The Radford Rams poise for a team photo after they beat Waialua by a score of 4-1 in the OIA Division II championship game at Kapolei's Alvin Nagasako Sports Complex Saturday; It's the first league title in team history. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Sat, Feb 19, 2022 @ Kapolei

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Radford

4

Waialua

1

Final	1st	2nd	OT	2OT	PK	Tot
Radford (7-5-2)	3	1	-	-	-	4
Waialua (5-9-1)	1	0	-	-	-	1

R. Wilson (8’, 55’)   B. Euceda (23’)   S. Surin (39’)   K. Vega (10’)

KAPOLEI — Radford scored early and often on its way to its first league championship with a 4-1 win over Waialua in the title game of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I boys soccer tournament at Kapolei's Alvin Nagasako Sports Complex Saturday night. 

The Rams, seeded first out of the Western Division, claimed their fifth win in their last six games to improve to 7-3-2 on the year, while the West second-seeded Bulldogs fell to 5-7-1. 

Robert Wilson bookended the scoring with his first goal in the eighth minute and closed it out with his second in the 55th. 

"It felt really nice," said Wilson, a junior midfielder. 

After he went without a goal through the regular season, Wilson netted his first goal of the year Thursday night in a win over McKinley in the tournament semifinals. 

"It feels really good being able to score in these games that mean a lot," Wilson said. 

Radford coach Geoff Maeda explained that Wilson's role for most of the season was that of facilitator. 

"Well, because he was our pivot guy," Maeda said. "He was our distributor, that's why everybody else got their goals, so we told him, ‘You know, you need to start scoring so we can loosen up the pressure on the other guys.' "

Wilson clearly took his coach's words to heart. 

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Just eight minutes into the game, Wilson gathered a ball on the left side of the pitch, about 30 yards out from the goal and fired a rocket of a right-footed shot into the top left corner of the goal. 

"I got the ball, I took a (touch) to the right and then I just looked up and then I hit the ball and it went top left," Wilson said. 

While the Waialua defense may have been caught off-guard by the solidly-struck shot from distance by Wilson, Maeda was not. 

"We know he has that leg, we've seen it in training, so we knew he had that," Maeda said. "He just never did it."

Only two minutes after Wilson found the back of the net, Konapiliahi Vega did the same to quickly make it a 2-0 lead at the 10-minute mark. 

Waialua got its first shot on goal in the 16th minute. A foul against the Rams put the ball about 40 yards out on the restart by Justus Franks, whose service found Ezekiel Sheridan on the back post. Sheridan's header, however, was saved by Radford's goalkeeper on the bounce. 

The Bulldogs registered another on shot on goal in the 20th minute. Another Radford foul resulted in a 40-yard direct free kick by Sheridan, who blasted a high arching kick that held up in the wind and was saved by the keeper. 

Radford took a 3-0 lead in the 23rd minute on a breakaway goal by Brandon Euceda. It was his eighth goal of the season, which ranks second on the team behind Winston Abreu's 11.

Just before the intermission, however, Waialua got on the board off of a set piece. Ezekiel Balmoja booted a corner kick to the back post, the ball was booted back-and-forth in the box for the a bit before it found the foot of Sawit Surin, who poked it into the lower left side of the goal. 

The score held until the 55th minute, when Wilson added an insurance goal. 

"Brandon (Euceda) said that he dummy'd it, so I just slid for it and hoped for the best and it went in," Wilson recalled. 

It was Wilson's first multi-goal game.

"During the previous games I would distribute — try and get the assist — but since OIAs I've been able to score three goals and it feels real good," he said. 

Wilson and the rest of his teammates were most happy for Maeda, the 14th-year coach of the Rams. 

"It means a lot. We've been practicing all this time for this and being able to get coach Geoff this title feels great," Wilson expressed. 

Maeda, in turn, was mostly pleased for his players. 

"This is good for the boys," said Maeda, who saw the potential for a special season with the group of players that he has this winter. 

"When we had our first day of tryouts, we knew we had something special because I actually have soccer players now. I don't have athletes that wanna play soccer, I got guys that can actually play soccer, so we don't have to work on, ‘This is how you pass the ball, this is how you control the ball,' " Maeda said.

He continued, "I could actually work on tactical stuff and finding second, third and fourth attackers. I got to actually train that stuff and not just technical ability — because these guys are soccer players — so it was good."

But despite his confidence in his players, Maeda disclosed that the fact that his team beat Waialua 4-0 in the regular season — albeit in the second game of the year, back on Jan. 7 — didn't sit well with him leading into Saturday's rematch. 

"It's a concern because Waialua is good. John Rosa is a great coach, so we always gotta be ready for them. He's always got his team ready, that's why it's always a concern playing against Waialua; their athleticism is amazing."

The Bulldogs were seeking their second OIA D2 title; their only league crown came under Rosa in 2009. 

Waialua beat Kaimuki, 5-0, in Wednesday's first round and upset East top-seeded Roosevelt, 1-0, in Thursday's semifinals to reach the championship game. 

Radford's road to the final began with a first-round bye Wednesday and a 5-0 semifinal win over McKinley Thursday. 

Both the Rams and Bulldogs, along with third-place Roosevelt, will represent the OIA in the eight-team Niu Health Urgent Care/HHSAA Division II Boys Soccer State Championships March 3-5.