Sogville — also known as Eddie Hamada Field at ‘Iolani School on Monday — favored the defensive sides in the opening match of The Queen’s Medical Center/HHSAA Boys Soccer State Championships.
After a scoreless tie in 80 minutes of regulation, two 10-minute overtime periods and a steady rain that factored into some sketchy footing, it went to penalty kicks, where Kalaheo scored an unexpected upset with a 1-0 victory (4-3 PKs) over ‘Iolani.
Braden Uehara made the final difference for the Mustangs (11-3), denying the Raiders’ Jack Brady with a diving save to preserve the one-goal PK decision.
“I thought we just pushed really hard, gave it our all, attacked every ball,” Kalaheo midfielder Teo Stohler said. “I think we can go farther. Yeah, we’re really good. We just need to work hard like we’re doing. We came into it with a really good mind-set.”
>> Photo Gallery: Penalty kicks lift Kalaheo over ‘Iolani in first-round tourney
With the win, Kalaheo advanced to the quarterfinals to face third-seeded BIIF champ Waiakea at 3 p.m. Thursday at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex’s main stadium.
During the fateful PK portion, the Raiders’ Isaak Tanaka made two saves, but the referees ruled that he left the line early on one of them. That gave Kalaheo’s Jack Bright another chance. He didn’t miss the second time to give his team a 3-2 edge.
Jacob Lee knotted it at 3-all for ‘Iolani before the Mustangs’ Branson Suzuki beat Tanaka for what turned out to be the game-winner leading up to Uehara’s heroics.
‘Iolani (7-4) was bounced from the tournament even though the Raiders controlled the flow of play for the most part throughout and got it in deep quite a bit, but couldn’t connect on some offensive surges by Micah Kim-Bustillos, Jonah Kawamura, Raine Fujimura, Evan Georgia, Frederik Mareels and Carl Freeze.
“A lot of credit to Kalaheo, they sold out,” ‘Iolani coach Chris Lee said. “They made some blocks on some shots that probably on any other day would have been goals. Their back line played really well. Soccer sometimes is cruel. I thought we dominated the game. I’m sure we had more than 10 corner kicks. We just couldn’t convert.”
In the 70th minute or regulation, after an initial shot by the Mustangs’ Daniel Fujiwara, teammate Jack Lemonds collected the rebound and hit the goal post.
Georgia barely missed on two chances in the first overtime for the Raiders. In the second overtime, Fujimura had two super chances in front of the goal, but one was saved by Uehara and the other went off the chest of Mustangs defender Adam Ferguson.
“It’s all about heart and our team gave that,” said Kalaheo defender Tristan Atwater, who peered a little bit into the future, possibly. “We definitely have what it takes. We have a lot of talent on this team. It’s scary because no one knows us because we were coming up from D-II.”
Kalani 6, Pearl City 1
Travis Brubaker scored two goals and Kanta Oka’s goal five minutes into the game got things rolling for the Falcons (12-2-1), who scored the most goals in a Division I game since they beat Hilo 7-1 in the first round in 2013.
Brandon Lee, Jenson Fuse and Jason Choi also scored for Kalani, which will play King Kekaulike in the first quarterfinal on Thursday at 1 p.m. at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex’s main stadium.
Cody Ohira scored the lone goal for the Chargers (10-5), who made their fourth consecutive appearance in the state tournament.
Kaiser 2, Hilo 0
Kyler Halvorsen, who led the OIA East in scoring, broke a scoreless tie with a goal in the 34th minute and Ian Ngonethong added an insurance goal in the 79th minute for the Cougars (12-1-1), who won a state-tournament game for the first time since reaching the 2017 final.
Kaiser advances to play top seed Punahou in the final quarterfinal game on Thursday at 7 p.m.
Mililani 2, KS-Maui 0
Jvon Cunningham and Liam McGehee put the game away for the Trojans with goals in the second half as Mililani (11-2-1) advances to play No. 2 seed Kapolei on Thursday at 5 p.m.
Mililani played the Hurricanes to a scoreless tie in the OIA regular season but was knocked out of the winner’s bracket in the OIA quarterfinals in penalty kicks by Kalani.
The Trojans reached the semifinals last season before losing to eventual state champion Punahou in a shootout.
