WAIPAHU, Hawaii — A familiar scene played out over the first 40 minutes on the Waipio Soccer Complex’s Field 5 pitch on Wednesday afternoon. Girls soccer rivals Kamehameha and Punahou were at an impasse, as they’d been for two regular-season draws over the last few weeks.
At halftime, the Warriors decided that arrangement no longer worked for them.
The three-time defending state champions showcased a beautiful set-piece goal in the 46th minute, then capitalized on a blatant takedown in the penalty box in the 60th to defeat the Buffanblu 2-0 and win the 2023 Interscholastic League of Honolulu title via a playoff.
Later Wednesday, Kamehameha was awarded the No. 1 overall seed in the 12-team HHSAA Division I state tournament that begins Monday.
“Having the first seed is always great,” Warriors coach Missy Moore said. “It doesn’t mean the competition is any less. Competition once you get to the state tournament is very good. So, we know we’ve got a battle on our hands.”
OIA champion Mililani was awarded the No. 2 seed, BIIF champ Waiakea the 3 and Kamehameha-Maui 4.
Kamehameha (8-0-2) broke the stalemate with Punahou – which now has a tougher road to attain its first girls soccer state title since 2011 – on a corner kick, to Moore’s shock. Those set pieces hadn’t been going well in recent training sessions, she explained.
“I literally went home and said, ‘I don’t think we’re going to score on a corner kick,’” she said. “The balls weren’t being serviced where they needed to be. And today they totally proved me wrong.”
Junior forward Nikki Mau put up a beautiful ball that hung in the wind and seemed to drop straight down onto the head of sophomore Sarah Naumu, who’d positioned herself strategically near the back post.
“It was beautiful, it was perfect,” Naumu said of the corner. “I just saw the ball coming and I put my head into it. … I’m not going to lie, I closed my eyes.”
Mau is childhood friends with Buffanblu’s freshman goalkeeper Xeyana Salanoa and had a feeling the back post would be available. She also read the field’s crosswind well.
“When we were going the opposite way, I felt the wind on the opposite corner. … I put more power on this corner so it will get more flight,” Mau said.
Mau was part of a pivotal sequence a few minutes later that would effectively send the Warriors to states with a first-round bye.
Kamehameha maintained pressure upfield and a streaking Mau received the ball in the right side of the Punahou penalty box. In a stunning play that caused a stir among the crowd of a few hundred, Punahou senior Candace Ching brought her down roughly by the hair, earning an immediate red card from the referee and send-off for a violent act.
Warriors freshman Ionare Vee told Moore she could step up in that moment and she confidently fired her penalty shot to the right post where Salanoa had no chance at it.
“I was just really focused on winning it for my team and getting it back for Nikki, because she was really wronged in that situation,” Vee said.
Punahou coach Shelley Izuno did not take issue with the card.
“That was a tactical foul. I get it. I’m not upset about it,” Izuno said.
“I think we had enough (to win before that),” she added. “And then you go down to 10 (players), so it was hard. But I’m proud of how hard they worked, being man down, and somehow holding it to 2-0 after that.”
Punahou, which opens against the OIA’s fourth-place team in Pearl City, expects to get injured players Nicole Beauchemin and Mia Hashimoto back for the state tournament, Izuno said.
Kamehameha will play the winner of Hilo and Campbell on Feb. 2.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.