Mililani boys edge Pearl City for OIA soccer title
By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer
PEARL CITY — Whitney Shimatsu scored on a short header in the 100th minute last night, just seconds before the game went into penalty kicks, to give the Mililani High School boys soccer team a dramatic 1-0 victory over Pearl City for its second straight O'ahu Interscholastic Association championship.
Shimatsu's shot near the goal box came off Justin Kim's free kick from about 40 yards.
"That was 'Play No. 1 — Front Post Run,' " Shimatsu said. "It was a perfect ball from JK. He's been hitting it consistently all season, but we just weren't putting it in. We finally got one, and just before, I was thinking, 'I gotta get it in and get this over with, because I want to go home.' Everyone was sore already."
Typical of Mililani-Pearl City soccer matches, this one was a hard-fought struggle from the opening whistle. Pearl City (9-2-1) had out-shot the Trojans 4-2 in the first half, but Mililani (11-0-1) had the best scoring opportunity when a goal off Kim's throw-in in the 17th minute was called back because of a foul on the play.
The Chargers also had a goal called back in the 57th minute, when Ricky Shinn's header from the top of the penalty box was negated because of a foul.
More scoring opportunities slipped away in the overtime periods. Mililani almost ended it in the 90th minute, but a header from 10 yards bounced off the post. Pearl City had a close shot at an open net in the 92nd minute, but the kick went just over the crossbar.
Trojans goalkeeper Darren Smith, a 6-foot-4 junior, made five saves on solid shots from the Chargers.
"He's not just a good goalkeeper; he's an incredible athlete," Pearl City coach Scott Keopuhiwa said. "I think some of the shots we had tonight would have been in on any other team. We gave it everything we had, but we just couldn't get one in on them."
The Trojans also shut out the Chargers, 1-0, in their regular-season meeting on Jan. 3, but Pearl City's offense was much more active last night. The main reason was a shift of 2002 Advertiser All-State defender Shinn to forward.
"They moved Shinn to the top and really stepped it up," Smith said. "They put on a lot of pressure."
Mililani coach Jeff Yamamoto agreed.
"By moving him up, now they have a real strong target that we have to contain," Yamamoto said. "He had an outstanding game; he definitely was a factor out there.
"But No. 22 (defender Wesley Armacost) destroyed a lot of our guys, too. He won a lot of balls back there. And No. 5 (Chris Ka'auku'u) had a great game, too. On the bus ride over, I told our coaches I thought this game was going to be real tight, that whoever wins, it would probably be on a set play."
The winning play almost never came, as the seconds ticked down.
"We were getting ready for PKs," Keopuhiwa said. "I was trying to come up with our (lineup)."
Yamamoto also said he was prepared for penalty kicks.
"I felt confident, because Darren is an outstanding penalty-kick goalkeeper," Yamamoto said. "But luckily, we didn't have to go there."
