WAILUKU — The Baldwin High School boys soccer team is used to being in races for the Maui Interscholastic League Division I crown.

The defending MIL champion Bears have been a force again this season and on Saturday night they methodically took care of business in a 6-0 win over a young Kamehameha Maui team at War Memorial Stadium.

The victory lifted the Bears to 8-0-1 in MIL play and clinched a spot in next month’s Motiv8 Foundation/HHSAA state tournament — their 25 points in the standings are six more than second-place King Kekaulike (6-1-1, 19 points).

The Bears got to business quickly when Vincent Moore scored in the sixth minute and then again moments later in the seventh minute. Both early goals came off of stellar passes from Keoni Perez Martin.

“This is my first season, so it’s pretty special to be a part of this team,” said Moore, a 5-foot-11 junior forward. “Those goals, it mattered, it got the ball rolling and then just more goals came after.”

Moore said clinching the state berth can help the Bears concentrate on trying to nail down the MIL title — they have three matches left, including a huge showdown with King Kekaulike on Jan. 27.

“It’s amazing, we still have three games left and, you know, we’re just finishing the job early, but the job’s not finished,” Moore said.

Fellow forward Kanata Kuwahara, a 5-10 senior, scored the next two goals, in the 15th and 49th minutes, the first off a pass from Moore and the second off a pass from Brayden Barbosa.

“That felt pretty good because I’ve been playing pretty bad recently, so it felt good to kind of come out of the slump a little bit,” Kuwahara said, adding that clinching a state berth give them “a little relief so we can practice working on our strategies, practice moving the ball around, less to worry about like getting scored on.”

Kuwahara gave major credit to the Bears’ defense — goalkeeper Sam Paci was not threatened much in the match on Saturday.

“Whoa, I think our defense is super solid,” Kuwahara said. “I think they help us win almost every game. They win every ball. I think they’re the best defense I ever played with.”

The final two goals for the Bears came in the 66th minute when Caine Fernandez Loui blasted home a pass from Tsubasa Thompson and in the 73rd minute when Perez Martin scored off an assist from Guiness Ruiz Rockett.

Baldwin coach Kaniela Palazzotto said that having the state berth in hand with three matches to play is a bonus. For the first time in several years, the MIL D-I schedule is three rounds of round-robin play.

“It’s big, it’s our goal every year at Baldwin, right? That’s our No. 1 goal, is to make the state tournament first,” Palazzotto said. “We set that goal and now we’ve attained it. Now we can look forward to — I don’t want to jump ahead — but now we know that we can take it one game at a time, focus on the next game, until the other big game really comes along.”

Kamehameha Maui (4-5-0, 12 points) was officially eliminated from MIL title contention and its chances at a state berth were also nearly extinguished with the result.

The Warriors have 15 freshmen and sophomores on their 23-player roster.

“They always battle, they always battle, I mean so we can be proud of that to carry over a little bit,” Kamehameha Maui head coach Jayson Nakasone said. “Even without a shot now at states we’re still battling, trying to set precedence for next year.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.

MIL BOYS SOCCER STANDINGS

DIVISION I

W L T Pts

x-Baldwin 8 0 1 25

King Kekaulike 6 1 1 19

KS Maui 4 5 0 12

Lahainaluna 1 7 1 4

Maui High 1 7 1 4

DIVISION II

W L T Pts

y-Seabury Hall 5 0 0 15

Kihei Charter 1 3 1 4

Molokai 0 3 1 1

x-clinched state tournament spot; y-clinched league championship

Saturday’s Results

Seabury Hall def. Kihei Charter, forfeit

Baldwin 6, Kamehameha Maui 0

Wednesday’s Games

King Kekaulike at Maui High, 4 p.m.

Kamehameha Maui at Lahainaluna, 7 p.m.