Punahou players celebrate after a goal scored against Pearl City. Sylvia Lee | SL

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Punahou's Alec Dinsmore heads the ball against Pearl City. Sylvia Lee | SL

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Punahou's Duncan McKenna battles Pearl City's Daniel Woo for possession. Sylvia Lee | SL

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Pearl City's Matthew Cabacungan gets set to strike the ball against Punahou. Sylvia Lee | SL

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Punahou's Antonio Espinoza breaks down the field against Pearl City. Sylvia Lee | SL

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Wed, Feb 12, 2014 @ Waipio

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Pearl City

1

Punahou

3

Final	1st	2nd	OT	2OT	PK	Tot
Pearl City (11-5-0)	0	0	-	-	-	1
Punahou (11-5-3)	0	0	-	-	-	3

B. Yanagi    L. Wyman    K. McDonald    A. Espinoza

WAIPAHU — Three players scored in the second half to rally Punahou past Pearl City, 3-1, in a first-round game of the Outrigger Hotels and Resorts Division I Boys Soccer State Championships at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex Wednesday.

Antonio Espinoza, Kainoa McDonald and Brian Yanagi netted goals to help the Buffanblu improve to 7-3-3 and advance to Thursday's quarterfinal round. Punahou, the Interscholastic League of Honolulu runner-up, came back from a 1-0 halftime deficit, and will play Oahu Interscholastic Association-champion and tournament third-seed Kaiser at 5 p.m. in the main stadium.

"We've done this almost every state tournament that we've been in," Buffanblu coach David Trifonovitch said. "We always have these first-game jitters and you could see it; Everybody was just nervous, the balls were bouncing the wrong way, we were playing too fast, passing to the other team, so we had to really reassess things at halftime."

Espinoza tied it in the 52nd minute with his team-leading 16th goal off a cross from the right side.

"I know that the nerves definitely got to us in the beginning and we were playing rocky and just having a hard time getting a hold of the ball," Espinoza said. "I think at halftime it just became really real, because most of us after this, we realized this is it for us — after this it's no more soccer — so we only had one half left and we just had to give it our all and we did."

The Buffanblu took their first lead in the 71st minute when McDonald headed in a ball that was crossed from Yanagi.

"We were on a fastbreak and Brian took the corner and I saw Antonio on the front post and I thought I had to come back just in case the ball came back and the ball came back right to me and I knew I had to make something happen and I scored," said McDonald of his fourth goal this season.

Punahou added an insurance goal four minutes later when Yanagi redirected a header by teammate Alec Dinsmore to the right side of the goal.

"We got a good cross and Alec got a header," Yanagi said. "At halftime we talked about fronting the keeper and I was just in the right place at the right time."

The Buffanblu, who had not played since a 2-2 tie against Kamehameha in their ILH finale on Feb. 1, has outscored the opposition 45 to 12 on the year. They had eight shots on goals to three for Pearl City and had the edge in corner kicks, six to one.

"At halftime, I looked in their faces and it didn't look like they felt they could win and I told them that they had to come out with confidence and say 'I can do this,' not I'm not sure — You can't be scared — but, they got it going, they played a little bit better and then that first goal kind of got their confidence back up and once their confidence got up things started snowballing from there."

Pearl City, the fifth-place team from the OIA, took the lead midway through the first half on Luke Wyman's fourth goal of the season, which came off an assist from Paul Enriquez.

"It's a tough one, but I've got to give credit to coach David," Chargers' coach Randy Shinn said. "Whatever he said at halftime stepped up the boys and I've got to congratulate them for coming back and taking it to us. We stuck to our game plan and it was working, but unfortunately in every game there's got to be a winner and loser, but hats off to Punahou. My team played one hell of a game, they gave (Punahou) a run for their money."

Pearl City, which dropped to 11-4 with the loss, will play Hilo in a 1 p.m. consolation game Thursday.