Punahou's Ian Matsukawa dribbles the ball against Saint Louis. Sean Nakamura | SL

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Punahou's Brian Yanagi gets set to kick the ball against Saint Louis. Sean Nakamura | SL

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Punahou's Kyle Obana heads the ball against Saint Louis. Sean Nakamura | SL

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Punahou's Taylor Peter-Bibb controls the ball against Saint Louis. Sean Nakamura | SL

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Tue, Jan 29, 2013 @ Saint Louis

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Punahou

6

Saint Louis

0

Final	1st	2nd	OT	2OT	PK	Tot
Punahou (9-2-2)	0	0	-	-	-	6
Saint Louis (0-7-3)	0	0	-	-	-	0

K. Whiteley    A. Dinsmore    S. Lau    N. Scharer    I. Matsukawa    B. Granger

Punahou took care of business on a sunny afternoon at Saint Louis Athletic Field, shutting down the Crusaders by a 6-0 count to clinch the Interscholastic League of Honolulu's Division I title and with it, a seeded berth into the Outrigger Hotels and Resorts/HHSAA Boys Soccer state tournament.

"For this team, it actually means quite a bit. We really didn't have any expectations after last year. So coming into it (this year), we had a new mix of guys, some returnees, but not necessarily returnees that had played a lot. So it was piecing a lot of guys together, and we said lets see how we come together, take it one game at a a time."

Things came together nicely for the Buffanblu in their regular seson finale, as the visiting team got scoring from six different players, with Alec Dinsmore getting things going early with a score in the very first minute of play.

Blaine Granger followed with the second Punahou goal in the 8th minute, followed by Ian Matsukawa's goal in the 16th and Kiko Whiteley knocking home a score in the 29th minute to cap a 4 goal half for Punahou.

"I think the defense has a lot to do with it, keeping us in the game," said Matsukawa of the Buffanblu's first half offensive spark. "But we are scoring a little bit more now, which is good."

Punahou tacked on two more goals after the intermission, with Nikolai Scharer connecting for a goal in the 43rd minute, and Seann Lau culminating the scoring in the game, heading in a score in the 49th.

If timing is everything, perhaps the six goal explosion for Punahou could be a sign of things to come in the postseason. The Buffanblu had not put more than 3 goals up on the scoreboard at any point in the season, until today where they doubled their highest output.

"Everything clicked today (offensively). Last Friday against Iolani, it didn't." remarked Trifonovitch. "You got to take the opportunities that are given to you, so creating and then finishing are very important. So today we did it, and hopefully that momentum carries us into the tournament and we can keep doing it."

Joining Punahou in the upcoming state tournament will be the Raiders, who secured the second berth out of the iLH with a 2-1 win over Kamehameha.