Kalaheo's Mayumi Ishikawa battles Leilehua's McKenzie Jones for possession. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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012414__gsoccKalahLei_0100.jpg - Greg Yamamoto | SL

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KAPOLEI — Keely York and Mayumi Ishikawa each scored a goal to help Kalaheo to a 2-0 win over Leilehua Friday night to claim its first Oahu Interscholastic Association White Conference girls soccer championship.

A crowd of about 150 fans at Kapolei High School was on hand to see the Mustangs improve to 6-6, while the Mules dropped to 5-7. Not only was it Kalaheo's sixth consecutive victory since an 0-6 start, it was the first successful trip to the league title game in three tries over the past four seasons.

"It's not just the 0-6 start — this is our third time here in the last four years and to finally to go ahead and win it, I don't even know how to express it," Kalaheo coach Alan Heu said. "We've had a couple girls that went through it, three years ago, two years ago and even last year, but you can't beat winning."

The Mustangs got out to an early lead, just three minutes into the game when York beat a few Mules' defenders and softly put the ball past the goal keeper and into the net.

"I honestly don't know what happened, it's all kind of blurry," said York, a forward. "I know I touched it and there were defenders and goalies and it just went in."

The quick score put Kalaheo in the driver's seat for the rest of the match.

"It gave us a lot of confidence for the rest of the game, so we just kept on pushing," said York, whose goal was her fourth of the season.

The score held until late in the second half when Ishikawa scored from about 30 yards out in the 75th minute. Ishikawa's high-arcing shot was just out of the reach of the Mules' goalie and just beneath the crossbar.

"The first goal was nice because you're already up 1-0 going into halftime, but actually the more relaxing one was the second one," Heu said. "When that one went in, I could finally breathe a sigh of relief, because there were only a couple more minutes."

Kalaheo's defense was stout, to say the least. The Mustangs allowed just one shot on goal by the Mules.

"They say that offense wins games, but defense wins championships and our defense has been spectacular the last couple of weeks and even at the very beginning of the season," Heu said.

First-year Leilehua coach Erin Chow said the lack of offensive production was a result of both Kalaheo's defense and poor execution by her team.

"It was basically a lack of putting passes together," Chow said. "We weren't passing to feet so that kind of basically took away our attack and their defense did a good job of clearing out balls, so I can see why we only had one shot."

The game was a rematch of both the 2011 White title game — which Leilehua won, 1-0, in penalty kicks — and last year's third-place final, which Kalaheo won, 2-1, in penalty kicks.

"The girls finally put it together," Heu said. "This year's team didn't have any stars, so they all worked together to pull it off, which we haven't done in two other chances."

Going winless through its first six games — all losses to Division I teams — ultimately helped Kalaheo, Heu said.

"We really weren't playing bad at the start of the season — the first three teams we played we tied Castle, which almost made it to the (Red) final, lost to Kahuku 1-0, then lost to Kailua in penally kicks — but then we hit a rough spot when we lost to Kaiser, Moanalua and Roosevelt," Heu said. "It was hard to keep the girls together at that point because we're 0-6 and we're suddenly not as good as we thought, but then we started to play the Division 2 teams then we were able to start to put it together again."

Kalaheo, Leilehua, Radford and Nanakuli will represent the OIA in the 12-team Outrigger Hotels & Resorts Division II Girls Soccer State Championships, Feb. 5 to 8 at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex.