Year after year, Punahou boys water polo coach Ken Smith is soaking wet at the conclusion of the season ... and liking it.

Players dunked him in the water, along with assistant coaches Bruce Black and Alan Lum, after beating Iolani, 6-2, for the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I overall title yesterday at Kamehameha.

Punahou has won six straight ILH titles, and 29 titles in 32 tries. The Buffanblu won the regular-season title, but lost to Pac-Five in the ILH tournament last week. Iolani eventually defeated Pac-Five to capture the tournament title, forcing yesterday's playoff match.

There is no high school state tournament for boys water polo.

After a scoreless tie in the first quarter, the teams combined for four goals in the final 3 minutes, 41 seconds of the second quarter.

"It's been kind of the way we've been all season," Smith said. "We keep the pressure on everyone early and wear them down."

Punahou senior Ikaika Aki scored first at 3:41 on a backhand shot. Iolani tied the match when Egen Atkinson received a pass from Joshua Busse, and scored from three meters with 2:28 left.

Punahou sophomore Jeeter Ishida scored to make it 2-1 for Punahou 15 seconds later on an assist from Aki.

"It's huge," Aki said of answering Iolani's goal. "There's nothing worse than seeing them score and we score none."

Aki scored again with 54 seconds left in the quarter on another backhand, off a pass from Kai Aluli.

Iolani coach Randy Bart said the Raiders fell apart in the third quarter.

"In the third quarter we got out of our team play; we tried to do too much individually," he said. "(The Buffanblu) have the history behind them. They know there are four quarters. They know there's still a lot of game left."

Aki agreed, and said Punahou was a second-half team.

"We weren't really worried," he said about the 3-1 halftime score. "We were just waiting for it to happen."

He scored his third goal with 3:38 to go in the third quarter, shooting the ball over Iolani goalkeeper Nate Yang, and senior Sevren Smith made it 5-1 on a shot from close range with 4 seconds left in the quarter.

Punahou junior Curtiss Baldwin scored the team's sixth goal on an Aki assist with 2:40 left in the match. Iolani's Busse scored with 1:21 left for the final goal.

"It's one of the best defensive games we've ever had," Smith said.

Punahou senior goalkeeper Joe Svec, who finished with 11 saves, said: "It was like it wasn't even me stopping the balls. Our defense was just adapting to their offense. I could have gotten out of the pool and it would have been fine."

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com.