Kalani's Kazuto Moribe lays out to attempt a stop of a Punahou penalty kick. Greg Yamamoto | SL

Purchase image 1 of 9

Kalani's Ryan Bui leaps up for a header against Punahou. Greg Yamamoto | SL

Purchase image 2 of 9

Punahou's Steven Yoshimoto drives up the field against Kalani. Greg Yamamoto | SL

Purchase image 3 of 9

Punahou's Ian Matsukawa controls the ball with Kalani's Jarrett Hayama defending. Greg Yamamoto | SL

Purchase image 4 of 9

Punahou's Alec Dinsmore, takes the ball down the sideline towards the Kalani goal. Evan Asato | SL

Purchase image 5 of 9

Kalani's Leo Klink finds his way through Punahou defenders. Evan Asato | SL

Purchase image 6 of 9

Kalani players celebrate after winning the 2013 HHSAA Division 1 State Championship. Evan Asato | SL

Purchase image 7 of 9

Kalani's Leo Klink attempts to dribble past Punahou's Royce Romero. Greg Yamamoto | SL

Purchase image 8 of 9

Kalani's Kazuto Moribe blocks one of Punahou's Penalty kicks Evan Asato | SL

Purchase image 9 of 9

Sat, Feb 9, 2013 @ Waipio

---

Punahou

2

Kalani

3

Final/PK	1st	2nd	OT	2OT	PK	Tot
Punahou (9-2-2)	0	0	0	0	0	2
Kalani (15-1-1)	0	0	0	0	0	3

L. Klink (2)   S. Yoshimoto    I. Matsukawa

WAIPAHU - Utter jubiliation was followed by trepidation and optimism for the Kalani boys soccer team Saturday night.

Shortly after upending Punahou, 3-2, in penalty kicks to claim their first-ever Outrigger Hotels & Resorts/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I Boys Soccer State Championship in school history, the Falcons gathered in prayer for one of their own.

Senior forward Leo Klink, who scored both of Kalani's goals in regulation, was quickly shuttled away from Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium before his team even received its state championship trophy to Kaiser Moanalua Hospital, where his mother was taken by ambulance due to a reported stroke.

The game was halted for about 10 minutes early in the second half to allow the ambulance to drive on field. Klink's mother was helped from the south bleachers, across the field from the Falcons' bench. Klink was not informed it was his mother until after the competion of the game.

It was an uneasy scene of quiet celebration, but mostly concern, for Kalani, which left the stadium quickly after the awards ceremony.

"It's heartbreaking, we're all thinking of Leo and praying for his mom," Kalani coach Michael Ching said. "He's everything to us, obviously, and to not be able to enjoy this with him here is bittersweet."

Klink scored his Division I-leading 25th and 26th goals of the season in the 23rd and 58th minutes, respectively, on a chilly, blustery night before a crowd of about 1,200 fans. Each of Klink's goals evened the score after Punahou had taken leads of 1-0 in the first half and 2-1 in the second.

“They showed the heart of a champion,” Ching said of his team. “They got down one goal, came right back and scored. We got down 2-1 and what do we do? Score again. We kept fighting. Most teams would probably fold to a Punahou. For us, we just learned how to battle, we know how to finish that game. I’ve said it all along, but I love watching this team play.”

After two scoreless, 10-minute overtime periods, the game went to penalty kicks with the Buffanblu going first.

Neither team could capitalize in the first round as shots by Punahou’s Ian Matsukawa and Kalani’s Kazuto Moribe were saved by the opposing goal keepers.

Moribe played 100 minutes as a field player – mostly at forward – before replacing starting goalie Michael Stafford between the posts for the penalty kicks portion of the game.

“He’s just an unbelievable player,” Ching said of Moribe. “He’s not a forward, he’s not a midfielder, he’s a soccer player and he reads (penalty kicks) very well.”

Both teams scored – Taylor Peter-Bibb for Punahou and Ryan Bui for Kalani - on their second penalty kick to keep it at 1-apiece. The score remained tied after goals by Punahou’s Kalen Chong and Kalani’s Steve Teshima in round three.

Kalani edged ahead, 3-2, after the Buffanblu’s Casey Nham missed high on his penalty kick and Klink followed by drilling a shot to the top right corner of the goal, past goal keeper Henry Engel.

Punahou needed Delton Oki to make his ensuing penalty kick, but Moribe made a diving save to deny him and secured the win for Kalani.

“It’s just instincts,” said Moribe, who did not play goalie in a game this season before Saturday’s championship game. “We practice PK’s and coach let me go in goal one time. I showed him I can be a good goalie for PK’s because I have good reaction time, so he put me in.”

Ching said it was quite a nerve-racking end to a high-energy game.

“I’m going be very happy when I watch the video, because I didn’t see a darn thing during the shootouts,” Ching said. “I’m speechless - for the first time probably - but you know, Kalani Falcons, state champions. Sounds pretty good.”

It appeared that Punahou scored the game’s first goal in just the second minute, but a handball negated the score.

“When the first goal went in, one and-a-half minutes in, I thought déjà vu.” Ching said. In last year’s state final, Mililani scored twice in the first 10 minutes, en route to a 3-0 win over Kalani. The Falcons avenged that loss Thursday with a 2-1 overtime over the Trojans in a tightly-contested quarterfinal game.

“I thought in a strange way it kind of settled us down just a tad when they called hand ball. We did play a little erratic in the first half, but I think we knew after the experience (of last year’s state championship game) to just settle down,” Ching said.

Moribe said last year’s run to the state final benefited the Falcons.

“It helped us a lot, because half our team was juniors (last year) and this year we’re all seniors, so this year we knew how to play,” Moribe said. “We knew to be composed and ready and everything.”

Ian Matsukawa got Punahou on the board first in the 17th minute with his fifth goal of the season off a direct, free kick from about 20 yards out. He managed to get off a low, hooking, right-footed shot past a line of Kalani defenders and into the bottom left corner of the goal.

In the 23rd minute, Klink broke free downfield from a pair of defenders and floated a right-footed shot over Engel and into goal.

The Buffanblu reclaimed the lead in the 49th minute when Steven Yoshimoto blasted a shot past Stafford to the top left corner of the goal from 25 yards out with his right foot. It was Yoshimoto’s first goal of the season.

However, Klink answered in the 58th minute for the Falcons. He outraced a defender down the right sideline for a ball and booted a low, driving shot just right of Engel to tie it at 2-2.

The game was a rematch of a state semifinal last year, which the Falcons won by a score of 3-2.

“We just knew we were going to win, we just knew it,” Moribe said. “Everytime we get scored on, I don’t have a bad feeling that we’re not going to come back. There was no way we were going to lose and we came back and we won. It’s just the greatest feeling ever.”

Moribe is the third different goalie for the Falcons in little more than a week. Starting keeper Shawn Donnelly did not play in any of Kalani’s four state tournament games due to an injury suffered during an OIA tournament game last Friday. Stafford made eight saves for Kalani.

Engel saved seven shots for Punahou, which had six different players score goals in its three state-tournament games.

Both teams took 18 shots, while the Falcons drew 16 fouls to 15 for the Buffanblu. Punahou took four corner kicks to three for Kalani. Each team was whistled for being offsides once.

Klink scored six goals in the tournament, including three against Hilo Thursday and the game winner versus Kamehameha-Maui Friday, and was named the Most Outstanding Player.

“It was a fantastic game by Leo, to be able to get those two counter-attacks,” Punahou coach David Trifonovitch said of Klink, the reigning Gatorade State Player of the Year. “You know, to put them away – it’s one thing if you have the ability to run down there, but you’ve got to be able to put it in the net – he did very, very well.”

Ching was gracious victory following the championship trophy presentation.

“I would like to congratulate Punahou,” he said. “I thought they outplayed us a little bit, they certainly had their chances. They have nothing to hang their heads on. A PK shootout is kind of a coin-flip in my opinion, so maybe there’s two winners tonight.”

The Falcons, who were unseeded and qualified for the 12-team tournament as the fifth-place team from the Oahu Interscholastic Association, finished the season with a 15-1-1 record. After a loss to Campbell in the OIA Red Tournament back on Jan. 23, Kalani reeled off six straight wins to close out the season.

The Interscholastic League of Honolulu titlist and tournament No. 2 seed Buffanblu completed their season with a 9-2-2 mark. After a first-round bye, they notched wins over Pearl City and Kealakehe prior to the championship round. Punahou has won the state championship 18 times, most recently with back-to-back titles in 2010 and 2011.

Trifonovitch said the loss was a tough one to take for his team, but it was put into perspective by the off-field medical emergency.

“We just hope that Leo’s mother is OK,” he said. “The sense of reality comes back in where these are just games, because there’s a matter of life.”

Division I All-Tournament Team
F - Leo Klink, Kalani
MF - Micah Alo, Kamehameha-Maui
MF - Taylor Peter-Bibb, Punahou
MF - Keoni Yates, Kealakehe
D - Ian Matsukawa, Punahou
D - Noa Maxilom, Kalani
D - Delton Oki, Punahou
D - Steven Teshima, Kalani
GK - Devonte Llanes, Kamehameha-Maui
GK - Michael Stafford, Kalani
U - Kazuto Moribe, Kalani

Most Outstanding Player: Leo Klink, Kalani