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WAIPAHU - How appropriate for Punahou to reach its peak on the foot of guy named Mountan.

Senior Mountan Mitchell matched a personal season-high with three goals to lead Punahou over Kaiser, 5-0, Saturday night for the JN Automotive Group Division I boys' state soccer crown at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex.

"I haven't seen a performance like that in a long time," Punahou coach David Trifonovitch said. "That was just dominant. He was on fire. You really couldn't stop him."

Mitchell scored at the 36th, 40th and 58th minute marks. Scott Granger (47th minute) and Colin Williams (74th minute) rounded out the scoring.

"On top of the world right now," Mitchell said of the victory. "It's everything you could ask for."

As for the tournament's most outstanding player's first name and its unusual spelling, Mitchell said it was derived from his sister.

"She saw a mountain. Saw my mom's stomach as a mountain (when she was pregnant) and the name stuck," Mitchell said. "There's no 'i' (in the spelling of his first name); it's just to be different."

But before Mitchell's first goal ignited the barrage of scoring, the teams were evenly matched. The goalkeepers - Kaiser's Lorenzo Reeves and Punahou's Charlie Yamamoto - were having their work cut out. The aggressive offenses kept pounding away to no avail as each made spectacular saves and got equally spectacular help from their teammates in the goal area.

"They were just coming at us really hard," Yamamoto said. "I had some slip-ups, me personally. I made some mistakes but we have 10 other guys playing for each other. They have my back; I have their backs. We had enough to keep them off the board and we came back with five, so it was good."

It appeared the toll of nine rounds of penalty kicks after two scoreless overtime periods took a toll on the Cougars from their win the night before to take out top seed Kamehameha. The Buffanblu cruised over second-seeded Kapolei and were able to rest their players. Also, the Cougars were without one of their scoring threats in Chico Taylor, unable to play Saturday because of two yellow cards he received Friday.

"It actually did" take a toll, Cougars coach Marco Antonio Gloria said. "We got man-handled by Kamehameha. We didn't have a lot of good luck with the referees. We had the No. 1 goal scorer, Chico, taken out of the game in the last 40 seconds...I'd say the first 25 minutes (against the Buffanblu), we had'em. We had plenty chances. We just couldn't put'em away. The calls just didn't go our way. We feel really hurt."

Still, it was a remarkable season for the Cougars, who had never advanced this far in the state tournament before Saturday.

"We had a great run," Gloria said. "Never been before at Kaiser, so I'm very proud of them."

Unlike last year, when the Buffanblu were the top seed of the tournament, the Interscholastic League of Honolulu runners-up had to win four games to repeat as state champs.

"We took the long road," Yamamoto said. "It wasn't easy, but we got there. It feels good to know we have that kind of heart to come back from being beaten by Kamehameha twice to winning the championship."


DIVISION I ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM

Most Outstanding Player - Mountan Mitchell, Punahou

F - Mountan Mitchell, Punahou
F - Rowen White, Kapolei
MF - Scott Granger, Punahou
MF - Jason Khamvongsa, Kaiser
MF - Brad Pena, Roosevelt
MF - Joshua Perry-Kruse, Kaiser
D - Ka'imi Fairbairn, Punahou
D - Kalei Gallarde, Kapolei
D - Brayden Prothero, Kamehameha
D - Chandler Teruya, Punahou
GK - Charlie Yamamoto, Punahou