Austin Schneider and Hawaii Prep takes on Skyler Goo and Saint Louis in the Division II state title game Saturday night. Michael Lasquero | SL

Purchase image 1 of 1

All season long the Hawaii Prep boys soccer has focused on the here and now.

That meticulous, game-by-game approach has Ka Makani in an all-too-familiar place: playing for a title.

HPA will try for its second straight Queen's Medical Center/HHSAA Division II State Championship Saturday night, when it faces off against an unlikely opponent in Saint Louis.

The Crusaders are no stranger to success in football, but futbol is a different story. They captured the Interscholastic League of Honolulu crown this year and are seeded second in the eight-team tournament.

"We're not really a soccer school, so this is big for the school and it's big for the kids," Saint Louis coach Rick Sandry said. "They've had to earn this right. Right now they're getting what they deserve by having to work at it and getting the results they're getting, so that's pretty cool."

After dropping its first three ILH games — albeit to Division-I powers Kamehameha, Iolani and Punahou — Saint Louis won three of its next four. However, consecutive shutout losses at the hands of Iolani (3-0) and Punahou (2-0) in a span of four days proved to be a learning lesson.

"Those losses really showed these guys where they're at and it forced them all to look inward," Sandry said. "You can't write a check and not expect to cash it, so if you're going to demand something you'd better be willing to give it your all. After that they came together pretty good right after that. I think you learn more from a loss than you do a victory and those two losses kind of woke us up."

The Crusaders have won four straight games going into Saturday's final. They posted a 1-0 win over PAC-5 in a one-game playoff for the ILH title before opening the state tournament with a 5-0 drubbing of Farrington Thursday. Sophomore Skyler Goo scored his team-leading 15th goal to open the scoring against the Governors in the 21st minute.

"He's very key," Sandry said of Goo. "He's been our leading scorer all year, so people have to account for him. The other ones, because of their speed and their creativity as well, they haven't finished as much, but it's shown in this tournament that we're more than just one attacker scoring. We've got multiple people that can score."

That proved to be true in Friday's 4-2 semifinal win over Kamehameha-Hawaii. Rick Sandry, Jr., the son of the coach, and Mitchell Quinn each scored twice to help Saint Louis erase an early one-goal deficit.

Part of the Crusaders' strength is their unpredictability.

"We're kind of a work-in-progress. We don't really have a consistent style. Sometimes we're very direct, sometimes we're able to keep the ball and let the ball do the work, but we're not consistent where we can do the same thing on a repeated, successful basis," Sandry said. "It kind of depends on which players show up. I haven't really had the same starting lineup in a game all season, so I don't expect it to start any time soon."

Balance, meanwhile, has been the key to HPA's run to the championship game.

Jake Schneider leads Ka Makani with 10 goals scored on the season. His older brother, Austin, has seven goals this year, Bip Padrnos six and Chris Whitfield and Braden Kojima five each.

"Braden Kojima and Austin Schneider, two senior captains, dictate everything that we do. Everything goes through them in the midfield," HPA coach Rich Braithewaite said. "Up top, Jake Schneider is just a really, really technical sophomore that's doing great stuff."

Putting the ball in the back of the net hasn't been much of a problem for Ka Makani, as evidenced by its 10-1 semifinal rout of fourth-seeded Kailua Friday. But it's on the defensive end of the pitch where they earn their keep.

"I think really what we've improved upon the most this year and, I think, what defines us is our aggressive defensive pressure," Braithewaite said. "We're really always trying to make sure that other teams can't do what they're trying to do and I think that really defines us. We never had a moment off; constantly we have two or three guys swarming and that's really what we've done well."

HPA has posted six shut outs and allowed just seven goals all season. Braithewaite credits fullbacks Kama Kahoe-Morrison, Noah Wise and Sihkea Jim — an All-Hawaii selection last year — as key cogs in the defense.

"I think that's really our strength," Braithewaite said. "Sihkea and Kama are really, really hard-nosed defenders and really smart. I think that they're having the most success because of their ability to read the game and then captain Noah Wise at outside-back has done a great job attacking out of the left-back and he's a tremendous leader."

Braithewaite made it clear that for his team to be successful, it must hold on to the ball.

"We are definitely a possession-based team. We're always trying to keep the ball and build from the back," Braithewaite said. "We've got our strengths in the middle and in the back, in terms of keeping the ball and building up and then once we get in the attacking third, we're really trying to combine as much as possible."

Despite having the distinction of being the reigning state champion, it's largely been an afterthought for Ka Makani this year.

"I honestly don't think it's been an issue at all. These guys, their memory is about two minutes long, so we are constantly focused on what's coming," Braithewaite said. "Our sole focus just for this game today was our warm-up and that's kind of been our mantra all year, is ‘what are we doing in this five minutes?' So it hasn't been about defending anything or like that. It's been about ‘how can we improve and do what we need to do in this moment?' "

Kickoff between top-seeded HPA (12-0-1) and second-seeded Saint Louis (8-6-1) is set for 5 p.m. at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex main stadium.