Twelve goals on Thursday meant 12 Interscholastic League of Honolulu championships in a row for the Punahou girls water polo team.

Now the dynastic Buffanblu look to make it the same count of consecutive state championships.

Thursday’s affair at ‘Iolani was intermittently competitive, as the ILH’s second-place squad, Kamehameha, made some runs at Punahou, only to be turned back 12-6.

A hat trick of players recorded hat tricks for the Buffanblu — Christina Hicks, Dillyn Lietzke and Victoria Gacutan each scored three goals. Josie Mobley (two) and Sierra Smart rounded out the tally.

Punahou and Kamehameha have squared off in four straight state title games. Given the ILH’s dominance in the sport — the league has won all 15 titles at the state level — they could very well make it five.

First-round matchups are April 29 at Kamehameha. Punahou earned a bye into the quarterfinals on May 2.

“I think we can correct some of our defensive mistakes,” Punahou coach Ken Smith said. “But (Kamehameha) is always going to be good. You can never take them lightly. This is the fourth time we’ve played them.”

Punahou prevailed 11-2, 12-3 and 10-5 in the previous three.

This one was 1-1 at the end of a quarter, but Punahou’s superior counterattacking began to take its toll and it put up a 5-0 second period. When Kamehameha rallied to within 9-6 early in the fourth quarter, Hicks whipped a shot into the net from the hole set and Lietzke and Smart scored from the left wing for the final margin.

“Today their defense was a little bit different, they were running a foul-and-drop,” said Hicks, a junior. “They foul the person with the ball and drop on the center, who’s open. And the big difference with that is the ball can’t go into set, because they’re guarding set. The importance there is we need to work on our outside shooting. So, at the beginning we were caught off guard, but I think we worked through it very well. Because at the end we were putting those away.”

Kamehameha has a new head coach this year in Anthony Cabrera, the Warriors’ former JV coach.

“I’d like to see us put together four solid quarters,” Cabrera said. “And that’s going to take not just the physical, but the more mental side for us, to realize we can compete with them. They’re obviously the best, but we’re right there. They’re 1 and I think we’re a solid 2. If we can compete with them for four quarters, we’ll give them a tough matchup in states.”

Samantha Nakagawa led the Warriors with three goals off the bench, while Kyra Kahahawai scored twice and Shaye Story once.