HAWAII KAI — It was only fitting that Kamalei Leong found the back of the net Saturday.

Leong scored the lone goal of the contest to help Kailua claim its fifth league championship and second in three years with its 1-0 win over Waialua on a blustery evening at Kaiser Stadium. 

A crowd of about 400 fans saw the Surfriders (5-6) shutout the Bulldogs (5-7) in the title game of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division II tournament. 

"It feels great," said Leong, a senior forward and third-year varsity player. "We struggled a little bit through the season and I feel like this is super motivating for us moving forward and I'm just happy with the outcome. We worked hard to get here."

Leong was a sophomore the last time Kailua won the OIA D2 title. A year ago, the Surfriders were promoted to D1 and struggled to say the least. They recorded just three wins — one of them coming via forfeit — and failed to qualify for the league tournament. 

Those struggles made Saturday night's championship all the sweeter, longtime Kailua coach Malu Afong said. 

"This triumph means a lot to me because last season we just struggled to survive and then this season we had our own challenges — we had different challenges — but it was nonetheless very challenging from day one to now, so this kind of just wrapped everything up in a bow for me and confirmed a lot of the hard work that the coaches put in to get the players this far," Afong expressed. 

Afong's squad had to work to keep the game scoreless through the first half. Kailua played the first 40 minutes into a strong headwind and was able to come away unscathed against Waialua's four shots on goal before halftime. 

Furthermore, the Surfriders did it — at least momentarily — without their starting goalkeeper. 

Gloria Maya-Gallardo came off the bench in the sixth minute to replace her cousin, Isabella Gallardo-Teixeira, who left the game after a collision with a Waialua forward. Gallardo-Teixeira was carted off the pitch, but returned to the contest about four minutes later. 

While she was in, Maya-Gallardo, came up with a crucial save on a corner kick by Waialua's Jadyn Miller that found its way to Iris Miguel, who was able to get a knee on it and put in on frame. Maya-Gallardo made a leaping stop to negate the Bulldogs' shot on goal in the seventh minute. 

About two minutes later, Miller put another corner kick into the six-yard box, toward the near post, but Maya-Gallardo made another stop to keep it scoreless. 

"That was crazy. I was hoping Bella was going to recover from that, but Gloria, she's good too. We just kind of told her to push and work hard and hopefully we could get Bella back and that's exactly what happened," Leong said. 

Gallardo-Teixeira re-entered the game in the 10th minute. 

Kailua recorded its first shot on goal about a minute later. A misplayed ball by a Waialua defender led to a shot from distance by Delaney Marrotte, but it was easily saved by goalkeeper Ariana Price. 

The score remained nil-nil at halftime, but not for long as Leong put the Surfriders ahead just seconds out of the intermission. 

Kailua had the kickoff to open the second half, which was passed backward to Leong from freshman Bryn Abe. Leong put a right-footed blast on it from nearly 70 yards out. Her shot rode the wind and bounced about 20 yards in front of the goal. Waialua's goalkeeper misjudged the play and took a few steps forward and was unable to recover in time as the ball bounced over her head and into the goal. 

"Honestly, I kind of just made it up right there," Leong said. "I was like, ‘Bryn, just drop it back, a slow ball and I'm just gonna boot it.' It was amazing. I honestly wasn't sure, I just booted it and hoped for the best."

Abe and Leong weren't entirely shooting from the hip — although it certainly came as a surprise to Afong. 

"My (assistant), without me knowing, they talked about it at halftime — that was their plan — so it worked. I was surprised because I didn't know that was going to happen," Afong said. "When it went in, my coach was like, ‘We talked about it at halftime,' so it was like oh my gosh; I was cracking up on that."

It was Leong's team-leading 16th goal of the year and her fifth in two games; She scored all four of her team's goals in a semifinal shutout of Radford Thursday.

"I think she's finally peaking. She's had some obstacles this season and so I think it wraps up her season in a bow, too, and this is her senior year and she was looking for the gold, so it's very fitting that she scored the goal for us," Afong said. 

Kailua, the top seed out of the Eastern Division, was coming off of a 4-0 win over Radford in Thursday's semifinal round. Prior to that, however, it dropped its last three regular-season contests —albeit against D1 teams in Kalaheo, Kahuku and Kalani. 

"I think we competed with the D1 teams but we were our own worst enemy — lacking the discipline, being afraid and our confidence wasn't there personally for some players — so because of that we just made minor mistakes with the D1 teams, but we totally competed. Had we had the discipline, had we had the confidence in ourselves, we would have been right up there with them," Afong said. 

Waialua, the Western Division's No. 1 seed, was seeking its first league crown since 2015 and second overall. 

Both the Surfriders and Bulldogs will represent the OIA in the upcoming Motiv8 Foundation/HHSAA Division II State Championships, Jan. 29 to Feb. 1 at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex.