Hawaiian Electric Game of the Week
Trojans claim third straight OIA championship


Kalani Takase | ScoringLive
January 27, 2018, 10:13pm

  


Sat, Jan 27, 2018 @ Kapolei

Kaiser

0

Mililani

2

Final 1st 2nd OT 2OT PK Tot
Kaiser (13-5-0) 0 0 - - - 0
Mililani (14-3-0) 1 1 - - - 2
A. Tadeo-Gilbert (10', 60')

KAPOLEI — Amber Tadeo-Gilbert scored a pair of goals and No. 9 Mililani turned in a clean sheet defensively to claim its third straight league title with a 2-0 win over No. 8 Kaiser at Kapolei's Alvin Nagasako Athletic Complex Saturday night.

The Trojans improved to 12-2 with their fifth consecutive victory, while the Cougars saw an eight-game win streak snapped and fell to 11-3.

It is the 17th Oahu Interscholastic Association championship for Mililani, which finished an uncharacteristic third in the Western Division standings after two regular-season losses.

"That's the reason why this one seems a little bit more special, is that the team had to come from a little further back in the standings, but they pushed through and they stayed focused and they supported each other," said coach Ray Akiona, who has been at the helm for nine of the Trojans' league titles.

Mililani has now won nine of its last 10 games. All but one of those have come by shut out, including all four OIA tournament games this week. It defeated Kahuku (7-0), No. 6 Castle (2-0) and No. 1 Pearl City (1-0) to reach the title game.

Two nights after holding the West top-seeded Chargers and their prolific scorer Daelenn Tokunaga in check, the Trojans did it again — this time against the state's top scorer in Cougars' forward Kaile Halvorsen, who along with teammate Shaley Mercado, had combined for 47 of their team's 70 goals entering Saturday.

Akiona praised the defensive work of outside-backs Quinn Nakasone and Mackenzie Reed, along with center-backs Jodi Lillie and Callie Mullen, as well as Karlin Wurtlizer, who was aligned as a defensive midfielder.

"I'm so proud of them and I think the team is proud of themselves, because everybody takes that responsibility that defense comes first, and if you look at it, our halfbacks, our midfielders, all come back and help," Akiona said. "The back line, they worked their butts off. They support each other, they communicate, they're very composed so I've got to give them the credit for this win."

The biggest responsibility went to Lillie, who has the unenviable task of marking Halvorsen.

"She's really fast, but my defenders did so well today and I really just had to sweep up anything that passed them, but that wasn't a lot, so I had a pretty good night," Lillie said.

‘Pretty good' is probably an understatement.

"I tell you what, in my mind if she's not the best defensive player out there, I don't know who is because Jodi is the anchor, she's composed, she communicates well and she's got great speed and good skills, so I would say that she was the key to keep everybody together," Akiona said.

Lillie, a Second Team All-Hawaii defender as a junior last season, never let Halvorsen stray too far. On the few touches Halvorsen did have in the run of play, she was always tightly guarded.

"I tried moving her to the outside, hoping she'd get some space out there," Kaiser first-year coach Noelani Bio said. "We tried using her as more of a distributor rather than a target player, but even then they were all over her and she's not a hundred percent either, so she had a hard time trying to get around."

It was the first time the Cougars have been held scoreless in a game this year.

"I don't think we showed up to play today; I think that's what it was. We were a little flat," Bio said. "I think their speed affected us and they were just winning the ball basically. They were just beating us to the ball."

While the back line held down the defensive third of the pitch, Tadeo-Gilbert provided the scoring on the other end. The sophomore forward scored her team-leading ninth and 10th goals of the season in the 10th and 60th minutes, respectively.

Tadeo-Gilbert took on a couple of defenders and dribbled to the left side of the 6-yard box before cutting a perfectly-placed shot into the lower right corner of the goal for her first score.

"It was a throw-in and I touched the ball. It went to the other team, but I pushed my way through so the ball went through, and I was going to shoot it from far, but the defenders were covering the goal, so I came across the goal and I kicked it with my left foot and it somehow went in," Tadeo-Gilbert explained. "I looked up and I saw a little gap between the defense and the goalie and I just kicked it in between there."

The Cougars had a few chances to equalize but to no avail. Taylin Park's corner kick just before halftime was placed in the middle of the 6-yard box, but Sydni Nakamura snatched the ball out of the air. In the 48th minute, Mercado played a through ball to Halvorsen, who fired a shot from about 20 yards out, but missed wide right.

Mililani's Tehani Furuta drew a Kaiser foul in the 60th minute that led to a Wurlitzer free kick from about 35 yards out. Wurlitzer's left-footed kick took one bounce about 10 yards in front of the left before Tadeo-Gilbert headed it in — or at least appeared to — on the back post.

"On my side the defender was pushing back while I was walking forward — so she didn't hold the line — and then the goalie didn't know I was coming from behind and I pushed it in with my neck," said Tadeo-Gilbert, who scored six goals in the OIA tournament.

The sophomore gave the Kaiser defense fits all night.

"She was a big threat. She was a little too quick for us, she was hard to contain for sure," Bio said. "I thought the defense did a good job of keeping her in front. Our goalie came up huge today, for sure, but she was just too quick for us, I think, in the back."

Akiona said Tadeo-Gilbert's complete skill set is what makes her special.

"She can beat you on speed, but when you think you can catch up to her, she'll go and shift in another direction, so it makes her unique and she's got the total package. She's got speed, tenacity, she's got skills to do it and she's looking for options well. She's not just trying to do it by herself; she's looking for how she can work with her teammates better, so she's great," Akiona said.

Mililani had seven shots on goal to Kaiser's two.

Goalkeeper Madison Mora made five saves for the Cougars, while Nakamura had two for the Trojans.

The East third-seeded Cougars were making their first appearance in the championship final since 2014, when they lost to Pearl City. They were trying for their second OIA title and first since 1997.

Both teams have qualified for The Queen's Medical Center/HHSAA Division I State Championships, which gets underway Feb. 5.


Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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