Punahou's Kalen Halvorsen pushes the ball downfield against Mid-Pacific. Brien Ing | SL

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Punahou's Kalen Halvorsen pushes the ball downfield against Mid-Pacific. Brien Ing | SL

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Punahou controlled the game early and held off a late charge by Mid-Pacific to post a key 2-0 win in a mid-morning match at Alexander Field.

Mark Kelley got things going for the Buffanblu in the 23rd minute, and Kalen Halvorsen added a second 6 minutes later to account for the Punahou scoring.

"We play better with confidence, and both of them (the goals)  were set pieces so that's how important those calls are in game. It can really make a difference."

The Owls turned up the offensive intensity in the second half, but goalie Connor Goo was equal to the task, stopping just about every attempt made at him.

One shot that he wasn't able to stop came in the 70th minute of play, a laser-beam follow off a miss by Landon Navarro that banged soundly off the crossbar and nearly straight into the air before Goo was able corral it to end the best scoring chance in the half for Mid-Pacific.

"Connor has been great, he's been consistent," remarked Trifonovitch. "He's made the saves when he's needed to, the goals that have been scored have been earned goals. He hasn't let any of them by easily. The crossbar saved us today and helped us a little bit too."

Punahou finished 0-1-2 in the first rotation this season against the trio of top-ranked Iolani, second-ranked Mid-Pacific and eighth-ranked Kamehameha. During that three-game stretch, the Buffanblu scored just one goal while allowing three.

"We did had a little dip there, every season we seem to but its a matter of how we recover and so far we've recovered pretty well," said Trifonovitch. "This is a huge game for us because it gives us momentum going into Kamehameha and Iolani."

Punahou has outscored opponents by 23-0 since a 1-0 defeat to Iolani on December 27.