Solid defense last night propelled the Punahou boys water polo team to the Interscholastic League of Honolulu regular season title at Punahou School.

Punahou defeated 'Iolani, 8-3, in the final ILH regular-season match, avenging a 10-8 first-round loss to the Raiders.

The ILH tournament is Nov. 8 and 10. Punahou is the top seed, followed by 'Iolani, Pac-Five and Kamehameha. There is no boys water polo state tournament.

Jack Roney scored four goals to lead the Buffanblu (5-1) last night.

"We really worked on our defense," said Roney, who added that strong defense led to momentum on offense. "It was all about the team effort, and it worked."

Roney scored the only goal of the first quarter at the 5:03 mark after 'Iolani (4-2) goalkeeper Nate Yang blocked Roney's first shot. Roney collected the rebound and shot into an open goal.

"I was just happy we were ahead," Roney said of the close score. "In the first-round game, we were really disappointed."

Iolani tied it at 1 on a fastbreak goal by Michael Lim on a pass from Stephen Lim with 3:27 left in the second quarter.

The Buffanblu answered 20 seconds later on a Curtiss Baldwin goal from a feed by Tim Steinmeier to regain the lead.

Baldwin scored with 58 seconds left in the third quarter on an assist from Jeeter Ishida to give Punahou a 3-1 advantage.

Punahou broke away in the fourth quarter, scoring five goals. Roney started the scoring 18 seconds into the period. Then Steinmeier scored with 3:33 left, followed by two Roney goals in the following minutes. A backhand shot by Ishida was the final Buffanblu score, with 1:37 left.

"One team just got on a roll, and the momentum just carried them," 'Iolani coach Randy Bart said.

'Iolani scored twice in the fourth quarter on goals by Joshua Busse, with just under two minutes left, and Victor Wong, with 17 seconds to go.

"We were working a lot on our team defense," Punahou coach Ken Smith, who said the Buffanblu worked on arriving at an offensive player the same time the ball arrived. "They are a potent team and we did a good job."

Punahou goalkeeper Spencer Dung recorded six saves, and 'Iolani's Yang had eight.

Members of the Buffanblu boys volleyball team helped the water polo team celebrate by taking a dip in the pool at the conclusion of the game.

VOLLEYBALL

WORD OF LIFE WINS ILH TOURNAMENT TITLE

Chanteal Satele had 13 kills to lead Word of Life to a 25-13, 25-16 victory over host Sacred Hearts for the Interscholastic of League of Honolulu Division II girls volleyball tournament title.

Word of Life and Sacred Hearts, the ILH first-round winner, play for the overall title Wednesday at Sacred Hearts. Both have earned state tournament berths.

In the game for third place in the tournament, Maryknoll defeated La Pietra, 25-22, 25-22. Elissa Ji led Maryknoll with 12 kills.

La Pietra hosts Maryknoll Wednesday for the ILH's third state berth.

The state tournament begins Nov. 6.

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com.