Mililani’s Tavena Oliveira (7) celebrates with her teammates, Emma Higashi (13) and Mari Ige (19), after scoring her first of two goals in an OIA West girls soccer game at John Kauinana Stadium Friday night. Oliveira found the back of the net in the 40th and 53rd minutes in the Trojans' 3-1 win over visiting Campbell. CJ Caraang | SL

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Fri, Jan 28, 2022 @ Mililani

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Campbell

1

Mililani

3

Final	1st	2nd	OT	2OT	PK	Tot
Campbell (11-4-1)	0	1	-	-	-	1
Mililani (15-1-0)	2	1	-	-	-	3

T. Oliveira (40’, 53’)   E. Higashi (5’)   C. Mattos (60’)

MILILANI — Tavena Oliveira scored a goal in each half to help Mililani remain undefeated with a 3-1 win over visiting Campbell in an Oahu Interscholastic Association girls soccer match at John Kauinana Stadium Friday night. 

The victory locked the Trojans (9-0) into the No. 1 seed out of the Western Division for next month's OIA Division I tournament. 

"This is a huge victory for our team, for our program; it's showing that our hard work is paying off," Mililani coach Darren Smith said. "I couldn't be prouder than I am in this moment for the girls."

The Sabers (7-1-1) suffered their first loss, which came just three days after a 1-1 tie with Kapolei. 

Oliveira, a sophomore midfielder, netted her fifth and sixth goals of the season in the 40th and 53rd minutes, respectively. 

Her first goal came just seconds before the end of the first half and gave her team a 2-0 lead headed into the break. 

Oliveira recalled that the ball deflected off of a Campbell defender and that she was able to get to it just ahead of her teammate, Kailee Wilson. 

"I thought Kailee (Wilson) was gonna get it but then I could see that I had it, so I took the ball down and then I was going to run down to (send) a cross, but then I saw I was getting in front of her so I kept running in and then I saw the goalie was coming to dive in to try to save it and I just tapped it past her," Oliveira described of her goal, which came on the heels of two Sabers' shots on goal in the 39th minute. 

Smith said that the timing of the goal by Olivieira was key to keeping momentum on the Trojans' side. 

"That was huge. We understand that no matter what the score is, Campbell's not gonna slow down, they're not gonna stop, but for us it was more of a psychological victory in that regard and we just knew that we had to keep our foot to the pedal and just keep moving forward," Smith said. 

Conversely, Campbell coach James Curran called the sequence "deflating.

"The girls were a little deflated, but we regrouped and we came out with some ideas for solutions, so I thought the girls responded well second half," Curran said. 

But that wasn't until after Oliveira had scored her second goal of the game in the 53rd minute. She was set-up by Tauiai Fuamatu-Maafala, who delivered a perfectly-placed 45-degree pass to her. 

"She passed the ball to me and then I was dribbling down and then same thing like the first goal, but I had intentions of scoring this time and the goalie came and tried to dive for it and I just hit it in again," Oliveira said. 

Smith said that the Sabers' tenacity always makes for a difficult matchup. 

"Any time we face Campbell it's a huge concern. We recognize that they're dangerous, they're very aggressive in their play and they don't stop; it doesn't matter if it's the first minute or the last minute, they're gonna be going a hundred miles an hour, they're gonna do their very best, so hats off to them," Smith said. 

His words rang true in the 60th minute, when Cheyenne Mattos found the back of the net with a right-footed shot from about 30 yards out that was out of the reach of Mililani's goalkeeper and just below the cross bar of the goal. 

It was the first goal allowed by the Trojans all season and certainly a feather in the Sabers' proverbial cap. 

"Oh yeah, definitely. That was one of our goals. The girls wanted to score and break that streak, so we accomplished that and going into playoffs that's a good thing to build off of," said Curran, whose team is locked into the D1 West's second seed regardless of the result of Tuesday's regular-season finale against Nanakuli (2-6-1). 

Both Mililani and Campbell will have a bye in the first round of the OIA tournament. Curran said that the tough two-game stretch his team just completed with serve it well headed into the playoffs. 

"We haven't been challenged too much this season so this was really good for us, to expose some of that simple, basic stuff — I mean, fixing body shape on the back side, seeing the ball and the man; some of our girls got caught ball-watching and a girl slipped in and poked it in," Curran added. 

The Trojans got out to an early lead with an assisted goal during the run of play. Kira Watase carved her way around a number of Campbell defenders and nearly to the end line before she sent a cross toward the back post, where Emma Higashi was to head it into the left side of the goal. 

Smith praised Watase's creativity in creating the scoring chance. 

"Kira's brilliant," he said. "With her understanding of space, we just allow her to step forward whenever she has an opportunity, so she was able to exploit the space and find that backside pass."

It was the fifth goal of the season for Higashi, who posted a hat trick against Waianae Monday. 

The early goal by Higashi Friday put the Trojans at ease a bit, Oliveira said. 

"Yeah, it made us feel like we had all the tools to win the game," she said. "Her hitting that header in just made us feel more fired up and it just made me want to score even more."

Mililani has scored 72 goals and allowed just one through its first nine games of the season. 

"It's honestly a good thing at this junction," Smith said of the Mattos' goal. "It shows that we have things that we need to work on, clean up — which is not a bad thing  — and it was a brilliant shot."

He added, "We're just going to continue trudging on, doing our best and I think we're pretty hungry."

The Trojans close out the regular season at Kapolei (5-3-1) Tuesday night.