Punahou's Erin Dung advances the ball against the defense of Iolani's Karley Devens. Sylvia Lee | SL

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Tue, Dec 30, 2014 @ Punahou

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Iolani

2

Punahou

2

Final	1st	2nd	OT	2OT	PK	Tot
Iolani (12-1-3)	1	1	-	-	-	2
Punahou (10-2-1)	0	2	-	-	-	2

K. Halvorsen (2)   M. Goo    K. Hori

Iolani girls soccer coach Kristin Masunaga can't help but feel like this one slipped away.

The visiting Raiders twice held a one-goal lead on rival Punahou Tuesday, but the host Buffanblu equalized both times to force a 2-2 tie before an afternoon crowd of about 100 fans at Alexander Field.

"It's very disappointing. We were up and I thought we played very well in the first half," said Masunaga. "The second half we kind of had some defensive breakdowns and we can't let that happen."

The tie left the Buffanblu (5-0-1) two points ahead of the Raiders (4-0-2) in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I race.

"They're a great team and we know that there's a lot of great teams in the ILH, so nothing about us wanted to go into this settling for less than our best and for us, our best was to battle every minute and to come away with a win," Punahou coach Starr Johnson said. "We came away with a tie, but we're OK with that, because now we can go back and regroup, continue our training sessions and make sure we're working hard everyday for each other."

Iolani, which is ranked second behind Punahou in the ScoringLive/OC16 Girls Soccer Power Rankings, got an early lead on Kristin Hori's goal in the second minute — her team-leading seventh of the season — and took a 2-1 lead on Megan Goo's 63rd-minute goal off corner kick by Shea Chun.

Hori beat a Punahou defender along the left sideline and fired a shot from just outside the goalie box into the bottom right corner of the goal.

It was the first goal allowed by the Buffanblu this year.

"We had confidence coming into this game and we've talked about how to respond to adversity in general, including balls going in the back of our net, and I think the team, as well as myself, nobody freaked out after that," Johnson said. "We knew we had a lot of minutes left in the game to respond to that, so even though it was an early goal, we knew that we had the ability and the time to come back, so I don't think we got too rattled by that and the girls came back well."

Halvorson, the lone freshman on the Punahou roster, netted her first goal of the game just minutes into the second half. She worked her way past a defender and found the goal with a right-footed shot from about 15 yards away.

"The first goal I got the ball and then I dribbled it down the line, cut in and I just shot it and it went in," Halvorson said.

Midway through the second half, Chun's corner kick from the right side deflected off a Buffanblu player in the box before Goo put away the ricochet to the top right corner of the net for her fifth goal of the year.

"I think that's the first time we've scored on a set piece this year — maybe the last couple of years — since Krystal Pascua," Masunaga said. "We work on it everyday, before games we have time allotted for set pieces and it's nice to see something happen."

Just prior to the corner kick, the ball went out of bounds and the line judge nearest to the play ruled that the ball went off the Iolani attacker and called for a Punahou goal kick. However, he was overruled by the center referee, who called it a corner kick for Iolani instead.

"To me that wasn't the right call. I'm not out there, but to me, the lineman was right next to where the ball came out and he very confidently, immediately snapped his flag up to show a goal kick," Johnson said. "The referee was closer than I was, but quite a bit further away than the actual play that happened and changed the call, so that's hard to swallow, especially when a goal comes off of it, but we're not going to make excuses. It's part of the game and the girls responded well."

About seven minutes after the Raiders reclaimed the lead, Halvorson tied it again when she beat three defenders along the left sideline and got off a low, driving shot that found the back of the net.

"The second one I'm not really sure because I was so tired, but I think I got around the defender and I just slided it past the goalie," Halvorson said.

It was her fifth and sixth goals of the season.

"She's a true striker and she's got a nose for the goal," Johnson said of Halvorson. "There's not many players in general these days that have a nose for the goal like that. She just takes shots, she takes shots early, she has the ability to keep the ball low and if she gets space on someone she's going for it. She's very aggressive to the goal, which is great, that's the job of a striker, so she does that well and she always has."

Punahou appeared to come out of halftime more aggressive in the second half and was also aided by a crosswind that picked up during the intermission.

"I think that was a definite factor for goal kicks and free kicks because it put a little of emphasis on the ball so we had more power on our shots," Halvorson said.

The Buffanblu, who missed out on the state tournament last season, play Sacred Hearts on Jan. 3.

The Raiders, who are coming off a league championship last year, are having to defend their title without Pikake Kaneshiro — their leading scorer from a year ago — next play on Jan. 7, against Sacred Hearts.

Kaneshiro suffered a season-ending knee injury in practice, just prior to the start of the preseason.