Campbell scored three unanswered goals to escape with a 3-1 win over Castle on Tuesday night at Bino Neves Stadium.

The Lady Sabers advanced to the semifinal round of the OIA Division I girls soccer playoffs and will meet Mililani on Thursday. They also sealed one of the OIA’s state-tournament berths.

“We had a little pep talk (at halftime). We were a better possessive team in the second half. They’re coming in hot, so we just let that ball do the work and that was it,” Campbell coach James Curran said. “Ultimately, going to states is our big goal, but like everything else, we’ll take it one game at a time.”

Miyah Suster scored in the first half, and Kaelyn Jaentsch and Ava-Rose Whitmer added goals in the second half for the Sabers.

Castle (7-1-3) entered the playoffs as the second-place team from the East. Campbell (9-2-1), the West’s third-place team, reached the quarterfinal round by blanking East 6 Roosevelt 4-0 on Monday.

Castle got the edge early. Kalea Zimmerman’s goal gave the Lady Knights a 1-0 lead.

The turning point came later in the first half when Castle senior Hailee Hanaike suffered a head injury in a collision. Hanaike led the OIA East in scoring with 12 goals.

“She’s in the concussion protocol,” Castle coach Travis MacDonald said. “She’s a big part of offense, but the girls, they battled. I’m pleased with their’ effort. Tough game. Campbell’s very physical. We gave it our best shot.”

Suster, a freshman, got the Sabers on the board with a goal from close in.

“Jaylee (Curran) played the ball and it was going out, and Jessica (Ancheta) headed it to me. I was just free by myself and I tapped it in,” Suster said.

At the half, it was time to re-calibrate for Campbell.

“When we have ball control, it helps us settle down, to work more as a team,” Whitmer said.

“At halftime, we needed to calm down,” Suster added. “We needed to possess the ball because we were kind of getting frantic and just clearing it, but we had open players and we just needed to calm down.”

Jaentsch emerged out of a pack and ripped the ball from the left hashmark, 12 yards out, to give Campbell a 2-1 lead.

“Me and Miyah did a really good combo. We were able to work around their defense. She threw me the ball, I touched it a little forward. I ran around the defender and I shot in the right corner,” Jaentsch said.

Whitmer added an insurance score for a 3-1 cushion.

“I just know I had the ball. Two defenders were on me front and back. I touched it in because they were closing and I shot it,” Whitmer said.

The Sabers came into the match with a full scouting report.

“We had to watch out for (Hanaike). She was quick, fast. She has technical abilities,” Jaentsch noted.

Campbell tied Mililani in week one in a scoreless match.

“I honestly believe we can beat Mililani with faith we have, the work ethic we have, the composure and communication,” Jaentsch said.

Castle will play Kapolei today in consolation play. At stake is a state-tournament berth. They will have to do it without Hanaike.

“We’re going to have to have a short memory,” MacDonald said.

Mililani 6, Kapolei 0

Defending league champion Mililani (12-0-2, 10-0-1 OIA) made simple work of the Hurricanes, getting goals from six different scorers.

Kapolei (8-3-1) will meet Castle at 5:30 p.m. today at Roosevelt’s Ticky Vasconcellos Stadium for a state-tournament berth.

“We were able to come out and execute, do what we needed to do. To qualify for states, that was probably the focal point, but we showed we came to play,” Mililani coach Darren Smith said. “We always know that we’re up for a match no matter who it is, East or West, but Kapolei usually rises to the occasion, so we had to bring our best.”

Anjolie Maeda scored in the 24th minute to break the stalemate, and Tavena Oliveira scored at the 35th minute for a 2-0 lead. After Iai Ma‘afala scored (39th minute), the Lady Trojans went into the half up 3-0.

Kailee Wilson (42nd minute) found the net, followed by Kayla Arakaki (52nd minute) and Jaeda Edayan (78th minute) to close the scoring.

Mililani will battle Campbell on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Kaiser Stadium in the semifinal round. The teams played to a scoreless draw in week one of the regular season.

“We’ll have to mentally prepare, recover tomorrow and come ready to play,” Smith said. “We definitely want to be confident, but at the same time we don’t want to be complacent. We try our best day in and day out to find a result that we’re looking for and let the match speak for itself.”