Punahou notches 1-0 win over Kalani

Greg Yamamoto | SL

A Noah Williams' goal lead Punahou to a 1-0 win over Kalani, as the Buffanblu won all three matches in the Oahu Interscholastic Boys Soccer Tournament, taking out host Kapolei and Mililani in the first two games played during the tournament.

"Nothing real spectacular, Punahou's coach Trifonovitch said. "Scoring-wise, the goals weren't great. We got to work on our composure, we got to work on our team speed, and we got to work on our formation. We're moving out of formation quite a bit and we're working on some new formations as well"

Williams scored at the 18th minute, getting the assist from Chris Brubaker after a string of two-touch passes. Ball control was on Kalani's side for much of the game, and the Buffanblu managed to break the half line on a handful of occasions.

It is still preseason, yet Punahou's Chris Brubaker has been the "Key to offense" according to Coach Trifonovitch. Brubaker, the junior midfielder, helped the team with three assists and one goal throughout this tournament.

Brubaker said, "I think I played pretty well, but it was mostly contributed to my two center mids behind me. They worked really hard and covered a lot of lanes behind me."

According to coach Trifonovitch, there are several sophomores and freshmen now, and coach says that he thinks its good that they "got more experience, got some time, some understanding of the pace of the varsities level. So it's a little more faster a little more intense and teams like Kalani and stuff, they play a lot more physical and faster so it helps them adjust, but I think they were able to keep up most of the time"

Kalani head coach Michael Ching took the loss in stride.

"Score doesn't matter in preseason its more important on how you play," he said. "Second half I think we played much better with composure. We possessed the ball a little bit. They were probably tired a little bit that was like their second game, third game total, but I thought overall we played better."