Pearl City's Daniel Woo attempts a penalty kick against Kamehameha. He scored a goal and assisted on another in the Chargers' win. CJ Caraang | SL

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KAPOLEI – Two first-half goals jumped-started Pearl City in a 2-1 win against Kamehameha in the championship of the 808 Prep Showcase boys' soccer tournament Saturday night at Kapolei stadium.

Ju Chan Lee scored from 18 yards off a cross from Daniel Woo in the 27^th minute and Woo scored on a penalty kick in the 38^th minute to account for the Chargers' scoring.

"I decided to make the backdoor run," Lee said. "Daniel (Woo) got the cross off to me from the other side, so I had the back-post goal."

The Warriors avoided being shut out when Ale Kawakami-Kauweloa scored from about 30 yards out in the 74^th minute.

Kamehameha showed better energy in the second half, but the two-goal deficit proved too much to overcome against a strong Pearl City team.

"The first half, I truly believe that it was heavy legs from (playing) the three games in a row, (with) 11 (players) playing most of the first two games," Kamehameha coach Jorge Barbosa said. "But they picked it up. I put them on the side and told them to work it out and they did."

The Kapolei-hosted preseason tournament had eight teams – Iolani, Kamehameha, Mid-Pacific, Kalani, Kapolei, Mililani, Pearl City and Baldwin – all perennial contenders from their respective leagues. This year, Mililani helped co-host by holding opening-round games. Coaches covet the opportunity to play in the tournament.

"This was a great tournament for us to play," Pearl City first-year coach Derek Kawano said. "We saw what we have against what other teams have. I'm greatly appreciative of Kapolei and Mililani for inviting us."

Kawano, an assistant last season, takes over for Randy Shinn, who is still on staff as an assistant. Kawano likes his team's chances for the upcoming season.

"We're still working things out," Kawano said. "The main thing is I got my players in, gave them time and we stuck to our game. So far, I like what I see."

The tournament helped the Warriors bond, Barbosa said. He has a relatively small roster with 16 players. But for the first two games of the tournament, he had only 13. One was injured and two others returned in time for the championship. One was participating in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and another was on Kauai for the holiday.

"I'm very happy with the performance because we're so small," Barbosa said. "Because of our two JV teams, we wanted to make sure they stayed competitive, numbers-wise. Now that we had the opportunity to play this weekend, maybe we should stay with this kind of (roster) numbers. It gives us more flexibility, as far as the coaching point. When you have a lot of players it makes it difficult trying to play everybody instead of trying to figure out how to play the game."

Although the Warriors lost the title game, Barbosa was more than pleased with his team's effort.

"We didn't expect to be in this final," Barbosa said. "It's a happy thing that kind of happened."

The OIA and ILH begin regular season play this coming week.