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Kalani Takase | ScoringLiveFebruary 6, 2020, 10:43pm
Thu, Feb 6, 2020 @ Waipio
WAIPAHU — It wasn't the early bird, but rather the "whirly bird" that got the proverbial worm Thursday.
Kaila Takai netted the game-winning goal on a header in the 43rd minute off of a Tristyn Tanaka corner kick to rally No. 7 Pearl City to a 2-1 win over No. 3 Mililani in the quarterfinals of The Queen's Medical Center/HHSAA Division I Girls Soccer State Championships at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex main stadium.
The Chargers improved to 12-3-1 on the season and will face eighth-ranked Kekaulike in Thursday's semifinal round at Waipio. They have now won their last four games after losing to Moanalua in the quarterfinals of the Oahu Interscholastic Association tournament two weeks ago.
Pearl City, the OIA's fifth-place team, will be making its first semifinal appearance since 2018, when it edged out Kaiser in penalty kicks, but lost in the title game to Iolani.
"I'm just really proud of my team and I'm glad that we're making it to the semis," said Takai, a junior midfielder/forward.
The Chargers, who lost to Kekaulike in PKs in the quarterfinal round last year, earned redemption over Mililani, its longtime rival in the OIA West.
The Trojans came away with a 2-1 win when the teams met in the regular season back on Dec. 19, which provided all the motivation Pearl City needed this time around.
"I think that we really were determined to come back and win this one because we lost (the first time), so we really wanted to win and since this is states we really wanted to win and as a team we're getting closer and closer every single game and we just came together at the right time," Takai said.
Tanaka, who assisted on both Pearl City goals Thursday, said the regular-season loss against the Trojans served as an eye-opener.
"I think after that first loss we all knew that we should have worked harder that game and we've been working hard day-in and day-out and we've learned to trust each other — I think it's the team chemistry that's different," said Tanaka, a senior midfielder. "Mililani has always been such a rough opponent and we have so much respect for them and I think we all just really played together tonight and that's what was the difference for us."
Mililani took the lead near the midpoint of the first half. Mehana Ortiz fired a shot that deflected off of a Pearl City defender and out. That led to Meagan Tamashiro's corner kick that was punched away Chargers' goalkeeper Jo-Zayah Iriarte, but in the direction of Jacey Jicha, who was on the back post and headed in the deflection to the left side of the goal.
Pearl City pulled even about 11 minutes later on a goal scored during the run of play. Tanaka stole a pass along the right sideline, then passed it ahead quickly to a streaking Soraya Santos. Santos gathered the pass about 15 yards out and slotted a right-footed shot between the legs of Trojans' goalie Sydni Nakamura and into the back of the net for her 16th goal this year.
"It was a 50-50 ball and going into it the coaches said ‘we have to win every 50-50 ball,' so I just ran as hard as I could and I got the ball, picked my head up and I saw Soraya making a really good run at that first post and I just passed the ball and she finished the job," Tanaka said.
The score was tied through halftime, but the Chargers struck for the go-ahead goal early in the second half, this time off of a set piece.
Pearl City drew a corner kick — its only one of the second half and one of just two for the game — in the 42nd minute. Tanaka took the corner and placed her pass near the back post, where Takai headed it out of the reach of Nakamura and into the left side of the netting.
"We practice corners every day at practice and I think that one we had to really make count because we knew there was a lot on the line. We just always gotta get first to the corners," Tanaka said.
As Tanaka lined up the corner kick, a quartet of her teammates circled from the front post to the back in single file — almost like an inbounds play in basketball.
"So coach (Frank Baumholtz III), actually he made us run that play and every time we're like, ‘no, we don't want to do it,' because we feel kind of, like, dumb, but then he was like, ‘just run it!' and we ran it and it worked," Takai laughed.
Baumholtz, the longtime coach of the Chargers, said he urged his players to run the same play twice in Monday's win over Hilo in the first round of the tournament.
"I called it twice and they wouldn't do it and we're losing 1-0 and I'm going ‘run the play! Run the play!,' " Baumholtz said. "(Thursday) my assistant coach said, ‘why don't we do this one?' It's kind of a weird one, just a little whirly bird. We score on it all the time in practice, but we can't do it in the game — I mean, they won't do it in the game. This time I yelled at Soraya, gave her the signal and she just smiled and bang, it was in the net — it was, like, crazy."
Baumholtz credited Tanaka for placing her corner kick in the perfect spot for Takai to make a play on it.
"Right on the money," he said.
Practice makes perfect, Tanaka noted.
"That's something we do at practice, where everyone lines up on the post and we just do a little swirl and try to time it well and that one was just timed really well," Tanaka said.
Takai also praised Tanaka's service on the play.
"I was just at the backdoor, like right place, right time, but it was all team effort and Tristyn's nice ball in really helped us and (that goal) gave us the confidence to keep pushing," Takai said of her eighth goal of the season.
However, the Trojans did not go quietly. They registered five of their six shots on goal after halftime and put an all-out assault on Iriarte between in the posts in the final 10-minute stretch of the match.
Iriarte denied Mililani's Ali Fuamatu-Maafala and Jicha on back-to-back shots on goal in the 70th minute. About six minutes later, Aubrey Dunaway fired a left-footed shot from about 30 yards out that ricocheted off of the crossbar. One minute after that, Iriarte made a pivotal save on a Cece Jenkins shot on goal that was set-up by a Tamashiro corner kick.
"Jo-Zayah did an outstanding job; she really saved us," Takai said. "She had some really nice saves."
The Trojans took nine corner kicks in the second half and 12 for the game.
"I was thinking 40," Baumholtz joked.
Iriarte, a junior, is in her first season of soccer in "two or three years." She has been a standout infielder and pitcher on the Pearl City softball team the past two seasons.
"They just needed a goalie because they didn't have a goalie, so I just came out just to help out," Iriarte said. "It felt really good to come back from behind tonight and just winning it and making it to the next (round)."
Baumholtz spoke highly of Iriarte and the immediate impact she made on the team.
"Jo-Zayah is great. The things I love about her and I was talking to her softball coach and he loves this about her — she's a hundred percent coachable," Baumholtz said. "She does really good things, so she's a blessing for us and she'll be a great college goalie unless she gets a scholarship for softball."
Iriarte finished with four saves in goal.
"She's so amazing. She saved us so many times this year and we couldn't be more thankful to have her; She's our savior," Tanaka said.
Mililani was seeking its first trip back to the semifinal round since 2018, when it lost to Iolani and finished third in the state.
The Trojans saw their six-game win streak snapped and fell to 12-2 on the year. They will face No. 2 Punahou in a 3 p.m. consolation game Friday.
Pearl City and Kekaulike will meet in the 7 p.m. nightcap Thursday at the main stadium. The early semifinal will feature top-seeded and top-ranked Kamehameha against fourth-seeded Konawaena at 5 p.m.
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