Mililani clamps on to its 18th OIA girls soccer title; Kalaheo prevails in D-II

Since OIA girls soccer started crowning champions in 1980, Mililani has landed at the top 44 percent of the time.

The Trojans wrapped up an 18th Division I title Saturday night at the Kapolei High field. A mini-version of that type of dominance continued in Division II, with Kalaheo gaining its fourth overall championship — all in the last seven years.

Egloria sets up Mililani’s win

Shaunee Egloria gave the Trojans some desperately needed offense after a scoreless first half by assisting on a beautiful goal in a 2-0 victory over Moanalua. She flew down the right wing, leaped to avoid a defender on the sideline, somehow landed in bounds with the ball and with the defender a few steps behind her. She then trucked on down into the right corner and had plenty of space. And there was no stopping her. Still with some space, she dribbled down the baseline toward the goal before dishing a pass to Mehana Ortiz, who easily knocked it home.

That made it 1-0 in the 49th minute and Mililani (12-1) didn’t look back.

Later, Ali Fuamatu-Ma’afala took advantage of a loose ball off a corner kick by Cece Jenkins and drilled a shot into the back of the net for a 2-0 edge in the 54th minute.

With Mililani’s defense clamping down all night on all of Moanalua’s threats, the last part of the match was not extremely difficult to get through.

“As much as possible, we wanted to limit (Moanalua’s) opportunities and time,” coach Darren Smith said. “With that mind-set and being able to immediately contest any types of turns or touches, it was wonderful.”

And that first goal put a big smile on Smith’s face. “Brilliant. Brilliant,” he called it, saying it twice for effect.

Egloria, a junior, said, “I was (originally) looking for someone to pass to, but then I heard a teammate say just take it yourself. So I took it down the line and kept running my hardest and then I looked for Mehana and she scored.

“I was just really stoked and happy. It’s my first year on varsity. I feel pretty confident with the team we have now.”

The Trojans, after handing Moanalua (9-1-2) its first loss of the season, is going to the Division I state tournament Feb. 3-8.

“(Defending state champion) Kamehameha is a very prominent team as we would have assumed, a physical team, and we played them (a 2-0 loss early in the nonleague season) and it was something that was out of our element.”

Mililani has come a long way since then.

“We want to continue our style of play,” Smith continued. “There’s some tremendously talented teams, especially in the ILH.”

Moanalua is going to try to reboot after the loss. Na Menehune will also being playing in states.

“We’ve gotta make sure we move on from it, but we definitely gotta take it and learn from it,” Moanalua coach Nikki Dela Pena said. “Going into states, we can’t be making the same mistakes. … Mililani played a great game. Our team didn’t play its best tonight. They didn’t show what they are capable of. I don’t know if nerves got the best of them tonight. We gave them way too much space.”

Kalaheo scores early and escapes with a 1-goal victory

Kiana Ramie‘s goal on a pass from Liv Deeley was all the Mustangs (4-7) needed on the offensive side of the ball for the 1-0 win over Nanakuli in the D-II final

Defensively, Kalaheo got the job done big-time, limiting the Golden Hawks (3-8-1) to minimal scoring chances.

“Our defense has come around since the beginning of the season,” Mustangs coach Alan Heu said. “They’ve picked it up, definitely. But, we didn’t play the way we’ve been training to. We’ve been training to play a possession type, run the play. They (the Golden Hawks) got us to play their game. We want to avoid playing kick and run.”

Kalaheo fullbacks Makayla Horton, Kaikena Kiaaina, Izzy Reyes and Hailey Lugo — in front of goalkeeper Samantha Hutchinson — were instrumental in the defensive handiwork.

The Mustangs also won OIA D-II championships in 2014, ’16 and ’19.

“This makes me really proud because this is my senior year and we won it last year, too,” Ramie said. “It’s just a perfect way to end the (OIA) season.”

Ramie was surprised her early goal held up as the game-winner.

“I had no idea (that was going to happen),” she added. “This was anybody’s game. I knew we still had to keep working and pushing and that it was not over until the clock hits zero at the end of the second half.”

Nanakuli has never won an OIA girls soccer title.

“We wanted our girls to play 80 minutes, and then they (the Mustangs) score in the (second) minute of the game on a back-door goal,” Nanakuli coach Chasytie Hoohuli said. “We got caught watching the ball and not the player.”

Playoffs