Kamehameha-Maui players celebrate after defeating Castle, 4-3, in penalty kicks to advance in an opening round game of the The Queen’s Medical Center/HHSAA Girls Soccer State Championship. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Wed, Feb 17, 2016 @ Waipio

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Castle

4

Kamehameha-Maui

5

Final/PK	1st	2nd	OT	2OT	PK	Tot
Castle (12-4-0)	1	3	0	0	3	4
Kamehameha-Maui (8-4-1)	1	3	0	0	4	5

Q. Williams (32', 41', 68', 77')   V. Chinen (60')   D. Chang (7')   D. Muraoka (59')   C. Rivera (73')

WAIPAHU — Losing was simply not an option for Quinn Williams.

Williams provided the offense and Kealaokapuamakamae Aquino provided the defense to lift Kamehameha-Maui to a 5-4 win over Castle in penalty kicks at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex Wednesday afternoon.

The Warriors improved to 8-2-1 with the win and advanced into Thursday's quarterfinal round, where they will play No. 2 seed Iolani in a 5 p.m. match in the main stadium.

Williams, a 5-foot-6 senior forward, scored all four of KS-Maui's goals in regulation, including the equalizer in the 77th minute to send the game into extra time.

"She came up clutch," Warriors coach Jayson Nakasone said of Williams. "When we needed goals she kind of went out on a limb and took it into her own hands and got it done."

The teams were tied at 4 at the end of regulation. Neither team scored in either of the 10-minute, sudden-death overtime periods, which sent it into penalty kicks.

Aquino, a sophomore goalkeeper, denied Vanessa Chinen and Ciana Rivera on Castle's first two attempts.

"It was mostly instincts, but I kind of watched them during the game and I kind of figured out where they were going to go and it ended up working out," Aquino said.

Meanwhile, Jrae Viela and Ciara-Josephine Medeiros both found the lower right side of the net to give KS-Maui a 2-0 lead after two rounds of PKs.

"That was huge," Nakasone said of Aquino's stops. "Whenever we go to PKs that can kill the momentum of a team, especially when you block the first two kicks, so that was awesome. I mean, they're not supposed to stop those; They're at a disadvantage so whenever we can get our hands on some it's awesome."

Both teams' third shooters — Deandra Muraoka for Castle and Kameaiomakamae Drayer-Hoopii for KS-Maui — converted their shots.

Mikayla Harada then made her try to pull the Knights within 3-2 before Williams bounced her PK attempt off the left post.

"Isn't that so annoying?," Williams laughed. "I don't want to talk about that."

Castle pulled even at 3-all on Lauren Takasato's shot into the upper left corner, but Kaitlyn Randall clinched for the Warriors on the final PK.

"I was super proud of my team because we've had a rocky season," said a relieved Williams. "Some games we were really strong, some games just weren't our games, but this game we really came together and it felt natural and it was really good."

Aquino came off the bench for her late-game heroics. It wasn't until the game's 74th minute that she entered the game, when she relieved starter Kaanoiokapuuwai Figueroa, who left the game due to injury.

"When I did go in I knew what I had to do," Aquino said. "I knew what was at stake, I knew that my team could pull through and I knew that I could pull off some of the saves that I needed to."

The teams battled back and forth for the first 80 minutes of the contest. Danielle Chang's goal in the 30th minute for Castle opened the scoring. Williams tied it two minutes later to send the game into halftime tied at 1.

One minute into the second half, Williams netted her second goal on a penalty kick, but the Knights went on to net the tying and go-ahead goals by Muraoka and Chinen, respectively, in a two-minute stretch midway through the half.

Williams scored her third goal in the 68th minute to pull the Warriors even at 3-3. However, the Knights reclaimed the lead on Rivera's 73rd-minute goal before Williams tied it again in the 77th minute.

After the end of regulation, Williams was overheard imploring her teammates to dig deep.

"When we came in for overtime I was pissed," said Williams, who is signed to play at Division-II Concordia University in Portland, Ore. "I was like, ‘We do not lose after scoring four goals.' Like, who does that? That is such an unreal score, so I was not about to lose 4-5 or whatever. I was not about to lose."

Nakasone said the second half was a microcosm of how this season has played out for his team, which finished second in the Maui Interscholastic League.

"We had a tough season," Nakasone said. "We had to battle all season long, so all that hard work we didn't want it to go to waste and that's pretty much what (Williams was) talking about. We wanted to finish and keep on going as far as we can and see if we can reach the next goal, the next goal, the next goal and the next day."

KS-Maui will be playing in its first state quarterfinal since 2014, when it lost to eventual-champion Kamehameha, 3-0. It lost in the first round of last year's tournament, 7-1, to Mililani, which also went on to win the tournament.

The Knights, who finished third in the Oahu Interscholastic Association tournament, fell to 10-4 and will play Kapolei in a 1 p.m. consolation game Thursday.