Kapa‘a High School won both its season-opening matches last night against Kaua‘i High School. The girls won 2-1 and the boys won 3-2. For the girls, to score on Kaua‘i, strikers must get past Tiffany Ikeda-Simao before even taking a
Kapa‘a High School won both its season-opening matches last night against Kaua‘i High School. The girls won 2-1 and the boys won 3-2.
For the girls, to score on Kaua‘i, strikers must get past Tiffany Ikeda-Simao before even taking a shot on the goalie. To score on Kapa‘a, they have to get past Jocelyn Enrique.
Both teams realized how hard that would be as the teams went scoreless after a full half of play last night at Vidinha Stadium.
Kapa‘a, the defending Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation champions, had really good looks in the first half when Kapa‘a’s Kodi Barnett took a shot off a corner kick.
Kalia Mayor danced around a couple of defenders and drew out Kaua‘i’s goalie for an open goal, but sent her shot just a bit wide.
Kaua‘i was quick to strike in the second half with Brandi Gomes scoring minutes after the whistle blew.
Kapa‘a’s Kristina Baptiste answered back taking the ball upfield to get the Warriors on the boards and fired off a shot and landed in the outstretched hands of Kaua‘i’s goalie.
Gomes almost scored again with a header late in the second.
But it was Kapa‘a who got off the shot when Enrique moved up to play the front line. She scored with roughly 10 minutes left to play to tie the game.
With the clock running down, Kapa‘a’s Whitney Rowe scored off a corner kick from Barnett to seal the win.
On the boys side, returning KIF player of the year, Chance Bukoski took the opportunity to score and put the Warriors ahead early in the first.
Kaua‘i’s Daven Bodano tied the game with an attack from the left side. Kapa‘a’s Ian Lactaotao scored on a two-on-one situation to put the Warriors back up before the half.
In the second, Bukoski was tripped up just outside the box to set up a free kick. It deflected off Kaua‘i’s wall and almost drifted into the back corner but was popped off too left to go out of bounds. Bukoski later took another shot in the box and when that was deflected off the left post, Lactaotao was there to head it in.
The pair of varsity matches will be on Saturday when Kaua‘i visits Waimea High School at Hanapepe Stadium. The first match starts at 1:30 p.m.
