There won’t be a fourth straight OIA girls soccer championship for Mililani this year.
The Trojans put on a fine display of passing and teamwork Thursday night in the league semifinals against Aiea, but never got the goal they needed and fell to Na Alii 1-0 at windy Kaiser Stadium.
Aiea (11-2) advanced to the title game Saturday against Pearl City, also at Kaiser.
“We beat Mililani; we’re ready for anybody,” Na Alii coach Benji Villaflor said. “Beating Mililani for us is always amazing. They beat us 3-0 our first game, so our girls came up big-time. We’re a small community, but we’re always here to battle.”
Aiea packed it in on defense, especially in the second half and limited the powerful Mililani attack as much as possible. It was barely enough against the Trojans (9-1-2), who never turned off the offensive switch.
“They stacked the box on us,” Mililani first-year coach Natalie Goo said. “There were a lot of different factors in this game. The wind played tricks on us in the first half. Any type of long ball got pushed back by the wind. Our combinations weren’t quite there. Of course all of us are disappointed. One of our goals was to win the OIA. Now, we have to come back and get a good seed at states. Winning states is the ultimate goal.”
In the 20th minute, Aiea was fortunate to break a scoreless tie for the eventual game-winner after Nicole Olanda was awarded a free kick on the right side from 20 yards out. She placed a boomer low and to the right of Trojans goalkeeper Sydni Nakamura for the 1-0 lead.
“It’s a free shot and I wanted to make it count and it went in,” Olanda said. “I went left because I expected her to be covering the front post. It was wide open. This was our redemption for that first loss of the season, when we came out flat. It was a big win and we want to make history for Aiea again at OIAs.”
Olanda hit the crossbar earlier, but after that, Aiea’s offensive chances were few and far between and especially sparse throughout the second half.
Jaylen Lum hit the post on a free kick in the first half for the the Trojans. After the break, teammate Cecilia Jenkins was denied by Na Alii goaltender Shayla Sugai on two long direct kicks. Meagan Tamashiro and Aislynn Crowder each hit the crossbar for Mililani in the contest.
Sugai saved the victory for Aiea during stoppage time, corralling Mehana Ortiz’s point-blank header on a cross from Alayna Fuamatu-Ma‘afala.
“It was common sense the way we played,” Villaflor said. “There were high winds. We packed the box and tried to block everything and prevent shots. If the weather improves, you’ll see us going back to possession soccer.”
Mililani was denied in its bid for an 18th overall league title. Aiea owns two previous OIA crowns, in 1999 and 2005.
Pearl City 3, Moanalua 2 (3-0 PKs)
After regulation and two overtimes ended in a 2-all tie, the Chargers pulled out the victory over Na Menehune on penalty kicks in the late semifinal at Kaiser.
Hepua Sorensen made two big saves for Pearl City during PKs.
The Chargers (10-1-1) move on to play Aiea in the championship match Saturday night.
Pearl City struck first, when Sunshine Fontes made a soft touch pass to the back door to Alyssa Bautista, who found the back of the net for a 1-0 lead.
Kelci Sumida tied it for Moanalua (9-1-1), heading home Alyssa Enoki’s corner kick. Enoki followed with a corner kick goal that caromed in off Pearl City goalkeeper Naomi Takata for a 2-1 edge.
Fontes, who plays for the U-17 U.S. national team, tied it at 2-all with a speedy gallop down the left wing and a shot into the low far corner. Fontes hurt her knee on the play and didn’t return. The severity of the injury is unknown.
Moanalua meets Mililani in the third-place match tonight at Castle.
