Hawaiian Electric Game of the Week
Hurricanes, Buffanblu set to face off for Division I crown




The title match of The Queen's Medical Center/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I Boys Soccer State Championships pits two programs at the opposite ends of the spectrum.

Perennial powerhouse Punahou will face unseeded upstart Kapolei in the final game of the prep season at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex Saturday night.

Kickoff between the Buffanblu (11-0-3) and Hurricanes (12-3-1) is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Punahou's road to the championship match has been a relatively smooth one so far. It had a first-round bye as the Interscholastic League of Honolulu titlist and the tournament's No. 2 seed.

The Buffanblu built a 2-0 first-half lead Thursday en route to a 4-2 win over Radford in a quarterfinal match. Four different players (Kalen Halvorson, Hunter DeTurk, Duncan McKenna and Kai Terada-Herzer) scored a goal in that match.

Two other players (Reo Nagai and Keenan Dung) accounted for both goals in Friday's 2-0 semifinal win over third-seeded Kamehameha-Maui.

"It's not like you can focus on a guy. You have to be organized, you have to minimize their options and you have to make sure with that back door you're not letting guys run free," Kapolei co-head coach Ryan Lau said of the Buffanblu. "I think they do a good job of swinging you over, getting the defense to over pursue and swinging it back and they do a good job of getting in and penetrating and getting opportunities."

Punahou has spread out the scoring over the season. Dung leads the team with eight goals, while DeTurk has five and McKenna four.

"We've done that all year and even though every team wants a go-to guy, we haven't established one and it's just different guys that are stepping up in different moments," Punahou coach David Trifonovitch said.

The Buffanblu became the lone remaining unbeaten team in the state after Kapolei's 3-1 win over top-seeded Kalani in the late semifinal Friday night.

"They're a great team," Lau said. "I think they do a great job of spreading you out and swinging the point of attack and combining and offensively they're really good as well as defensively."

Unlike their opponent Saturday, the Hurricanes have a bona fide star in senior forward Shandon Hopeau, who leads the state with 33 goals scored.

Hopeau, who plans to forgo collegiate soccer in order to start a professional career in Croatia after high school, has scored in all but four games this season and has netted five goals in Kapolei's three state-tournament games this week.

He scored the first goal in Wednesday's 2-0 first-round win over ILH runner-up Mid-Pacific and both goals in Thursday's 2-1 quarterfinal victory over previously-unbeaten Kealakehe, the No. 4 seed in the tournament.

Friday night, Hopeau broke open a scoreless tie with a goal in the 45th minute and another in the 53rd against the Oahu Interscholastic Association champion Falcons. Kapolei avenged a 1-0 loss to Kalani just over two weeks ago in the semifinals of the OIA tournament.

The Hurricanes have turned it around since a disappointing fourth-place finish — and their only back-to-back losses this year — in the league tournament.

"I think what we were able to do and the testament to this team is they used their failures to build their drive," Lau said. "Not succeeding in the OIA was a blessing for us because it got us back to maybe doing things that are successful for this team and getting us to just play together."

While Punahou has relatively eased along in its two tournament games this week, Kapolei will be playing its fourth game in as many days.

"I think the guys are so motivated and on such a high that we have no option," Lau said. "If they come out and if this is what they want and if this is what they desire to attain we have to go after it. (Fatigue) is not going to be an excuse."

The Hurricanes will be making their first appearance in a state final. In contrast, the Buffanblu have made the title game 27 times and won 18 championships in their storied history — more than any other school in the 43-year history of the state tournament.

"Punahou is the standard so it's going to be a tough matchup," Lau said. "We've got to show our will stronger, we've got to minimize their chances and we've got to make the most of ours. It's going to be a tough game."

Punahou's last state titles came in back-to-back years in 2010 and 2011 — both under Trifonovitch. It reached the championship match in both 2013 (lost to Kalani, 3-2) and 2014 (lost to Iolani, 2-0) and finished third last year.

Kapolei finished with at least a share of third place three times in the past seven seasons, the last time coming in 2012.

"It feels great. This is 15 years in the making — since the school's inception in 2000. We've been a perennial participant here and this was our fourth state semifinal and we finally broke through," said Lau, who spent 11 seasons as an assistant before ascending to co-head coach alongside Neal Sakaue and Mark Ishii four years ago. "I think it's great for the high school and great for the community."

The teams met in the preseason and tied 2-2, but the Buffanblu were without a number of starters in that game.

Kamehameha-Hawaii (12-4-2) and No. 1 seed Hawaii Prep (15-1-1) will meet in the Division II title game at 5 p.m.


ScoringLive reporter Stacy Kaneshiro contributed to this report.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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