The Trojans celebrate after capturing their 15th OIA crown. CJ Caraang | SL

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Sat, Feb 6, 2016 @ Kapolei

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Mililani

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Pearl City

1

Final	1st	2nd	OT	2OT	PK	Tot
Mililani (14-2-0)	1	1	-	-	-	2
Pearl City (16-1-0)	0	1	-	-	-	1

T. Miyamura    S. Fontes    K. Kaeo

KAPOLEI — Kailana Kaeo capped off an already eventful week with a game winner Saturday night.

Kaeo scored the go-ahead goal in the 75th minute of Mililani's 2-1 win over Pearl City in the title game of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I Tournament.

A crowd of about 400 fans at Kapolei Stadium saw the Trojans (12-1) avenged their only loss on the year to capture their league-leading 15th OIA crown. It is their first title since 2013 and sixth under coach Ray Akiona.

"It is special to win and it's been a while since we've been in this game, so I think the most important thing is that our season has been going progressively well and we just wanted to kind of get this in another step in the right direction, but it's so sweet to have a championship," Akiona said. "You've got to give applause to the girls; they worked hard for it. I say both teams played well and we just happened to come out one step ahead, so it's a good victory for us."

Mililani, the Western Division second seed, won its ninth consecutive game since losing to Pearl City, 3-2, when the teams met in the regular season back on Dec. 28.

"I think the main difference was we played with our hearts and we played as a unified team," Akiona said. "The first time we played them we were still trying to get organized, but you can't take it away from Pearl City — they were a good team from day one. They played well and deserved the first win and they played well tonight, but I think the difference for us is just staying unified and playing a little bit from deeper within."

The Chargers (12-1), who went unbeaten in the regular season to finish as the West's top seed in the 12-team tournament, suffered their first loss of the year.

The teams went back and forth for much of the first half. It wasn't until the 39th minute that the Trojans scored the game's first goal.

Mililani got a corner kick after Pearl City goalkeeper Sydney Young deflected a Tia Furuta shot on goal. The ensuing corner kick took several bounces in the area fronting the goal before a stoppage. After a brief conversation with her assistant referee, the center official signaled that Mililani had scored.

"We made a critical mistake on that corner kick right before the half that cost us the lead," Chargers coach Frank Baumholtz III said. "Giving them a corner kick with 40 seconds left in the half was a big mistake. We let the ball bounce and they scored; that's a fundamental error."

Officially, Taylee Miyamura was credited with the goal, although television replays appeared to show the ball ricochet off a Pearl City defender and across the end line.

"It was back and forth until we scored, so that gave us a lot of momentum," Kaeo said.

However, just five minutes into the second half, Pearl City drew even. Freshman Sunshine Fontes drilled a left-footed shot over Mililani goalie Andrea Kenagy from about 20 yards out. It was her 23rd goal of the season.

The score remained tied until the 75th minute when Kaeo put the Trojans ahead for good. She fielded a pass from Furuta, fended off a pair of defenders near the top of the circle, cut back to her left and fired a low, driving, left-footed shot to the bottom right corner of the goal.

"I saw the ball going through the middle between the two defenders and then I touched it past them and then took a shot and it went in," said Kaeo of her 18th goal this year, which tied for her the team lead.

Kaeo had quite the week to remember. Wednesday morning she signed her National Letter of Intent with St. Mary's (Calif.). Thursday night she scored a pair of goals in the Trojans' 6-1 semifinal win over Moanalua.

"Kailana has been with us for four years and what I extremely like about her is she has that tenacity that she has to get it done and she's so quick and well-skilled that we look for her to have that one or two breakaways per game," Akiona said. "She's got such a clean shot so every time she has that ball by her feet we have that high hope that she's going to make something terrific happen with it."

Mililani won the state championship last year, but it was the first league crown since Kaeo was a freshman four years ago.

"It feels great," said Kaeo, who noted her team's improvement over the course of the year. "In the beginning of the season we weren't really coming together as a team but as we went through the season we got better and we started bonding more."

Akiona said the regular-season loss to the rival Chargers weighed heavily on his players going into Saturday's match.

"I think they felt like they had an obligation to play better so that everybody understood that we may have had a slow start, but that's not who we are," Akiona said. "We needed to play a better game as a team because that's who we are."

Both Young and Kenagy made five saves in goal for their respective teams.

The Trojans, who have outscored opponents 77 to 8 this season, will have a first-round bye in the upcoming state tournament.

Pearl City was seeking its ninth OIA title in school history.