It took some late game heroics, but the Punahou girls water polo dynasty didn’t let its dreams of a 14th consecutive ILH title die out.

Punahou has claimed every ILH title since 2007, and has also gone on to win the past 13 state titles. The Buffanblu have gone a combined 39-0 at the state tournament during that win streak.

Meanwhile, Kamehameha has finished as both the ILH and state runner-up to Punahou for the past six seasons. The Warriors looked primed to finally shed that runner-up title this year, after besting Punahou twice in three games this season and finishing with the best record in the ILH. But the Warriors will have to wait, after falling to Punahou 5-4 in the ILH tournament final at ‘Iolani on Friday night despite leading for most of the game.

As the regular season ILH champion, Kamehameha will have another shot at ending Punahou’s win streak next Tuesday in the ILH finale.

“They are so balanced and they are so hard to beat. They’re really well-coached,” Punahou coach Kenneth Smith said about Kamehameha. “So it’s a great uplifting thing for us to get this win. It’s a great momentum builder. But we still have a long way to go. We have to come right back to play them again next Tuesday at Kamehameha. It’s not going to be easy. They just are a really balanced team. They’ve got great swimmers, everybody is a threat to score, they’re really hard to defend.”

Senior Allison Kauahi played a starring role in the win for Punahou, scoring a team-high three goals to lift the Buffanblu over Kamehameha. After a quiet first half, she scored all three of her goals in the second half, with her two late goals in the fourth quarter proving to be the tying and game-winning goals.

“Early in the game, I didn’t feel like I was playing to the best of my ability on defense and offense,” Kauahi said. “But I didn’t let me get down on myself and I pushed through to the end.”

Kamehameha drew first blood in the rivalry game. After two Punahou attempts went off the mark, the Warriors opened up the scoring with Ava Gurney’s arching shot over Punahou keeper Reia Kimi at 4:17. Punahou had it’s chance to take the lead late in the first quarter, but a power play shot was blocked, and Kauahi missed a penalty shot to keep the deficit at 1-0 after one quarter played.

Punahou finally got on the board in the second quarter, as Ava Aguilera scored from close quarters at 5:45. Less than 20 seconds later, Kamehameha’s Tea Brandon scored to reclaim the lead for the Warriors. Punahou appeared to tie the game back up, but the goal was disallowed due to the 2-meter rule.

With under a minute to play in the first half, Punahou finally found the equalizer. Holly Chong-Gangl’s back-hand heave found the back of the net with just 48 seconds left. Kamehameha had one last chance to score in the first half, but the power play shot was stopped by Kimi and Aguilera.

Kauahi opened the third-quarter scoring with her first goal at 5:04. She threw a high-arching shot over Kamehameha goalkeeper Makana Fake’s hands to give Punahou it’s first lead of the game at 3-2. Kamehameha was awarded a power-play chance on the next possession, but Aguilera blocked a shot to keep the score at 3-2.

Gurney knocked in her second goal of the game with 2:26 left in the third quarter, scoring from in close. Laikuakamahina Wong was next to score for the Warriors, fitting the ball just under the top crossbar with 1:10 on the clock.

With a 4-3 lead in hand to start the fourth quarter, Fake nearly deflected a shot off the crossbar into her own net. But she was able to reach the ball before it fully crossed the line into the goal, leaving Punahou still searching for the equalizer.

Kauahi pulled out some late-game heroics with the game on the line. She scored the game-tying goal at 2:35, a screamer into the top left corner. A minute and a half later, Kauahi received the ball right in front of the goalkeeper, and calmly put it away into the left side of the net as Punahou took just their second lead of the game, 5-4.

“We never got down about being down on the scoreboard,” Kauahi said. “You never know what can happen in a game. So we just tried to push through no matter how far behind we were, or even if we were up. We never stopped playing as hard as we could.”

Punahou played keep-away the rest of the way, draining away the clock and keeping their chance at a 14th straight ILH title alive.