Fontes' second-half goals rally No. 5 Chargers

Sunshine Fontes netted two goals in the second half with the game-winner coming in the 78th minute. Sylvia Lee | SL

EWA BEACH — Even at night, the sun shines for the Pearl City girls' soccer team.

Sunshine Fontes' two second-half goals — the tie-breaker in the 78th minute — and No. 5 Pearl City rallied to beat host Campbell, 2-1, Friday night.

The Chargers improved to 7-1-1 to hold third place, while the Sabers fell to 5-3-1 and fifth in the Oahu Interscholastic Association West. Both teams have one game left before the 12-team OIA tournament. Campbell holds a 1-point lead over sixth-place Kapolei (5-4); they play each other to close the regular season Tuesday.

"She's just on another level," Campbell coach James Curran said of Fontes, U.S. Soccer's Youth National Teams's all-time top goal scorer at the under-17 age group. "Her speed, she's real crafty with the ball, smooth. She's got a zero to a hundred change of pace when she gets that ball. She's at a standstill and then she's gone."

Early in the game, Fontes, a senior, displayed her speed when broke down the middle past all of Campbell's defenders, but her kick from about 15 yards sailed above the net. She also had two free kicks from 30 yards go wide of the goal.

Meanwhile, the Sabers would take a 1-0 lead when Hokulei Ishikawa's kick deflected off a Pearl City player for an own goal at the 40th minute.

But Fontes came through early in the second half when she scored from about 10 yards to tie the game at 1. She then put the game-winning shot in in similar fashion to give her Chargers the lead.

Pulling off the comeback was too close for comfort.

"We were (worried) actually," Fontes said. "We just have to execute and maybe play from the beginning and not wait until 1-0 to play harder with more intensity."

But what Pearl City veteran coach Frank Baumholtz would like to see is less reliance on Fontes, who increased her season goal total to 19, which leads all Division I scorers.

"Sunshine is kind of awesome," Baumholtz said. "But we can't rely on her. We have to get the other people in the game. We have to get other people scoring. Everybody's relying on Sunshine. We have to take it ourselves, support each other."

The Sabers had opportunities but just could not execute against a tough Chargers defense.

"I thought we had a few chances," Curran said. "We just didn't execute, either bad touch or a wrong run."

A Campbell win would have put it in a tie for third with Pearl City, as well as the head-to-head tiebreaker. The third seed hosts a first-round game. Campbell will finish either fifth or sixth and will travel for its first-round game at an East site.

Pearl City closes the regular season by hosting Waianae on Tuesday.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at [email protected].