After a lapse of just a year, the Mililani and Kailua girls soccer teams returned to the top of the Oahu Interscholastic Association.
Mililani defeated Waipahu 3-0 in the Division I final for a record 21st OIA title, following Kailua’s 1-0 victory over Waialua in Division II at Kaiser High on Saturday night.
Mililani has won 15 of the last 23 OIA girls soccer titles at the top tier of classification.
The Trojans (13-0) got a goal from Maya George just before halftime and came out of the break with netters from Jaslene Cayetano and Leila Leano to match their win over the Marauders (11-2) from the OIA regular season.
Mililani, under first-year coach Brendyn Agbayani, went through the whole OIA season plus playoffs without yielding a goal. The Trojans scored multiple goals in every game and will seek their fifth all-time state championship in the Motiv8 Foundation/HHSAA Championships next week.
“I feel like this year we’ve been connecting with our coaches a lot more,” Cayetano told Spectrum OC16’s Jimmy Bender. “It was way different from last year. But this year, all the coaching staff, everyone is all supportive of each other and we grew a lot of confidence from last year.”
Cayetano’s 44th-minute goal was on a free kick from a little outside the box.
“We just started off a little bit slow but I think we picked it up a little bit in the first half,” Cayetano said. “Maya, she’s the goal-scoring leader, so glad she got it in, she just followed the ball and took the ball in.
“In the second half, I got my goal, and we just finished it off from there.”
In the Division II final, Kamalei Leong’s 41st-minute winner from midfield was the difference for Kailua, which came down from D-I in the year between its last title in 2023.
Leong took a pass from Bryn Abe and chipped it in on a one-hopper over the Bulldogs’ goalkeeper.
Our coach (Malu Afong) told us we had the wind as advantage and our coach actually told us to test the keeper,” Leong told OC16’s Bender. “So, right off the bat, I asked our forward if I could take the kick and I booted it hoping it would go in.”
It was the fifth OIA title for the Surfriders (5-6), all coming at the D-II level. Kailua had lost three straight heading into the OIA playoffs.
“I feel like this definitely motivated us,” Leong said. “We had a rough season, we lost a couple players, but we just knew with whatever players we had we had to keep on going.”
The Motiv8 Foundation/HHSAA tournament at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex begins Jan. 27 in Division I and Jan. 29 in Division II.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.