Girls: Kaua‘i 10, Waimea 0 Boys: Kaua‘i 2, Waimea 1 The sun shined brightly on Vidinha Stadium in the afternoon. The grass was freshly cut and Kaua‘i High Schools boys and girls soccer teams finally made their regular-season debuts last
Girls: Kaua‘i 10, Waimea 0
Boys: Kaua‘i 2, Waimea 1
The sun shined brightly on Vidinha Stadium in the afternoon. The grass was freshly cut and Kaua‘i High Schools boys and girls soccer teams finally made their regular-season debuts last night, sweeping the visiting Waimea Menehune.
The girls opened the doubleheader blitzing the Menehune 10-0, Torrey Santiago scored Waimea’s first goal in two seasons and Kaua‘i’s boys pulled off a 2-1 win in the last few minutes of the match.
Playing in their first regular-season game since finishing third at the Division II state championships and 10 days after their original debut was postponed because of the weather, the Lady Red Raiders came out strongly.
“It was good to finally get out there because we haven’t played in a while,” said first-year head coach Matt Victor.
The Raiders hadn’t played a game since preseason weeks ago, but none of them appeared to be rusty. Instead, Victor got solid playing from all of his players.
“We were able to get everyone in there, which is what we wanted to do,” he said. “They were moving the ball well, they were working together and they had a lot of good passes off quickly and that was good to see.”
The game was very physical from the get-go.
Brandi Gomes danced around a trio of defenders and shot one into the goal’s corner to put the Raiders on the board. She later finished the match with two goals.
Ashlyn Ubongen knocked three in to go up 4-0 by halftime.
Jessica Iwata, who started the match in goal, was moved to the front line by the second half and finished with a pair of goals. Fellow senior Skye Shimabukuro, who has verbally committed to playing soccer for the University of Hawai‘i next fall, also finished with two goals.
For the boys, Waimea’s Santiago was ray of light for the team that hasn’t scored a goal in years. Last season, the team finished winless and scoreless. But this season, coach Ken Morikawa seems to have nearly a different group. They were up 1-0 at the half thanks to Santiago, but Kaua‘i’s Daniel Victor came exploding down the right side and launched one past goalkeeper Cody Owen in the 56th minute to tie.
With the clocking winding, Waimea was getting dangerously close to finishing with yet another tie game — the Menehune tied its opener against the Kapa‘a Warriors on Dec. 11 at Hanapepe Stadium.
In the 78th minute, Kaua‘i’s Gerry Rayray crossed from the right side to Canaan Bernard. Bernard’s shot slipped away from Owen and in Waimea’s attempt to clear it out, the ball was knocked in with Bernard receiving the credit.
