Kalani's Kane Enomoto tries to get around Pearl City's Ju Chan Lee. CJ Caraang | SL

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Tue, Jan 24, 2017 @ Mililani

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Pearl City

0

Kalani

3

Final	1st	2nd	OT	2OT	PK	Tot
Pearl City (12-4-1)	0	0	-	-	-	0
Kalani (8-4-2)	2	1	-	-	-	3

P. Izumi (22')   K. Enomoto (64')   B. Kim (11')

MILILANI — Three different players scored a goal and Kalani opened its postseason with a convincing 3-0 win over Pearl City in a quarterfinal-round game of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I tournament at John Kauinana Stadium Tuesday night.

The Falcons, who are the No. 2 seed out of the Eastern Division, improved to 8-1-2 and have now won five of their last six games. They had a bye in Monday's opening round of the 12-team tournament and will face West top seed Mililani in Thursday's semifinal round, 7 p.m. at Castle.

Kalani, which won its only OIA title last year, also secured a spot in next month's state tournament with the win.

The West third-seeded Chargers were shut out for the first time this season and fell to 9-2-1.

"Our keeper (Brandon Kim) came up huge tonight," Kalani coach Michael Ching said. "I think he's been a little up and down, but maybe he plays well in the postseason because (Pearl City) should have scored one, at least. I didn't actually know they haven't been shut out, but any time you can shut out any team is what the staple for us is and what we want."

Kim made six saves in goal, including five before halftime.

The Falcons used a team effort to minimize the touches for Pearl City's prolific scoring duo of Daniel Woo (team-high 13 goals scored this year) and Luke Wyman (11 goals).

"We knew they had a lot of talent, so we identified who they they went through and we always passed them off and we stayed deep," said Ching, whose team got a chance to scout the Chargers Monday in a first-round win over Roosevelt.

"That gave us a good idea of what they're doing," Ching said.

Brison Kim opened the scoring in the 11th minute off an assist from Wayne McCllelan.

McCllelan served a long pass over the top of the Pearl City defense and into the 18-yard box. Kim managed to get a foot on the ball and put it past Chargers' goalkeeper Richard Seaman and into the lower left corner of the net.

"I made a run and the center-mid, (McCllelan), he played a great ball in and I just tapped it in the goal," said Kim of his team-leading seventh goal of the year.

Brison Kim said the early score helped set the tone.

"It felt pretty good," Kim said. "I wanted to an early goal so we could keep the intensity up and that's what what we did. We've just been coming out flat for most of our games and this game that couldn't happen, so we just had to come out strong and just put them away."

The Falcons put away another chance about 11 minutes later when Peter Izumi scored off an assist from Noah Camacho.

"Noah was trying to get a shot off and it just wasn't going in the goal," Izumi said. "The keeper tipped it, (Camacho) played me the ball in the middle and I just ripped it in the goal."

Kalani took a two-goal lead into the intermission, but Pearl City turned the pressure up to start the second half.

Wyman moved from forward to an outside-mid position and Roland Merrill moved from the midfield up top.

"We wanted to look at what we had, options-wise," Chargers coach Derek Kawano said. "I think we saw some adjustments that we wanted to make to see what would happen and I think it helped us a little bit at least open things up, so we tried to make those subtle changes and try to get guys more space."

Pearl City managed just two shots on goal, both of them coming in the second half.

The Chargers' best look came in the 48th minute when Wyman blasted a right-footed, 25-yard shot on a rope that Kim deflected and saved. Their only other shot on goal came in the 62nd minute when a Kalani foul set-up a free kick from just outside the left corner of the 18-yard box. However, Kim gobbled up Woo's low, bouncing shot.

Two minutes later Kane Enomoto scored an insurance goal for Kalani on a direct free kick from 25 yards out.

"Hats off to Kalani; They came out with a great game plan," Kawano said. "They took away what we wanted to do. Ultimately, other than that, I'm proud of the boys how they came out in the second half, but it was a little too late."

The Chargers lost for the first time since Dec. 8 and must beat Castle in a consolation game Wednesday to qualify for the state tournament.