Kalani's Daiya Fujiki tries to get around a Baldwin defender. He scored the lone goal in the Falcons' quarterfinal win. Steve Erler | SL

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Thu, Feb 25, 2016 @ Waipio

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Baldwin

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Kalani

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Final	1st	2nd	OT	2OT	PK	Tot
Baldwin (1-2-0)	0	0	-	-	-	0
Kalani (14-2-0)	1	0	-	-	-	1

D. Fujiki (6')

WAIPAHU — Luck was on the side of the Kalani boys soccer team Thursday night.

Daiya Fujiki scored early on and the top-seeded Falcons dodged threat after threat to stave off Baldwin, 1-0, in a quarterfinal match of The Queen's Medical Center/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I State Championships at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium Thursday night.

The win kept Kalani, the Oahu Interscholastic Association champion, unbeaten at 14-0 and sets up a 7 p.m. semifinal against Kapolei Friday.

Fujiki, a senior midfielder, scored in the seventh minute off a right-footed, midair blast into the upper left corner of the goal from about 15 yards out.

"I was hoping I could win it, but there were too much people so I stood back a little bit and then the ball popped out luckily to me, so I knew I had to take a chance to put it in so I just hit it and I saw it in the back of the net," said Fujiki, who had scored seven goals coming into the match.

The scoring play started with Toshihiro Kosins' free kick from near midfield. The ball ricocheted off two players before Fujiki — in one motion — turned and booted it in before it ever touched the ground.

"We were joking with him that he probably doesn't hit that twice, or if it was 10 yards farther or five yards farther back he probably shanks it," Kalani coach Michael Ching said of Fujiki.

"It was an unbelievable finish; I can't wait to watch that on TV. We were talking about crashing on set pieces and he just turned around and it was just one those things where the ball luckily bounced for us tonight."

Conversely, the Bears didn't get many bounces in their favor. They controlled much of the possession — especially in the second half — and held lopsided advantages in shots (14 to 5) and corner kicks (9 to 2).

"I can only say props to (Kalani) for putting it in, 1-0, but I thought that we did everything we had to do to control the game," Baldwin coach Kane Palazzotto said. "I thought we controlled the game beautifully tonight besides the set piece, which looked offsides."

Palazzotto was referring to Fujiki's goal, which was one of just two Kalani shots in the first half.

"I would have to look at the replay, but it looked offsides, but besides that I thought we played well," the 12th-year Bears' coach said. "We controlled it, we had more opportunities, we just couldn't put one home. Sometimes soccer is like that, where not the best team won tonight and that's how I feel."

Baldwin peppered Kalani goalkeeper Brandon Kim over and over in the second half, but to no avail. One of its best scoring chances came in the 59th minute when Angelo Deloso-Flocco's throw in headed for the middle of the 6-yard box. Initially it appeared to be batted out by Kim, but television replays clearly showed that a Kalani defender — and not Kim — batted the ball away with his hand.

Palazzotto said he saw the same sequence transpire from his sideline.

"I did, but I've been coming here a long time and I thought even Angelo's break away — he got dragged down from behind — and I'm not saying (the referee) was wrong or anything, but we know when we come up here we're going to be tough and it's going to be tough for us to get calls," Palazzotto said.

Had the handball been acknowledged and deemed flagrant by the officials, it would have resulted in a red card and consequent ejection for the player. Baldwin would have had a penalty kick for the potential game-tying goal and Kalani would have been playing with just 10 players the rest of the way.

"Two calls could change the game, but that's it. We go on and we battle. We put on a good show for the crowd," Palazzotto said.

Kim made five saves in goal for the Falcons, who posted their ninth shutout victory of the season. They have won their last three matches by a score of 1-0 and have allowed just two goals in their last eight contests.

"One of our things was don't give up set pieces, don't give up corner kicks and we ended up doing it," Ching said. "But we practice building a wall. We put all eight, nine guys back there and we don't mark up, we build a wall, so we feel pretty confident in that. We don't want to give up that many corner kicks obviously, but I just thought that shows the fight that we have. They're bigger than us, but we still were in there, we blocked and we stuck in there, so I'm pretty proud of the boys."

Baldwin, the Maui Interscholastic League runner-up, fell to 10-3-1 and 7-14 all-time in quarterfinals and will play Kealakehe in a consolation game at 3 p.m. Friday.

It was just the third time this year that Falcons' forward Takahiro Kosins — who has scored 28 goals this season — was held without a goal.

"A bunch of our boys play with him so we knew that he had over 20 goals coming into the game and I thought we did a good job," Palazzotto said. "Wherever he went, we were there. He battled; He's an awesome kid. He put up a good fight, our two defenders put up a good fight on him and it was good battle."

Kosins' twin brother, Toshihiro, returned to the lineup after missing the OIA title game due to an ankle injury in a semifinal win over Kapolei.

The Falcons — who improved to 6-2 in quarterfinals — will face off against the Hurricanes in the nightcap of a semifinal quadrupleheader at the Waipio main stadium Friday.

In Division II, Kamehameha-Hawaii will meet Honokaa at 1 p.m. and Hawaii Prep will play Pac-Five at 3 p.m. Punahou and Kamehameha-Maui will square off in the other D1 semifinal at 5 p.m.