The Punahou girls soccer team got redemption in a big way Saturday against ILH rival Kamehameha — for last season and for this season.
The Buffanblu also went one up on the Warriors in overall state titles.
Xevani Salanoa scored in the first half and Carly Ann Cormack and Ellie Gusman scored a minute apart in the second as unseeded Punahou beat No. 1 seed Kamehameha 3-0 in the final of the Motiv8 Foundation/HHSAA Girls Division I Soccer Championships at Waipahu High School.
The Buffanblu were out to avenge last year’s state final, when Kamehameha beat Punahou 1-0 (3-1 PKs).
To make matters worse, in ILH play this season, Kamehameha (10-1-2) and Punahou tied twice and the Warriors won a championship playoff 2-0.
“It’s been a hard year and honestly I felt it until today,” Punahou coach Shelley Izuno said. “We all have and just having that fire for the 17 returnees who came back to this game and know we were going to leave with the result we wanted.”
Said Salanoa: “Knowing what we could have had last year kind of put that fire under out butt this year and knowing that we had the mentality this whole season to come back and dominate, and we did just that tonight.”
Punahou (11-1-2) is now a 12-time state champion, with its previous title coming in 2011, the last in a run of three consecutive crowns. Kamehameha, the three-time defending champion coming in, has 11 state championships.
“Winning the last three and being here again for the fourth time in a row, that’s not easy to do,” said Kamehameha coach Missy Moore. “I got to give it to these girls, they just keep coming in year after year and fight.”
Salanoa controlled the ball on the right side 25 yards out and unleashed a rocket that traveled over Warriors goalkeeper Marley Roe, hit off the crossbar and bounced straight down just beyond the goal line in the 26th.
“Before the game we were debriefed in the classroom what we wanted to do in this game, and one of those things was being able to shoot from outside the box,” Salanoa said. “So knowing I had the opportunity one-on-one with the last defender, I just took my shot and that’s how we got it.”
The Buffanblu, the ILH runners-up, made it 2-0 in the 61st on the goal by Cormack, who dribbled down the middle of the defense and delivered a left-footed shot into the bottom right side of the goal.
“The ball was bouncing and I was just attacking it and I saw the spaces and I went for it,” Cormack said. “Toward the end, I knew my (left) ankle was bad, but I just had to concentrate on hitting the ball. I turned my hips, and when I saw it go in the net, it was so rewarding.”
Not long after Punahou fans stopped cheering, Gusman scored from 18 yards in the 62nd.
The Warriors’ best scoring opportunity of the first half came in the ninth when Sarah Naumu delivered a free kick to Kamryn Kaleiohi just in front of the goal, but her shot was blocked by Buffanblu goalkeeper Xeyana Salanoa.
In the 49th, Kamehameha’s Nikki Mau placed a corner kick just in front of the goal, a couple of Warriors couldn’t get a clean shot as the ball bounced around and Xeyana Salanoa ended the drama by diving on the ball.
In the 57th, the Warriors’ Riley Burghardt fired a shot straight on from 12 yards that Xeyana Salanoa made a diving save on. The ball stayed in the box before a Punahou player cleared it.
“Sometimes you can be playing a very good game and if you don’t finish your opportunities and the other team does … that’s soccer,” Moore said.
The HHSAA moved the site of both finals from Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium because of unplayable conditions caused by heavy rain Saturday morning.
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HHSAA
Girls’s Soccer All-Tourament Team
Division I
Isabella Ayau, Kamehameha-Maui
Saraya Burghardt, Kamehameha
Carly Ann Cormack, Punahou
Marley Espiau, Kamehameha
Ellie Gusman, Punahou
Mia Hashimoto, Punahou
Jael Kapua‘ala, Kamehameha-Maui
I‘ai Maafala, Mililani
Xevani Salanoa, Punahou
Kailee Wilson, Mililani
Goalkeeper: Xeyana Salanoa, Punahou
Most Outstanding Player: Dalen Lau, Punahou
