Sunshine Fontes was still a year from being born when Pearl City last played for a girls soccer state championship.
On Friday, the Chargers freshman’s goal proved to be the difference in the program’s return to the title match.
Fontes scored in the 22nd minute off a cross from Daelenn Tokunaga and the Pearl City defense protected the lead in a 1-0 win over second-seeded ‘Iolani in the Division I semifinals of The Queen’s Medical Center/HHSAA Girls Soccer State Championships at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex.
Pearl City (15-1-0) will face fourth-seeded Baldwin, its fourth match in as many days, in today’s 7 p.m. final at Waipio’s main stadium in pursuit of its first state crown since 1997.
Pearl City coach Frank Baumholtz said he uses “parental coaching” with the Chargers “because they are good, but they don’t know they can be great,” he said.
“No matter how many times you tell them that, it hasn’t sunk in. Maybe now it will sink in.”
Baumholtz said he implemented a new system at the start of the season and the Chargers opened the preseason with a lopsided loss to ‘Iolani and dropped another to Baldwin. But Baumholtz said they had full buy-in after a win over defending state champion Mililani early in the regular season.
“The team started playing together better,” Baumholtz said. “The two runners up front started playing well together. They didn’t care about who scored just as long as we won. That was the critical thing in our whole maturity process. And the defense started learning how to get them the ball so it was efficient.”
The Chargers went undefeated in the OIA West before dropping a 2-1 decision to Mililani in the OIA Division I final. Wins over Kapolei and Hilo sent Pearl City to the state tournament semifinals for the first time since 2008 and the Chargers went a step further on Friday.
“It means a lot because this is my first year on this team and everybody wanted to be in the final,” Fontes said.
A little more than 20 minutes into Friday’s match, Fontes found herself alone in front of the goal with Tokunaga coming down the right side. Fontes then popped Tokunaga’s crossing pass into the net for her fourth goal of the tournament.
“Sunshine sees the whole goal,” Baumholtz said. “I’m pretty sure when Daelenn went to cross that ball, she took a look and saw where the corner of the goal was because she didn’t drive that ball.”
‘Iolani turned up the pressure in the second half and fired eight shots after taking just three in the first 40 minutes. Pearl City senior Sydney Young made four saves to fend off the ILH champion Raiders.
“Our defense saved me a lot — thank gosh I have them,” Young said. “But it was our offense too, because not only do we have to work to get it back on defense, but we have to get it to our offense and we finished.
“(‘Iolani was) coming super hard with a ton of shots and it was kind of scary, but I knew my team had my back no matter what.”
The Raiders (11-1-2) will play Mililani in the third-place match scheduled for 3 p.m.
Baldwin 2, Mililani 1 (PK)
The fourth-seeded Bears edged the defending champion and top-seeded Trojans 4-3 in penalty kicks to join Pearl City in the state final.
Baldwin (11-1-0) will play for the title for the first time since 2002 and will attempt to capture its first state championship since claiming the second of back-to-back titles in 2001.
The match was scoreless into the 65th minute when Jayna Morikawa popped in a goal off a ricochet off of Baldwin goalie Malie Kuia, who made 12 saves.
The Bears, who took 15 shots to Mililani’s 26 in regulation and overtime, got the equalizer about eight minutes later on Kaitlin Smith’s header.
After two scoreless overtime periods, the match went into penalty kicks. Tayzha Furuta and Megan Usui made Mililani’s first two kicks and Kainoa Dafun and Skylar Littlefield converted for Baldwin.
The advantage went to Baldwin when Mililani’s third attempt sailed over the goal. Bailey Keator scored for Baldwin, Taylee Miyamura answered for Mililani and Kacy Lyn Navarro Laumatia gave the Bears a 4-3 lead.
Mililani’s final attempt banged off the crossbar to send Baldwin to the final.
Division II
Hawaii Prep 1, Kauai 0
Ka Makani freshman Emi Higgins broke a scoreless tie in the 73rd minute to send two-time defending Division II champion HPA to its fifth straight state final.
Top-seeded HPA will face Kamehameha-Hawaii in the championship match at 5 p.m. at Waipio’s main stadium in the third meeting of the season between the Big Island Interscholastic Federation rivals.
“I had a feeling we were going to see them again when we played them two weeks ago,” HPA coach Stephen Perry said. “They’re a good, dangerous team and I think the girls are excited to see them again.
“They know us pretty well, they played well against us last game and both teams are going to come out flying. It’s nice for the Big Island — two trophies are going home.”
Ka Makani controlled the action for much of the match and took 23 shots to Kauai’s seven. But neither team could find the net until Higgins fired a shot from just beyond the top of the goal box.
“They had five in the back and we had a little frustration getting through that and started kicking long, which is not our game,” Perry said. “We were telling our girls, ‘At least put the shot on net.’ We shot like seven balls wide in the half and finally one goes on net and it goes in.
“I’m happy for (Higgins) because she played really well. She was really running the flank the whole game covering a lot on the back on defense and I’m happy for her.”
Kamehameha-Hawaii 2, Kapaa 1 (PK)
In the first Division II semifinal of the afternoon, Kamehameha-Hawaii outscored Kapaa 3-0 in penalty kicks to advance to the state final for the first time since winning the 2008 title.
Hiilei Wong Yuen gave KS-Hawaii the lead in the first half with a goal in the 19th minute. Kapaa got the equalizer in the 52nd minute on a goal by Natalie Devin. Neither team could muster a goal over the remainder of regulation and two overtime periods.
KS-Hawaii got off 23 shots to Kapaa’s 12 and Nigeria Williams made 13 saves for the KIF champion Warriors.
KS-Hawaii senior JC Kerr opened penalty kicks with a goal and goalkeeper Cyrene Andaya blocked Kapaa’s first attempt. After a miss, Kekailani Wong Yuen made her attempt for the Warriors and Kiara Cuyo clinched the victory for the Warriors.
