kosins almost scored again in the 69th minute on a breakaway. His shot was poked away by goalkeeper Brandon Yasue into open space. Yasue got up and chased down the ball, reaching it a second before Kosins got to it. Kosins’ breakaway attempt in the 71st went just wide of a diving Yasue.