(Stars and Stripes)

SASEBO, Japan — Things weren’t looking so good for E.J. King in the first half of Saturday’s Western Japan Athletic Association boys soccer final. The Cobras trailed 3-0 to Fukuoka International with 40 minutes left to play.

But a pair of Cobras seniors then started to strike. Damian Perez notched a hat track and Amin Alipourkashki scored with 10 seconds left as King rallied for four goals in the final 15 minutes to down the Sharks 4-3 at Sasebo’s Nimitz Park.

King repeated its championship of last year and was one of two teams that captured their respective WJAA small-schools tournament titles Saturday.

Leilani Zuniga scored the lone goal for Matthew C. Perry, which avenged its round-robin loss to Nagoya International the day before, blanking the Dolphins 1-0 to win the girls small schools title.

“Tough weekend, but a great weekend of soccer,” Cobras coach Ricky Andrew said. “Every game was competitive and close. I’m so proud of the boys. They played a great second half after an amazing first half of soccer from Fukuoka.”

Perez was named the boys tournament’s offensive MVP and Alipourkashki shared defensive MVP honors with Ren Spinosi of third-place Matthew C. Perry. The Samurai outlasted Marist Brothers 4-2 in penalties to take third spot.

Zuniga tallied her seventh goal of the season in the first half and the Samurai defense and goalkeeper Brooklyn Hunter held on to outlast the Dolphins in the final. Nagoya had beaten Perry 3-2 on Friday.

“We were more disciplined in our defensive duties,” Samurai coach Daniel Burns said, adding that Perry was “motivated” to win after losing in both the WJAA and Far East finals last season.

“Winning WJAA was one of our season goals and we’ve accomplished that,” Burns said.

Down the street in Kobe, defending Far East Division I boys champion Kadena entered the WJAA large-schools tournament and came in third, edging host Canadian Academy 2-1 in the third-place tilt.

Elijah Whipp scored once in the third-place match and came away from the weekend with seven total and 11 overall in five matches thus far this season.

“It was a great chance to see how the new (Panthers) team plays together,” Kadena coach Abe Summers said. “The competition was very high level, so it was a great test for us.”