KAPOLEI, Hawaii — Amaris Ishikawa anticipated one final shot to the left. The Campbell goalkeeper dived – and lost sight of the ball.
She got up, looked around, and saw it rolling harmlessly off to the left. Only when she spied Sabers teammates in a headlong sprint toward her, did she fully realize what happened: She’d saved Mililani’s final penalty kick and Campbell had won the Oahu Interscholastic Association girls soccer championship, 1-0 on PKs on a still, sticky Saturday night at Kapolei High.
“It feels great. I cannot believe we just won,” a still-dazed Ishikawa said moments after extricating herself from the grasp of teammates who attached themselves to her every limb. “Like, it doesn’t feel like we won. I cannot put it into words.”
Earlier on Kapolei’s field, Kalani beat Leilehua, 3-2, on penalty kicks in Division II for the Falcons’ first OIA soccer title.
As for Campbell, it was the third all-time OIA title for the Ewa Beach school, and first since 2015. Coach James Curran was an assistant to Ryan Leong at the time of the last triumph.
He could not bear to look for many of the penalty kicks, which, like regulation, were not enough to settle the matter in the standard allotment of five rounds. Curran finally decided, finally taking a knee with his head down, praying from the sideline for the sudden-death sixth and seventh rounds.
After missing on its first two attempts and trailing the PKs by a goal, Campbell (11-0-2) converted four of its next five to come back to win them 4-3. The scorers were Leia Tupper, Raeah Raymondo, Jaylee Curran, and Marie Piho. Piho went low and to the left of Mililani keeper Jordyn Labajo-Cleaver for the go-ahead kick, but it still required Ishikawa to make one final stop.
Labajo-Cleaver made a save to begin the sixth round of PKs, giving the Trojans (10-1-2) a chance to win their fourth straight OIA crown and seventh out of the last eight if the team could make its next shot, but it was skied over the goal and it went to a seventh round.
Ishikawa’s goalie jersey was scuffed on her left shoulder, then she’d dived repeatedly for seven saves in regular time, plus two 10-minute overtime periods, and three stops in PKs.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Curran said. “Going up and going down, and that PK was like, is it our time or not? And so after that happened, it was just a flood of emotions … seeing our girls so happy, especially Amaris over there.”
Ishikawa was a youth player for a club team coached by Curran. But that group went its separate ways and Ishikawa stopped playing soccer around age 12, when she suffered an injury.
She came back to the game at Curran’s urging coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic, but even last season she was not all the way there, the coach said.
Now, “She rekindled her love for the sport,” Curran said. “Last year she was in and out, up and down, but this year she was bought in, committed, and was our starting keeper.”
The senior Ishikawa hadn’t ever faced a PK shootout in her high school career, though she had in outside tournaments.
“I got back into it, and I’m happy I did,” Ishikawa said.
Campbell seemed to increasingly have the run of play as the game progressed, though the Trojans had their chances, too.
Mililani coach Darren Smith rued that the game went to penalty kicks. The teams tied 3-3 in the regular season.
“When it comes to PKs, it’s definitely a flip of the coin. A bit of luck in the equation,” said Smith, who coached the Trojans to the OIA title in 2020, 2022 and 2023. “It’s one of those you don’t want it to get to that point, you want to finish your opportunities. We’ll reflect on this, we’ll dig deep and come back.”
The Falcons overcame the loss of their starting goalkeeper and an allowed goal just 12 seconds into the game to beat the Mules, 3-2, on penalty kicks for Kalani’s first-ever OIA girls soccer title at any classification.
“Honestly, we just knew as a team we had to come together,” striker Ka‘iulani Nishigaya said. “Good for them for scoring, but we came back with more goals and we really worked as a team on that.”
Nishigaya and Chiara Doyle scored for the Falcons in regulation and Kalani converted all of its penalty kicks to win the shootout 5-4. Backup goalkeeper Kaydee Nakamitsu, a freshman, filled in when Kalani lost Beatrice Haak during pregame warmups and she made the deciding save.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.