Judd Eldredge Sagapolutele is back with the Punahou girls soccer team after a two-year absence, and she’s ready to end her Buffanblu career with a bang.

On Monday, it was a blast off her right foot, which led to her first goal of the season, that helped lift host Punahou over Kaiser in the Division I bracket of the Motiv8 Foundation/HHSAA Girls Soccer State Championships.

Eldredge Sagapolutele scored in the first half and Maya Yoshimura found the back of the net in the second as the Buffanblu beat the Cougars 2-1.

“I’ve had a lot of missed shots throughout the season, and my goal was to practice just trying to get it in the back of the net,” Eldredge Sagapolutele said. “Thankfully, it went in the back of the net today.”

On the play, the ball bounced to Eldredge Sagapolutele about 20 yards out and she uncorked a shot that went through the hands of Cougars goalkeeper Shore Carlbom and into the net at 12:25.

Eldredge Sagapolutele played for the Punahou JV team as a freshman and only played club soccer for Leahi the past two years.

“Judd is a really unselfish team player. I’m really happy to have her. I wish she did play the other years, but senior year, all good,” Punahou coach Shelley Izuno said.

Punahou, the ILH runner-up, will face No. 3 seed Kamehameha-Maui in Thursday’s quarterfinals at 3 p.m. at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex Field No. 8.

“They’ve been a really strong team the last couple years,” Izuno said of the Warriors. “We’re expecting another tough game.”

The Buffanblu are the two-time defending state champions. They lost eight starters from last year’s team.

“A lot of us came into this super stressed out,” Yoshimura said. “I’m really glad we have this off our shoulders now and we can focus on the next day. Take it game by game.”

Kaiser, the OIA East runner-up and fourth-place finisher in OIA Tournament, tied it at 1-1 at 13:39 on Kapua Parker’s free kick from just outside the penalty box that went to the right side of goal.

“Kapua’s been our go-to on set pieces,” Kaiser coach Noelani Bio said. “She also takes our corners. It was her time. I’m glad she finally got one because she deserves it.”

Punahou nearly scored in the 43rd when Kaiao Zoller took a shot on the run from the left side that was saved by Carlbom.

The Buffanblu (8-2) went up 2-1 at 44:55 on Yoshimura’s goal from in close.

Yoshimura received a pass from the right side and her shot from the near post went high down the middle of the goal.

“Olivia Schiel passed me the ball in. It was kind of a heavy touch, but I was just working to get on the end of it and luckily it ended up in the back of the net,” Yoshimura said.

The Buffanblu wound up with an 11-3 advantage over the Cougars (9-3-1) in shots on goal.

“The whole point of winning the game is to score goals, and that’s where we struggled. Whether or not we dominated possession, we got to finish,” Izuno said.

Punahou misfired on some shots and others were saved by Carlbom, who was playing with a broken finger in her left hand.

“Shore did great. She really stepped up,” Bio said. “She’s actually our backup keeper because our first-string keeper got hurt.”

In the 50th, Yoshimura’s shot from the left side was saved by Carlbom, who dove to make the block.

In the 71st, Punahou’s Schiel sent in a cross from the right side that was dummied by a teammate and arrived at Eldredge Sagapolutele, whose shot went over the crossbar.

Punahou’s Jazlyn Chang sent a shot off the left post in the 74th.

“You could see second half when we started to play together more, the opportunities came,” Izuno said.