Growing up, they talked about being champions.

Strange how their goals can come true.

Waialua, one of the smallest schools in the O'ahu Interscholastic Association and located in one of the island's most rural communities, won the league's White Division boys soccer championship with a 1-0 win over Kailua on Saturday.

Senior Kainoa Rosa, who grew up playing AYSO soccer with about eight of his teammates — including younger brother, sophomore Kamalei — scored the game's only goal on a penalty kick early in the second half for the Bulldogs (12-0).

"Once you meet somebody for the first time, when you're little, you have that bond," Kainoa said. "You reminisce about back in the days and can't believe when you're little, when you're small, setting that standard, that 'We'll be champions, we'll be champions.'

"We know how we play with each other, we know how to do this, how to do that. We're just one big family. It's amazing how we grew up and accomplished our goal. We were saying for the past couple years that we wanted to get to this game, to this situation and it comes out with a bang. My teammates, they're just one big family. We all love each other and back up each other."

The Rosa brothers have been playing for their parents in AYSO since they were 5. Dad John is the current Waialua head coach and mom Loriann Avilla-Rosa is the assistant. Growing up and playing with current Waialua teammates developed a family bond that extends outside of their immediate family.

"We just bonded, ever since we were little, like AYSO, we knew each other and as we grew up, we got closer and closer and now we're like brothers," said 5-foot-1 Kamalei, who scored off a cross from Kainoa during Thursday's 2-0 semifinal win over McKinley. "Everyone is like my brothers to me."

With all eyes and the pressure on Kainoa, who is 5-4, during Saturday's penalty-kick attempt, Kamalei couldn't bare to watch. Kainoa shot just under the crossbar for his sixth goal of the season.

"I couldn't even breathe when he was going to take it," said Kamalei, who has scored six goals this season. "I had a hard time watching. When I heard the ball go into the net, I started going nuts. I gave him a big hug and started playing more defense than anything to keep us in the lead and not make mistakes. I made a couple mistakes but luckily I had my team to help me out."

Wins — albeit championships — can be far and few between for Waialua teams, due to the small student body to draw from. Wai-alua has about 600 students in grades 7 to 12. A few years ago, John barely had enough players to field a team. But the Bulldogs have had moderate success in the past few years and even made first-round appearances in the league playoffs. Nearing his 10th season at Waialua, John has 28 players this year.

"The kids see that (winning) and want to know about soccer," John said. "A lot of athletes come out and learn. As the years go by, we're getting more numbers that come out.

"We don't cut. We're such a small community, we keep them on and we just work as we go along."

The Bulldogs got an extra shot of confidence from those who made the long drive to Roosevelt to watch the championship game.

"It's a really good feeling that we won," Kainoa said. "It really brings more confidence and the thinking that we can set our high standards. It's really good to see the Waialua community, all the people from the North Shore, coming to watch us. They wanted to believe in us and (because of them) we wanted to believe we could be champions."

Added Kamalei: "We wouldn't have done it without our teammates. Even our teammates on the bench supported us, our fans, parents, friends, teachers, everybody from Waialua came out and cheered for us. That game was crazy."