Mililani holds off Pearl City to repeat as OIA D-I soccer champion

Mililani weathered some anxious moments in the Trojans’ first two matches in the OIA Division I girls soccer tournament.

Facing Pearl City’s attack on Saturday provided a few more, but the Trojans managed to fend off the Chargers and retain the league championship with a 1-0 victory at Castle.

Mililani junior Karlin Wurlitzer scored on a free kick in the 30th minute and the Trojans’ defense held off the Chargers in the program’s sixth OIA title in the past nine years.

“That was one of the things we talked about,” Mililani coach Ray Akiona said. ‘The players got the title. Now it’s just a matter of, ‘Do you want to keep it?’ You know everybody wants it. It’s a prestigious title and we’re just glad we were able to stay slightly ahead of the game and come out victorious.”

Mililani won the OIA West title at 8-0-2 in a regular season that included a 3-1 win over Pearl City. After a bye in the first round of the OIA playoffs, the Trojans needed two overtimes and penalty kicks to edge Kapolei in the quarterfinals and survived a 2-1 duel with Castle on Thursday to advance to the final.

After holding off Pearl City in the OIA title match for the second straight year, Akiona credited the Trojans’ defense for protecting the crown.

“All three teams pressed against us and in all three games we played, our defense is what kept us in the game,” he said.

While Mililani will have the OIA’s seeded berth in the upcoming Division I state tournament, Pearl City finds itself in the same position as last year when the Chargers made a run to the state title.

“The whole goal for me was to make it to the state,” Pearl City coach Frank Baumholtz said. “That’s all history, so we just gotta suck it up and get ready for the next one.”

Pearl City took 15 shots, including nine in the second half, to Mililani’s seven for the match. But the Trojans got the goal they needed when Wurlitzer lofted a free kick from 35 yards into the swirling wind. The ball slipped through the hands of Pearl City goal keeper Coryn Perreira and into the goal to give Mililani the lead.

“We practice a lot of free kicks and Coach says ‘aim for the frame,’” Wurlitzer said. “So I just aimed for the middle of the goal because my kicks go that way and I hit the side of the netting and I was very grateful. And I was very grateful our team kept the defense strong so we could hold the lead.”

Pearl City junior Daelenn Tokunaga made several runs at the goal in the second half and poked a shot past charging Mililani goalie Andrea Kenagy only to have the ball roll just to the left of the post. Sophomore Sunshine Fontes also fired rockets toward Kenagy, but none found the target.

“They’re just a constant 1-2 threat,” Akiona said. “They were not the only ones. They had other players coming just as hard and fast. You just have to be ready and get your assignments down. If you miss one assignment, they’ll blow right by you and take advantage of that. There was a lot of communication on our side.”