The Falcons celebrate after Toshihiro Kosins' goal in the 15th minute. CJ Caraang | SL

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Thu, Feb 11, 2016 @ Kapolei

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Kalani

1

Kapolei

0

Final	1st	2nd	OT	2OT	PK	Tot
Kalani (14-2-0)	1	0	-	-	-	1
Kapolei (12-4-1)	0	0	-	-	-	0

T. Kosins (15th minute)

KAPOLEI — Michael Ching couldn't help but shake his head in disbelief as the final whistle indicated his Kalani boys soccer team had hung on to win Thursday night.

Toshihiro Kosins scored in the 15th minute to help Kalani survive a 1-0 semifinal win over Kapolei.

The Falcons, who are the top seed from the Eastern Division in the 12-team tournament, improved to 12-0 and advanced to Saturday's championship final. They will play East second seed Kaiser — which defeated Radford 3-0 in the other semifinal — at 7 p.m. at Kapolei Stadium.

The game featured two of the state's elite offensive weapons in Kapolei's Shandon Hopeau and Kalani's Takahiro Kosins — who entered the game tied for the state lead in goals scored with 27.

Both standouts were marked men by the opposing defenses. Takahiro Kosins drew the attention of Hurricanes' senior fullback Lyric DeLeon, while Hopeau was shadowed by Toshihiro Kosins.

"Both teams were equipped going in," Kapolei co-coach Ryan Lau said. "They had Toshi Kosins in the back with Shandon and then they had Taka Kosins with Lyric — which was a great matchup — and basically we knew both teams had marquee players, but we also know that it's a team game and we wanted to play to that."

The Hurricanes largely controlled most of the possession, which led to nine shots on goal against just three by the Falcons.

"I can't believe we won that game," Kalani coach Michael Ching said. "Possession was maybe 80 (percent)-20, 70-30 maybe (in favor of Kapolei), so I'm really not sure."

Toshihiro Kosins early score was all the offense the Falcons needed.

Kosins got a few steps of separation from a pair of Kapolei defenders just outside of the 18-yard box before placing his shot to the bottom left corner of the goal with the inside of his right foot.

"The ball popped out, my brother (Takahiro Kosins) touched it and the defender kind of missed the ball and I was right there to put it back in," Toshihiro Kosins said of his third goal this year. "I just touched it around the keeper. It was basically one on one."

However, about five minutes later, Toshihiro Kosins left the game after injuring his left ankle. He was carted off the field and did not return.

"It's a little embarrassing, but I slid and my foot got stuck in the ground and my ankle rolled and it's not the first time I did that, so I kind of re-injured it and made it worse," Kosins said.

With its top defensive player out, Ching had to alter the defensive strategy somewhat.

"We definitely had to make adjustments: we played a little deeper, we put our center mid further back to be more defensive minded because we were up 1-0 and we didn't have to chase a goal," Ching said. "When Toshi got hurt we moved Mark Ryusaki there from the outside and he really stepped up. For him to be able to play in the center back like that in a big game like this was pretty phenomenal."

Junior Brandon Kim did his job in goal for the Falcons with nine saves, including a pair of unlikely stops.

"I love my keeper," Ching said. "I think he felt a little bad from the Kalaheo game — when they had a couple shots that he let in that he thinks he probably could have saved — but tonight in the first half he made that kick save and then in the second half he made that whatever save. I don't know what it was, but it was awesome. Without him we don't win."

Kosins said he hopes to play Saturday, when the Falcons will try for their first league title in school history, but Ching isn't as optimistic.

"I'm definitely concerned but with the way we played with our other guys tonight, I'm not as concerned because if you're going to hold Kapolei to zero goals that's saying something about our defense, even without Toshi," Ching said.

Kapolei, the West second seed, fell to 9-2-1 and will play Radford for third place at 7 p.m. Friday at Moanalua.