The Hurricanes celebrate after Garrison Lee's goal gave Kapolei a 1-0 lead. Leighland Tagawa | Special to SL

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Thu, Jan 26, 2017 @ Castle

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Kapolei

1

Kaiser

0

Final	1st	2nd	OT	2OT	PK	Tot
Kapolei (12-1-2)	0	1	-	-	-	1
Kaiser (14-2-1)	0	0	-	-	-	0

G. Lee (67')

KANEOHE — Garrison Lee scored on a 20-yard direct free kick and goalkeeper Jason Catron made five saves to lead Kapolei to a 1-0 win over previously-unbeaten Kaiser in the semifinals of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I tournament at Castle Thursday night.

Lee scored his team-leading 13th goal of the season in the 67th minute as the Hurricanes went to 10-0-2 and advanced into Saturday's championship game.

Kapolei, the Western Division second seed, will play West top seed Mililani at 7 p.m. at Castle.

The Hurricanes have won seven of their last eight games, including four straight. They posted their sixth shut out of the season Thursday night.

"Kaiser has good personnel and they're very flexible in their style of play," Kapolei co-head coach Ryan Lau said. "We felt they're a dynamic team, we're a dynamic team, it just comes down to who can find the rhythm of play and who can make the most of their opportunities and then get after it."

The Hurricanes turned in a clean sheet defensively and limited the number of touches for Kaiser's prolific scoring duo of Makana Srivongsana (18 goals this season) and Noah Mokulehua (11 goals).

"Coach told us to mark those two guys and I just needed my center-backs to mark those guys and they did all game," said Lee, a senior outside-mid.

Lau said trying to take away Srivongsana and Mokulehua was a critical part of Kapolei's game plan.

"We told the boys that between the two teams, it would come down to who was going to give first defensively," Lau said. "We're not going to totally eliminate their opportunities, but we wanted to limit their looks, and for us, try and get the best opportunities we can and make the most of it. Thankfully we had good opportunities and we were able to get one on a set piece and in tournament play, scoring on a set piece is big."

Lee's goal came on a re-start after a Kaiser foul just outside its own 18-yard box. Just prior to Lee's shot, he called for a huddle with several teammates to weigh their options.

"I took the last two (free kicks) and the last one went barely wide, so I told them that I was going to take the exact same kick and they just all need to run in and that's what I was trying to do," Lee said. "I was trying to play it to the back post and hopefully the goalie would think someone would hit it in and just leave it and it would go in, which it did."

Sam Wren took most of the free kicks and corner kicks for Kapolei most of the night, but Lee called his own number on the goal.

"We have three capable free kick-takers in Garrison, Sam and Sean (Yoshida) and basically it's just who has a better feel for it," Lau said. "Garrison wanted to take it and on this turf, Garrison is actually a good choice. He does strike the ball very hard and he keeps it down, so I'm glad they made that choice. Garrison made the most of it and kept his chest over the ball."

The teams played a fairly-even first half, but Kapolei had the better run of play early on in the second half. Wren had three shots on goal in an 11-minute span, all of them coming on direct kicks.

Wren had another shot on goal in the 64th minute, but his direct kick from 35 yards was deflected by Kaiser goalkeeper Brandon Yasue with one hand. Yasue made 11 saves in goal.

It was the first time the Cougars (10-1-1) were shut out this season.

"Defensively, they were brilliant," Kaiser coach Layne Abalos said of the Hurricanes. "Give them credit, they played well. We didn't play our best, but they played well and you have to give them credit."

The East top-seeded Cougars were seeking their second straight appearance in an OIA final.

Kapolei, which lost in the semifinal round of last year's OIA tournament, will try for its third league title and first since 2011.