King Kekaulike celebrates the very first state title in program history following its 3-1 win over Hilo Saturday night in the title game of the NIU Health Urgent Care/HHSAA Division I Boys State Soccer Championships at Radford's John E. Velasco Stadium. CJ Caraang | SL

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Sat, Mar 5, 2022 @ Radford

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Hilo

1

Kekaulike

3

Final	1st	2nd	OT	2OT	PK	Tot
Hilo (10-2-0)	0	1	-	-	-	1
Kekaulike (9-1-2)	2	1	-	-	-	3

O. Riecke (13’)   J. Sternthall (49’)   B. Hofmann (39’)   K. Pea (68’)

ALIAMANU — Coronation complete. 

King Kekaulike laid claim to its first boys state soccer crown with a 3-1 win over Hilo in the title game of the NIU Health Urgent Care/HHSAA Division I State Championships Saturday night. 

Na Alii, No. 7 in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Power Rankings and seeded fourth in the 12-team state tournament, recorded its third win in as many days to complete the season with a record of 10-1-2.  

The ninth-ranked and third-seeded Vikings saw their 11-match win streak end and finished the year at 13-2.

A crowd of about 400 fans at Radford's John E. Velasco Stadium was on-hand for just the second all-neighbor island final in the 48-year history of the state tournament. 

"It's an amazing feeling," said King Kekaulike sophomore midfielder Bailey Hofmann, who was selected as the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. 

"We've worked our butts off every single day, starting from the JV season, preseason, we were just busting our ass every single day; it feels amazing," he said. 

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Hofmann scored the second of two first-half goals for Na Alii, both of them coming on set pieces. 

Owen Riecke got the scoring starting for King K in the 13th minute. A foul against Hilo gave Angus Daniels a free kick from just inside midfield. 

Daniels served the ball into the middle of the 18-yard box, where it was deflected off the chest of Vikings' center-back Koae Pea and flicked on goal with a back heel by King K's Hugh Ward. Hilo goalkeeper Tysen Kaniaupio stopped the initial shot by Ward, but was able to secure the ball and Riecke cleaned it up and put it away into the right side of the net. 

Riecke's team-leading 12th goal of the season fit a recurring theme for Na Alii this week of capitalizing on set pieces. They did the same in Thursday's quarterfinal win (2-1, PKs) over Kapolei and again in Friday's semifinal victory (1-0, OT) over Kalani. 

"We've been practicing them a lot towards the end of this season," King K co-coach Tye Perdido said. "Just to kind of make sure we had a little bit more impact (because) we hadn't really had any throughout the year, so it was just working with those guys and making sure that they were able to finish for sure on frame and they did that this tournament."

They did it again just before the end of the first half. The sequence played out nearly identically to the game-winning goal Friday, when Hofmann took a free kick from the left side of the pitch, just outside the box, and served it to the back post, where Rex Riecke headed in the golden goal to put Na Alii into the final. 

Saturday night Hofmann put it in the goal himself. 

A yellow card on a Hilo defender in the 39th minute gave Hofmann a direct free kick from almost the same spot he took the restart against the Falcons the night before. 

"It was a little farther out, he was closer to the touch line," Perdido clarified. "But every time they line up for free kicks, I pretty much tell ‘em, ‘As long as you can keep ‘em on frame, I won't get mad at you.' "

Hofmann did just that. His right-footed shot went over the outstretched arms of Kaniaupio — who made two spectacular saves during a PK shootout the night before — and into the top right corner of the goal. 

He said he watched the video clip of his assist to Rex Riecke from Friday and drew some motivation from that. 

"Today I was looking at the goal that Rex scored actually and I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I can shoot this time,' and I did it," Hofmann said. 

His interpretation of the goal was probably an oversimplification of the stellar strike that he put on the ball, as his coach pointed out 

"You know, just being able to get that amount of pace and putting it on frame — it's been a struggle for him this year, but he seems to step up in the big moments and, you know, it paid off in the end," Perdido said of Hofmann. 

Perdido spoke quite highly of the sophomore left-wing. 

"He's one of the best players I've ever seen come through our program, if not through the MIL. I've been watching him from day one just trying to develop him and help him as best we can to be the team leader that he is on the field and just, we're super stoked about him and his level of play; he brings so much more to the team and is able to organize our entire offense in the attack and also on defense," Perdido said. 

King K's defense did not allow a goal until the 68th minute, but it was tested early on by the Vikings and their speedy striker, Kaumualii "Leha" Harman.

"We definitely struggled in that first half, just due to the fact that I don't think the guys were completely prepared for (Harman's) speed, so adjustments were basically figuring out how we can keep one of our center-backs deeper than him, so that if he did get through then we were able to at least step up and challenge it," Perdido explained. 

Jai Sternthall scored an insurance goal for Na Alii in the run of play about nine minutes into the second half to give his team a 3-0 cushion. 

Hilo got on the board with about 12 minutes left after Pea found the back of the net with his right-footed shot from about 40 yards out. However, in the aftermath of the goal, Harman drew a yellow card and then a red and was consequently sent off, which left Hilo a man-down the rest of the way. 

"The first half the emotion got the best of us," Vikings coach George Ichimaru said. "The second half we got control of our emotions, but some things just didn't go our way. (They got the third goal, I think that really put us back. We got a first goal and I think more of the emotions got back into us and I think the ref just allowed that second of the game to get out of hand."

Hilo registered four shots on goal, all of them after halftime. 

"Overall, we made the right adjustments, we controlled the right things. I think we created more opportunities from learning from our mistakes in the semifinal against Kaiser," Ichimaru said. "Just some small simple mistakes and that's what separated us tonight."

King K also tallied four shots on goal — two in each half. It did not attempt a single corner kick, but managed to stave off six of them by Hilo. 

Nainoa Pascual made three saves in goal for Na Alii, while Kaniaupio had one save for the Vikings. 

Hilo was also seeking its first state soccer crown. It was playing in just its second championship game and first since it lost to Mililani in 2001. 

"I appreciate all the hard work from these boys, from the fans, the community especially. No one believed that we could go this far and we made it this far and you know what, the rest is history and I walk away with my head high, proud of these boys that it was twenty-one years (that) we last came here, so I'm thankful for that," Ichimaru said. 

While the Vikings matched their best finish at states, it was King Kekaulike's moment.

In their very first trip to the title game, Na Alii captured just the second state championship by any neighbor island team (Baldwin and Hawaii Prep shared the title in 2018).

Perdido was ecstatic for his players and fellow coaches for winning it all. 

"They work so hard and it's really nice to see them get rewarded for the work they've put in this year," he said. "You know, it's been a dogfight from day one, so I can't be anything but proud of these guys."

Saturday's title match was, to be sure, a battle of attrition. 

"I think both sides were tired," Perdido said. "You know, it didn't look like we had a lot of depth on both sides; we had a little bit more on our side, which started to pay off in the end, but I know we've been running these guys as much as we can throughout the year and getting them as prepped as we can with an accelerated season, but it boiled down to who had more heart and I think our team ended up showing up a little bit more heart."

Along with Hofmann, Daniels, Sternthall and both Riecke brothers were selected to the all-tournament team. Hilo was represented by Harman, Kaniaupio and Kani Tolentino-Perry. Ethan Senter and Jase Oshiro from Kalani, as well as Kaiser's Ian Ngonethong round out the all-tourney team.