Chargers rally past Trojans in three

By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer

Pearl City won its second straight O'ahu Interscholastic Association boys volleyball championship and fifth in seven years last night, rallying past Western Division rival Mililani, 8-15, 15-9, 15-13, at the University of Hawai'i's Stan Sheriff Center.

Pearl City's Jonathan Charette roofed Mililani's Justin Himori for match point as the Chargers defeated the Trojans for the O'ahu Interscholastic Association boys' volleyball championship last night at the Stan Sheriff Center. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

"I'm exhausted, but I'm relieved," Pearl City coach Reid Shigemasa said. "We're bigger and supposedly better, so we're supposed to take it. I had a really bad feeling for awhile, but our kids pulled through."

The rally scoring third game was tied at 13-13, before the Chargers got a kill from Elsworth Ka'ana'ana and a solo block from Jonathan Charette to win it.

"My coach had told me (the hit) was going outside, so I cheated to the outside and it hit right into my hands," Charette said.

Mililani (11-2) had taken a 6-3 lead earlier in the game, at which point Pearl City called a timeout to stop the bleeding. The Chargers eventually tied it at 7-7 on a block by Kapena Wong, and the teams traded points thereafter.

"When you get natural points and a big early lead in rally scoring, usually you win, because then all you gotta do is side out," Mililani coach Kauanoe Eldredge said. "But we had some ball-handling errors, some calls that didn't go our way. And in rally scoring, that's tough to overcome."

Pearl City had to overcome a series of hitting errors and clean play from the Trojans in the first game. With many of the Chargers' spikes going wide or long, Mililani jumped out to a 13-3 lead.

"In any game like this, you're gonna be excited, especially in a big arena where you haven't had any court time," Shigemasa said. "Actually, we were inconsistent the whole game and Mililani came out fighting and kept coming at us."

Pearl City regrouped enough in the second game to take leads of 8-1 and 12-4 en route to forcing the third game. Wong led all hitters with 12 kills, and Charette added eight kills and four blocks. Puna Neumann led the Trojans with seven kills and five blocks.

It was the Chargers' second consecutive title, but the first for Charette, who transferred from the Mainland on Sept. 1. His school in Orange County, Calif., did not have a boys volleyball team.

"I didn't know what to expect, because I had never really seen the high school teams here," said Charette, who had played club ball in California. "But this was our goal, to win the championship. Everybody wanted it.

"It feels good."