KAILUA-KONA — If this was her swan song at Kona Community Aquatic Center, Porsha Brandt couldn’t have asked for a more memorable outcome.
Brandt — a former All-BIIF selection with Konawaena who transferred to Kalaheo after her sophomore year — tallied her state leading 50th goal of the season to help the visiting Mustangs erase a four-goal, fourth quarter deficit and stun Kealakehe 10-9 in an HHSAA tournament first-round game on Monday.
In terms of the crowd presence, Kealakehe (10-6) usually dominates in the bleachers, giving them a nice home pool advantage. But when Kalaheo (11-5) sophomore Elle Foehr floated the game-winner just over the fingertips of the Kealakehe defense with 41 seconds left, the Brandt-boosted orange wave of Mustang faithful erupted.
“Honestly, I was just so happy to be back home and playing where I grew up,” said Brandt, who was buried in a mountain of lei. “I couldn’t have done it without my team and all of the people who showed up to support me. I feel overwhelmed right now.”
While the pool was familiar for Brandt, the Mustangs are in uncharted waters when it comes to the state tournament. Kalaheo had never qualified before this season, making the win over the ‘Riders the first in program history.
“Unbelievable. We are so proud of these girls,” Kalaheo coach Cara Campora said. “We have 12 seniors and 10 of them have played all four years. This was their pinnacle season.”
Kalaheo — who made the tournament as the fourth place OIA squad — advances to play MIL champion and No. 2 seed Baldwin on Thursday on Oahu.
The season is over for the BIIF runner-up Waveriders.
Last year, Kealakehe was the team making history at KCAC. The Waveriders beat Kaiser 9-6 in the first round for the program’s first victory in the state tournament (outside of a pair of consolation bracket victories in 2010).
Entering the fourth quarter, the Waveriders looked primed to add a second to their resume, but the Mustangs had other ideas.
Kalaheo senior Mattea Jergovic scored a natural hat trick to cut the four-goal deficit to one, but Maiana Villegas answered with a goal of her own to give the Waveriders some cushion at 9-7.
But Kalaheo was not going away.
Jergovic scored one more, and Brandt sent her followers into a frenzy with the game-tying goal with 1:28 left in the game. After a failed Waverider trip down the pool, Foehr capitalized with her floater, giving Kalaheo its first lead since the game was 2-1 — an advantage they had held for less than a minute.
“Unfortunately for us, their best quarters are the third and fourth,” Campora said with a laugh. “So we have to sweat it out, but they have so much confidence in each other.”
Brandt just smiled when recalling the final few minutes that kept Kalaheo’s season alive.
“That fourth quarter — that was crazy,” Brandt said. “We knew we had to give it our all. We pushed so hard. We knew we could do it and we did.”
Villegas led Kealakehe with five goals and Meiling Kam added a pair.
Jergovic scored five to pace the Mustangs, four of those coming during the fourth quarter surge.