Mililani girls soccer coach Ray Akiona felt his team came away with a "moral victory" after it rallied to tie visiting Pearl City, 3-3, last night.

Pearl City coach Frank Baumholtz said the O'ahu Interscholastic Association West Division teams likely will meet again, and last night's result "means essentially nothing."

Mililani, which trailed 2-0 after 22 minutes, tied it in the 79th minute when Allison Kagawa scored on a bending, 20-yard free kick.

"Any time you're down 2-0 to a really strong team like Pearl City, just to come back and tie it up, it's a victory in itself. It's a moral victory," Akiona said.

Mililani leads the division at 9-0-2; Pearl City is second at 8-1-2.

"We're probably going to meet them again in the OIA playoffs and again in states, so this means essentially nothing," Baumholtz said.

Pearl City's Bethany Gallarde scored in the 6th minute after an errant pass by a Mililani midfielder, and Nestle Yamaguchi scored on a penalty kick in the 22nd minute after teammate Kaitlyn Holt was fouled in the penalty box.

"In the beginning it was kind of difficult because we're not normally in a down position," Akiona said. "But with the character we have on this team over here, we just have confidence in each other and stayed positive."

Mililani got within 2-1 in the 66th minute when the Pearl City goalie trapped a high shot near the goal line and the ball rolled to Jasmine Pratt, who booted it in.

A minute before, Mililani just missed scoring when Kelli Ishihara broke in on goal, but her shot was smothered by the goalie.

The Trojans tied the score 2-2 in the 70th minute on a harmless-looking sky shot by Kagawa from 30 yards away. The goalie backed up to the goal line, jumped and the ball went off her hands and into the goal.

The Chargers retook the lead at 3-2 when Meghan Fuller scored off an assist from Holt in the 74th minute.

In the final minute, a Mililani player was fouled outside the penalty box and Kagawa's free kick from the right side bent into the goal.

"We practice free kicks a lot so I guess that helped a lot. I just had to focus on the ball," said Kagawa, a junior halfback.

Baumholtz said: "Every time you play Mililani it's going to be an exciting game and you need to play 80 minutes."

Reach Kyle Sakamoto at ksakamoto@honoluluadvertiser.com.