Securing a victory that went beyond the win-loss column, the Pearl City girls soccer team — down five starters due to injury — defeated Kapolei, 2-0, last night at Pearl City.

"It's hard losing five starters, with four seniors, and we needed to push through it and stick together as a team, having each other's backs and uplifting each other," said senior forward Dayna Domingo, who scored the first goal in the game that featured the previous two O'ahu Interscholastic Association champions. Pearl City (7-1-2) won in 2008 and Kapolei (7-2-1) in 2007.

With the win, the Chargers moved ahead of the Hurricanes into second place in the Red West division standings. Each team has two games remaining in the regular season. Mililani (9-0-0) is in first place.

The top two teams in the Red West and Red East divisions receive first-round byes in the OIA Tournament, which begins Jan. 20 for the girls.

Five of Pearl City's starting players are out with ACL injuries, with one surgery completed and the other four scheduled to take place next week. It leaves co-head coaches Frank Baumholtz III and Tracee Kono with 15 available players.

"We've been preaching team; team until the last whistle," Baumholtz said. "They really did that today. Kapolei is an outstanding team. We tried to sub as much as we could to keep everybody moving. The subs did a great job."

Domingo gave the Chargers a 1-0 with a goal in the 33rd minute. The play started when Pearl City senior midfielder Ashley Daida took a free kick from just outside the right corner of the 18-yard box. She sent her ball to the far left post, where sophomore midfielder Kelsie Ng headed it up in the air. The ball went back across the mouth of the goal to the right side for Domingo, who headed it in.

"I just knew it was coming to me," Domingo said. "From there we just (kept rolling)."

The Chargers made it 2-0 on a goal by senior midfielder Nicole Kahunahana off a throw in by junior midfielder Makenzie Maurer, which was cleared back to Maurer on the left sideline. Maurer touched it to Domingo, who crossed the ball to the middle of the 6-yard box. The ball bounced around before Kahunahana put it away just minutes before the final whistle.

"(Christina Saturnio) flicked it on and I followed it in and put it into the left corner," Kahunahana said.

Pearl City had a good chance in the first half, when junior midfielder Kristy Iwahashi's free kick was knocked over the crossbar by Kapolei goalkeeper Kiana Haiwi in the 16th minute. Another Charger shot bounced off the crossbar in the 67th minute.

Both teams played with a similar style, with the ball in the air much of the time. Both depended on speedy forwards making the runs up top, with Domingo for Pearl City and Kelsey Wright for Kapolei.

"I think what I was most upset about was we didn't play well in the first half," Kapolei coach Brian Beck said. "In the second half we played so much better but it was too little too late. Whenever we play Pearl City, they have the same style. We were just reacting, playing kickball, exactly what we didn't want to do."

BOYS

First place in the OIA Red West is crowded, with three teams tied for the top spot.

Pearl City joined Mililani and Kapolei atop the standings with a 3-1 win over the Hurricanes last night.

Pearl City scored in the 10th minute on a free kick by senior Brandon Bolosan that bounced over the Kapolei goalkeeper's head. The Chargers scored again in the first minute of the second half when senior Bronson Oda chased down a throw-in into the 6-yard box and shot a low ball under the goalkeeper.

Sophomore forward Ikaika Matas scored the third goal when he chased down a long ball and challenged the Kapolei goalkeeper one-on-one. The goalkeeper stopped his initial shot, but the blocked save bounced off of Matas' body and into the open goal.

Kapolei senior forward Micah Uehara scored for Kapolei in the 77th minute.

The Pearl City boys improved to 5-2-1 and Kapolei drops to 5-3-1. Numerically, both are tied for first place with idle Mililani (5-1-1) with 16 points, although Mililani and Pearl City have played less games.