Jacob Moore’s clutch late goal and Cade Matsumoto’s remarkable save kept Punahou alive Friday night.

The Buffanblu held off a furious Kalani rally for a 2-1 victory in the Division I semifinals of The Queen’s Medical Center/HHSAA Boys Soccer State Championships at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium.

Moore’s 25-yard high blast found the top corner in the 71st minute for that 2-1 edge. But then the Falcons pushed and pushed and came up just short. Jenson Fuse’s header on Kanta Oka’s cross in the 79th minute appeared to be going right in the goal to tie it up, but Matsumoto leaped to deflect it away.

>> PHOTOS: Kalani vs. Punahou

“He headed it straight up and fortunately it went up high enough for Cade to get it,” Punahou coach David Trifonovitch said. “Two feet right or two feet left, I don’t think he could have gotten it. We’re lucky he got up quick enough to tip it over the bar because he could have easily tipped it into the net.”

Still, Kalani wasn’t done. After a corner kick, both Kaedin Okimoto and Brandon Lee had in-close chances that were swept aside by Matsumoto and the Punahou defenders.

Tonight, the Buffanblu (10-1-1) take on Mililani in the championship game. They’ll be going for their 22nd overall D-I state koa trophy and fourth in the last five years.

“It’s very sad,” Fuse said. “I had a chance and couldn’t finish it. We worked for this and we couldn’t finish it.”

Punahou’s Laakeakamalu Salvani was part of his team’s early highlights and lowlights. He knocked home a corner kick by Moore for a 1-0 lead in the 14th minute.

But then later on, Salvani received a red card for taking down a Kalani attacker just outside the penalty area, and the Falcons’ Travis Brubaker sent a 19-yard direct kick into the Punahou wall. After a mad scramble, Kalani’s Rei Naiki was hauled down 6 yards away from the goal by the Buffanblu’s Liam Nichols-Shipley, who got a yellow card on the play.

This time, Brubaker drilled a penalty kick into the bottom right corner to tie it 1-all in the 29th minute.

From there, the Buffanblu controlled much of the flow of play and — led by the defensive work of Treyden Buder-Nakasone and Kaeo Wongbusarakum while playing with just 10 men due to the red card — limited Kalani’s deep forays.

The last five minutes was all Kalani (13-3-1), which buzzed all around the Punahou zone.

“I’m so proud of our boys,” Falcons coach Brandon Chun said. “Punahou’s a heckuva team, so talented. We’re a young team that worked so hard getting here and they got to see that they belong. We’re going to make sure this feeling carries over as motivation moving forward. They grinded and hung on to the very end. A couple of bounces and it could have gone either way.”

Many of the Kalani players were in tears afterward, and so was Punahou’s Matsumoto.

“It was a beautiful set piece and a perfect header,” Matsumoto said about his big save. “That was my time. We’ve been training that since the first day of practice. We were down to 10 men. It showed our character and the spirit we have. I can’t thank the boys enough. When that PK went in, I kind of dropped, but my teammates lifted me up. In soccer you play for more than just yourselves. You play for each other and everyone around you.”

As for tonight’s test, Matsumoto added, “Mililani is a great team. They’re at their peak right now and we have to show up.”