"As Kalani Falcons, we don't give up," Leo said later. "We came back strong as usual."

When good things happen, Leo always says 'we.'

"He's the most unassuming star," says Aundrea Toner, one of Leo's longtime coaches. "If you were to ask him who are the best three kids on the team, he wouldn't even name himself."

But that wasn't one of three other players streaking around the Punahou defense for the tying goal. It was Leo. And, after the game went to overtime, and then penalty kicks, to decide the Hawaii state champion, that was Leo blasting the ball into the upper right corner of the net on Kalani's final shot for the deciding margin.

"I was crying because I was so happy," Leo said.

And then he his coaches came over.

"I saw their faces and I knew something was wrong," Leo said.

"When coach told me about my mom then I just broke down with tears of sadness," Leo said. "I was happy and then I just got really, really depressed."

"It was tears of joy to utter heartbreak," Ching said.

Hiroyo Klink wanted her son to enjoy all that comes with a state championship in Hawaii, the trophy, the medals, the leis that are heaped around the winners' necks. But when Leo Klink's name was called, he wasn't there.

Things weren't looking good at the hospital, and Leo was rushed there. His mom was unconscious, but she'd gotten the news from the soccer field.

"The last thing she was told was that we won the state championship," Leo said.

Two days later, Hiroyo Klink died. Before that, Leo said he got to have one last word with the mother who had gone to every game, who had cooked meals for him and his teammates, who had recorded videos of him and made highlight reels and posted them on YouTube.

"I wanted her last thought of me to be that I loved her, and that I would be a good boy, and that I know she's going to look over me and that we're going to meet again someday," he said.

"Somebody asked me once, 'What's the best sound in the world? What's the worst sound in the world?'" Paul Klink, 48, said. "The best sound in the world is Leo's laugh, but the absolute worst sound in the world is him crying over his mom when she's dying."

Leo Klink takes solace in the fact that his mom leaves behind something beyond her husband and son. She was an organ donor.

"She's going to save five people's lives," Leo said. "And with her corneas people will see. It's her legacy."

Leo said he's going to do the same, that he will check the organ donor box on his driver's license.

And he'd like to go to college to study nursing and hopes to play soccer. He knows that would mean a lot to his mom and those around him.

"He brings me to tears," Toner said. "I know that he never asked to be a role model, but he is such an amazing role model."