Hilo High goalkeeper Tysen Kaniaupio dove to his left to deflect the ball, picked himself up, raised his arm and ran to his teammates.
The celebration was on – but wait.
It wasn’t over yet.
“The was kind of my fault,” Vikings boys soccer coach George Ichimaru told the Tribune-Herald. “I told (assistant) Kalei (Tolentino-Perry), if we save this, I think we win. And the players looked at me on the side, and we saved it, and that’s when we ran on the field.
Two celebrations are better than one anyway, especially when you’ve waited this long.
Senior Ko’ae Pe’a did the honors, knocking in his penalty kick to secure a 2-1 win against Kaiser in Honolulu and the Vikings first trip to the HHSAA Division I championship match in 21 years.
“It’s a big deal for us,” Kaniaupio told a statewide audience on SpectrumOC16. “We just want to make our town proud, our coach proud and our families proud.”
Riding a 12-game winning streak, BIIF champion Hilo, the third seed, will return to Radford at 7 p.m. Saturday to face fourth-seeded King Kekaulike of Maui on SpectrumOC16. The winner get its first state title.
“Lots of emotions,” said Ichimaru, who noted the 2019 BIIF final loss to Hawaii Prep was the last time a Hilo match went to PKs. “I felt confident in our ability to take good PKs, we been training on it all season.
“Tysen, to me, just played fantastic in goal. I was stressing, but it was amazing.”
Every match in the round of 8 has played out that way, so if form holds, the final will be a nail-biter.
Hilo’s 2-1 win against Aiea in Thursday’s quarterfinals was the only match the past two days that didn’t need overtime. In the second semifinal, King Kekaulike scored near the end of the first overtime to beat Kalani 1-0, officially ousting Oahu schools out of the tournament,
In Division II, BIIF runner-up Kamehameha will take on Maui’s Seabury Hall in the final at 5 p.m. Saturday (SpectrumOC16). The Warriors beat Island School 2-1 in double overtime on Elijah Dinkel’s PK. The Spartans dethroned BIIF champion Hawaii Prep 3-1.
“Think we defended well as an entire group,” Kamehameha coach Gene Okamura said of his team’s semifinal. “They were extremely athletic, and I think we did a very good job to match it and anticipate defensively. Jacob (Aiona) came up with some big saves to keep us in the match.”
For Hilo, Leha Harman, Michael DeCoito and Kyler Rivera also bagged PKs, and Kaniaupio stopped two of the four he faced, diving to his right to redirect the first one.
“I just had to trust my gut, doing with what my gut told me, and make sure that when I do commit, I commit fully, not halfway and give up,” Kaniaupio said.
The senior, the BIIF defensive player of the year for the Vikings’ football team, drew an assist on Harman’s goal in the final minute of the first half. After he grabbed a header for one of his six saves to preserve a scoreless match, Kaniaupio took few steps and boomed a ball that Ichimaru estimated traveled 80 yards. Harman grabbed it on the second bounce and got behind the goalkeeper, firing his team-high 24th goal into an open net.
The Cougars’ Ian Ngonethong scored in the 57th minute to tie the match 1-1, and it stayed that way through two 10-minute OTs.
Ichimaru said he made sure Harman and DeCoito got opportunities at PKs first so their talents wouldn’t be wasted should the Cougars make all of theirs, but it wasn’t a mistake that seniors Rivera and Pe’a were around to handle the pressure moments.
Pe’a, a center back, is one of the inspirational leaders of the team.
“He brings the energy, he brings the focus,” Ichimaru said. “He created this term: believe. ‘Every game, boys, believe. When it came to the BIIF final, believe. (Quarterfinal) round, believe.’
“That’s what he brought to the team and he leads by example, working hard everyday. First one there, last one to leave. As a senior, what more can you as for?”
Division II
Kamehameha 2, Island School 1, 2OT: The Warriors avoided PKs on Dinkel’s team-high 19th goal, which was set up when Lucas Kay-Wong drew a foul.
Carlos Lang scored for Island School in the 37th minute, but Kyle Derasin quickly netted the equalizer just before halftime.
Kamehameha seeks a second state title to go along with the one it claimed in 2018.
Seabury Hall 3, Hawaii Prep 1: James Haynes’ hat trick gave the Spartans the opportunity to win their first state title.
Aidan Santos’ 22nd goal for HPA opened the scoring in the sixth minute, but Haynes went to work and it was 3-1 by the 47th minute.
For the first time since 2015, Ka Makani ends the season without either a state D-II title or a BIIF D-I title.
