Aiea is back on the top of the OIA girls soccer mountain.

Na Alii upended Pearl City 1-0 in the league’s Division I championship game Saturday night at Kaiser Stadium. It’s the school’s third OIA title to go along with the banners won in 1999 and 2005.

It was a tricky and difficult road that Aiea (12-2) navigated. The semifinal and final wins were over teams with 25 league championships combined — Mililani (17) and the Chargers (eight).

“It’s a big win,” said speedy striker Nicole Olando, who scored the winning goal. “Since 2005, we haven’t won it. I was 5 then. It’s a great win. Moving on to states, we’ve got great momentum. It’s a team game and we all want the same goal and we can achieve it if we believe it.”

Team defense was the backbone of Na Alii’s resurgence. Some of Pearl City’s biggest offensive threats — Caylie Uyema, Soraya Santos and Alyssa Bautista — were marked efficiently by a back row led by Aiea sisters Phoenix and Savannah Miranda.

Olando’s game-winner came midway through the first half from 25 yards out. After taking a through ball from Sydney Boyd, Olando dribbled about 15 yards from right to left into a crowd and she somehow got a shot off that found the left high corner of the net.

“I got a great ball from Sydney and I was going to take the shot with my right foot, but I pulled it back because a defender was coming hard,” Olando said. “I saw the goalie come out and got some height on it with my left foot and chipped it over (Chargers goalkeeper Naomi Takata).”

Pearl City (10-2-1), which was playing without potent offensive weapon Sunshine Fontes (knee), did not have many scoring chances on Na Alii goalkeeper Shayla Sugai and none that were of the glaring variety. Most of the Chargers’ best shots were from afar and went high.

“Yeah, losing Sunshine hurt a little bit, but I think we played very well for not having her,” said Pearl City coach Frank Baumholtz III, who had four freshmen in his starting lineup. “One blessed (shot by Aiea) and the ball goes in the goal. That’s how it goes sometimes. I’m good with my kids. I love them all. They’re super hard workers. We kept pressing and pressing, but couldn’t make that connection. They were panicking a little bit.”

Both teams are headed to the Division I state tournament, where Aiea will be seeded with a first-round bye.

“We told the girls that we gotta do what we gotta do to win,” Na Alii coach Benji Villaflor said. “The plan was to defend for the first half and then come on strong in the second half, but we were able to put one in early again (like they did in Thursday’s 1-0 semifinal win over Mililani). And then during the second half, we had the wind with us. At that point it was get the job done, get the ‘W’ and get the title. Of course, this (league title) was a goal we wanted to accomplish. And of course, we want to go far at states now. We gotta find a way to remotivate them for states.”