Salmon going upriver

KALAHEO — The rains held up, but the humidity created stiffling playing conditions in Kalawai Park as the Lihu‘e A and Lihu‘e B met for the playoffs of the AYSO 16-19 Girls Seven-a-Side on Sunday morning.

Defense ruled for most of the game with each team applying strong pressure on each other’s ball handler until the final five minutes when both teams were able to snake the ball past the goalies for a 1-1 tie at the end of regulation.

What followed was supposed to be two seven-minute overtime periods, but a hand ball, and the resulting direct kick by Lihu‘e B’s Janee Correa ended the stalemate less than two minutes into the first overtime as the girls in peach took a 2-1 win over Lihu‘e A girls in blue.

“Salmon going upriver,” is how the grandmother of Lihu‘e B’s Shauna Tachibana described the girls’ fight for the eventual Golden Goal.

“They had to fight hard and tough for every single minute of the game,” the grandmother added.

Earlier in the week, Lihu‘e A took a 2-1 decider over Lihu‘e B on Thursday afternoon, relegating the “Salmons” to a Friday afternoon battle against Koloa for the rights to re-meet the Lihu‘e A on Sunday.

That battle proved costly for the “Salmon” girls who lost their key defender Kelcie Morita to an ankle injury, the game stopped while firemen and paramedics tended to the injury before transporting Morita away from the park.

Despite the interlude, Lihu‘e B eked out another 2-1 victory to earn the rights for the Sunday showdown where it was the strong field leadership of Correa and Tachibana that governed the ball movement through heavy Lihu‘e A defensive traffic.

Cassie Morishige capitalized on a rebound play in the 56th minute with a goal that got past the efforts of Lihu‘e A goalie KC Gaitos.

The girls in blue answered less than two minutes later as Kori Arashiro headed the ball through heavy goalmouth traffic for the Lihu‘e A score in the 58th minute, the ball soaring just above the reach of Lihu‘e B goalie Ashton Pigao.

With the clock ticking down, Lihu‘e B was not finished yet as they had another pair of scoring opportunities that came up empty while Lihu‘e A had their own scoring opportunity clang off the goalbar.

Following the match, the seedings for the Wil Veeck tournament was determined by a coin flip by referee Dan Agan, the Lihu‘e A squad winning top seed position on that flip.

In a repeat of her Thursday victory, Coach Ali of the Lihu‘e A was seen doing not one, but three cartwheels in front of the Lihu‘e B “camp,” a feat that was answered by the mother of Cherisse Rapozo who performed an answering cartwheel.