Trojans use second-half surge to overwhelm Na Alii

Mililani's Mari Ige (center) celebrates with Kiana Muratsuka (left) after she broke a scoreless tie with her goal in the 42nd minute of Tuesday's OIA Division I quarterfinal against Aiea. The Trojans did all of their scoring after halftime en route to a 6-0 win over Na Alii. Greg Yamamoto | SL

MILILANI — Kira Watase scored two goals and No. 3 Mililani did all of its scoring in the second half of Tuesday night's 6-0 win over visiting Aiea in the quarterfinals of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I girls soccer tournament.

The Trojans (11-0) clinched one of the OIA's sixth berths in the state tournament later this month with the victory. They had a bye in Monday's opening round of the OIA tournament, while Na Alii (7-5) needed double-overtime to edge Kahuku by a score of 3-2.

Aiea kept the match scoreless through the first forty minutes with a heavy defensive emphasis that stymied the hosts.

The second half, however, was a different story. Mililani scored early and often after the intermission.

Mari Ige got the Trojans on the board in the 42nd minute with her sixth goal of the season. Watase then found the back of the net in the 48th and 56th minutes for her third multi-goal game this season.

Mililani coach Darren Smith shared the nature of his halftime talk with his team.

"It was just not to panic, just to maintain our composure. I mean, (Aiea) didn't really have any counter(attacks) and they were looking to sit really deep, so just more of the same; recognizing where we're at and how we can exploit the space," Smith said.

Given the compact nature of the Aiea defense, Smith said he urged a wider attack from his wing players.

"We recognized that they wanted to sit back a little further so we had to slow the game down and look to stay wider and just maintain our spacing," he added.

After Kyla Lum made it a 4-0 lead with her goal in the 59th minute, Dylan Castellano added another three minutes later. Jade Alverio closed out the scoring with her goal in the 70th minute.

Mililani has now scored 79 goals and allowed just one through 11 games this season; Tuesday's win was its ninth win by shut out.

The Trojans, the top seed out of the Western Division, will face Pearl City in Thursday's semifinal round, 5:30 p.m. at Kapolei.

No. 8 Campbell, a 2-0 winner over Kapolei Tuesday, and No. 5 Moanalua, which beat Waipahu in double-overtime, 1-0, will meet in the late semifinal Thursday.

Na Alii, the fifth seed out of the West, had won five of its last six games since a 2-3 start to the season. They will play No. 7 Kaiser in a fifth-place semifinal Wednesday, 5:30 p.m. at Waipahu.

Mililani also beat Aiea when the teams met in the regular season back on Jan. 4, by a score of 8-0.

Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].