The Buffanblu hoist up their 20th state championship trophy. Crizalmer Caraang Jr. | SL

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Mon, Feb 13, 2017 @ Waipio

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Kaiser

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Punahou

2

Final	1st	2nd	OT	2OT	PK	Tot
Kaiser (14-2-1)	0	1	-	-	-	1
Punahou (13-2-2)	2	0	-	-	-	2

M. Srivongsana (55')   D. McKenna (7')   J. Vandevender (25')

WAIPAHU — The state championship trophy is staying put with Punahou.

Christopher Espinoza assisted on a pair of goals to lead the Buffanblu to a 2-1 win over Kaiser in the title game of the Queen's Medical Center/HHSAA Division I Boys State Soccer Championships at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium Monday night.

Punahou added to its already crowded trophy case by successfully defending its state crown and completed the season with a 13-2-2 record for its 20th state title overall and fourth under coach David Trifonovitch.

"These guys enjoyed each other and they worked really hard. I've kind of said that from the beginning of the year, that it's probably the most physical and athletic team that we've had," Trifonovitch said.

While it got the job done, Trifonovitch said the Buffanblu were far from perfect against the scrappy Cougars, who were seeking their first state championship.

"We didn't play the prettiest soccer," said Trifonovitch, whose team took a 2-0 lead into halftime before fending off Kaiser's second-half effort. "We got two goals and it was like ‘we got this,' and it really brought us down, so good for Kaiser for sticking with it and giving us a run for our money at the end. We just kind of held on."

Punahou needed less than seven minutes to find the back of the net.

Junior Christopher Espinoza served up a perfectly-placed corner kick to a wide-open Duncan McKenna, who headed the ball past Cougars' goalkeeper Brandon Yasue and into the left side of the goal.

"Duncan was saying ‘play it early, play it early,' and I looked up, the defense wasn't ready so I just played it to him and he headed it in," Espinoza said.

McKenna, a senior forward, credited Espinoza for the quick restart.

"All the Kaiser defenders were still coming back and it was really empty in the box — and Chris is usually a guy that I can depend on to be on the same page as me — and so I told him that we should do a quick one and he found me right on my head and luckily I did my job," McKenna said.

It was McKenna's team-leading 15th goal and his fourth of the state tournament.

"That was a very smart, quick, heads-up play," Trifonovitch said. "It was in the net before Kaiser even knew that it was a corner. It happened so quick."

Punahou's second corner kick — in the 25th minute — led to a similar result. Espinoza's service went toward the far post and was put away by a hard-charging Jason Vandevender for the junior's seventh goal of the season. Vandevender's header found the right side of the goal and was his first of the postseason.

"The second corner was a little bit of a higher serve, but luckily Jason snuck around on that back side and got up there," Trifonovitch said. "He's not one of our strongest guys — he's really skinny — but he got up there and hit it hard. It was really nice."

Junior Ian Withy-Berry started in goal for the Buffanblu and made four saves before he left the game in favor of sophomore Nicholas Shor in the 49th minute. Withy-Berry took an inadvertent shot to his face — just above his right eye — which limited his visibility.

"Ian was a little late coming out on one play and he took that shot in the eye," Trifonovitch said. "His eye literally closed up and he couldn't see in the second half, so we had to put Nick in."

Shor made one costly error about six minutes after he came in relief of Withy-Berry. After gathering a loose ball, he held on to it for a step too long — just outside of the 18-yard box — before a goal kick and was consequently called for a handball. That gave Kaiser's prolific scorer, Makana Srivongsana, a chance on a direct free kick, which he drilled around a shoddy wall of Punahou defenders and into the left side of the goal for his state-leading 22nd goal.

"After that we just knew we had to hold it if we wanted to win," said Espinoza. "We were really slacking off at the beginning of the second half and they were really coming at us, but I think that actually helped us a little bit to get back in the mindset that they could tie it up and we could end up losing."

The Cougars had a chance to pull even in the closing minutes. Yuki Enomoto's direct free kick from 45 yards out was deflected out, but it went off a Buffanblu player and over the end line for a Kaiser corner kick.

Motoki Sato sent the corner into the 6-yard box, but it was cleared out by McKenna on a leaping header and Punahou held on for the final whistle shortly thereafter.

"The goal we gave up was a strange play, but we still believed in (Skor)," said McKenna, who was selected as the tournament's most outstanding player. "It made the end of the game a little bit more stressful, but we had confidence in our defense and they got the job done."

Kaiser created most of its opportunities after halftime, but couldn't recover from a sloppy start.

"We didn't play our game in the first half. There were moments where we did — we controlled the ball, we controlled the possession a lot of times — (but) we just couldn't get the ball up the field and into the second half of the field, so we couldn't get shots on goal," Cougars first-year coach Layne Abalos said. "Give Punahou credit though, they played tough; They're a tough team."

The Cougars, who saw their four-game win streak snapped to end the season at 14-2-1, were trying for their first state championship. It was their first appearance in the title game since 2011, when they lost to Punahou by a score of 5-0.

"The boys have bought in to what we're trying to team them and they're listening. It's unbelievable how great these kids are," said Abalos, whose team finished third in the OIA tournament.

After a dominating first-round win over Hilo, Kaiser took out league champions Iolani and Baldwin with one-goal victories on consecutive nights to reach the final.

"I can definitely say the culture has changed here," Abalos said. "We talked about it from the beginning of the season and we expected to be here."

Punahou opened the state tournament with a shut out of Kalani and also dispatched a pair of league titlists in Kealakehe and top-seeded Kapolei en route to the championship match.

It was the Buffanblu's sixth state title game appearance in the last eight seasons.