RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Mililani's Tyler Kilborn tried to keep the ball away from Leilehua's Bryant Moniz during last night's OIA title game.

Mililani boys corner fourth
straight championship

Unlike most students, the Mililani Trojans enjoy being sent to the corner.

Twice, the corner was their cornerstone in a 2-1 overtime win over Leilehua last night for the Oahu Interscholastic Association boys soccer championship.

Cheyne Eugenio, at 6-foot-2, headed in a corner kick from Justin Ching to give the Trojans a sudden-death victory. "I just tried to get a head on it," said Eugenio, whose attempt bounced toward the near side of the goal. The Trojans invest a lot of time in perfecting the corner plays.

"It's kinda top secret. We can't give out that info," Eugenio said. "But seriously, we work on it every day."

Mililani (10-0-2), the No. 2 seed in the West, secured its fourth OIA crown in a row. In all, the Trojans have nine championship trophies -- eight under coach Jeff Yamamoto.

"I really think this team improved quite a bit since the beginning of the season," Yamamoto said.

Leilehua is 9-3-1 after finishing third in the West during the regular season. "I give 'em credit. This was probably the best game in the OIA this year," Eugenio said.

The Mules gave the Trojans a different look this time. "Leilehua pressed up. They moved Daniel Phelps up. He's an outstanding player with excellent control," Yamamoto said. "He's very dangerous."

In the end, Mililani's corner-kick execution was the difference after Leilehua played dead even with the Trojans for 83 minutes. However, hard work and precision on the corner-kick plays were no fluke.

Mililani's first goal came on a corner kick from Ching to Michael Smith, whose header bounced in on the far side of the goal from just 5 yards out. The Trojans struck lightning and took a 1-0 lead just 1 minute, 10 seconds into the contest.

From that point on, however, the Mules scrapped and scraped. They amassed 13 shots on goal in the contest, five more than Mililani. A beautiful corner kick by Syd Tom angled its way into the goal at the 29-minute mark, tying the game at 1.

Tom was the OIA West's co-leader in scoring with 13 goals during the regular season.

In the second half, both teams had ample opportunity to take the lead. The closest Leilehua came was on 10-yard kicks by Charlie Pregoner and Daniel Phelps. Both attempts were too high.

Leilehua senior Ryan Bibilone passed crisply, but was at less than full speed due to a leg injury.

"I give Mililani a lotta credit. They probably work real hard on those (corner-kick) plays," Bibilone said. "I feel good about us. Nobody expected us to get this far. We just had some hard luck at the end."

Yamamoto credited his players and coaches, especially Steve McGehee. "He's the one who puts together all our set plays, our corner plays," he said.