Give the Punahou boys water polo team cushion on the perimeter, and it'll likely score and then pad the lead.

Punahou dominated the first half against 'Iolani last night, scoring five unanswered goals, and held on for a 6-4 victory in an Interscholastic League of Hono-lulu match.

The Buffanblu's first four goals came on shots at least 15 feet from goal.

Brett Carter (3:08), Mark Hong (1:17) and Kai Golden (0:39) scored in the first half for Punahou (3-0) against an 'Iolani defense that collapsed close to its goal.

"We worked a lot on our perimeter shooting," said Punahou coach Ken Smith. "We need to have people always attacking."

Carter (3:23) added a power-play goal in the second period, and Griffin Bolan (2:37) scored from point-blank range off an assist from Ruddy Kiessling to make it 5-0.

"We were trying our best," said Carter, a junior. "We knew 'Iolani was going to bring it. We had to bring it back."

'Iolani coach Randy Bart said his team wasn't forcing the Buffanblu to shoot from the outside. Instead, he said it was just "bad execution."

On offense, 'Iolani (2-1) tried to work the ball close to the net, but Punahou repeatedly surrounded the player with the ball, knocked it away and retrieved it. The Raiders also had trouble stringing together passes.

"We've worked on pressure defense ... a helping team defense," Smith said.

Bart added: "We have a young team. We threw the ball away a lot in the first half. They have good shooters. They took advantage of it."

When the Raiders did take shots, goalie Jimmy Field was there to catch and deflect shots.

He stopped six shots in the first half for Punahou, which has no returning starters from last season.

"Jimmy is our mainstay on defense," Smith said. "He's a strength and we try to build out from him. He's one of the best goalies in the state."

'Iolani really upped its defensive intensity to start the second half, and it led to scoring opportunities.

Vincent Lim scored at 6:37 and 2:45 as the Raiders got within 5-2.

The Buffanblu's Golden capped the third-quarter scoring with a goal at 1:01.

Lim had a chance to answer for 'Iolani, but his penalty shot with 8 seconds left hit off the post.

"'Iolani started to push things in the second half," Smith said.

The Raiders' Chase Weber scored off an assist from Kacy Johnson with 4:40 remaining in the match, and Lim added a goal on a penalty shot with 1:27 left to get 'Iolani within 6-4.

'Iolani also had three shots go off the post in the fourth. The Raiders also went 0 for 2 on second-half power plays.

Punahou did a nice job playing keep away in the final minute to hold on for the victory, and even had two shots go off the post in the final seconds.

"They also decided to step it up," Carter said. "We had to keep ourselves at a high energy level, and the defense had to be ready for anything."

Bart noted that "in the second half of the second quarter we played our game a little more."

The Raiders carried it into the second half when they had a 7-4 advantage in shots on goal.

'Iolani simply couldn't overcome its slow start.