LIHU‘E — The Red Bulls swept the Will Veeck soccer tournament, Thursday when the North Shore Red Bulls controlled a 2-1 edge over the Kalaheo Cruisers for the Under 12 boys title, while the Kalaheo Red Bulls scored two late-game
LIHU‘E — The Red Bulls swept the Will Veeck soccer tournament, Thursday when the North Shore Red Bulls controlled a 2-1 edge over the Kalaheo Cruisers for the Under 12 boys title, while the Kalaheo Red Bulls scored two late-game goals to clinch the Under 14 boys title.
Breven Ako, playing opposite Marcus Brown for the Lihu‘e 808 Heat, opened the scorebook when the Kalaheo Red Bulls effectively contained Brown, placing two defenders on the tall forward the entire match.
Ako won the ball at midfield in the first quarter and took it to the goal, igniting the fans who brought the stadium to life with enthusiastic cheering for both teams throughout the match.
With Lihu‘e in the lead, the Kalaheo fans encouraged their team until Zach Balboa found the net in the second quarter on a long cross from the right side to knot the match 1-1.
A combination cross play from Noa Pemer to Sean Dela Cruz, back to Pemer just missed the outside of the goal, sending the crowd into spasms as the half ended at a 1-1 deadlock.
Kalaheo charged back in the third quarter on another Pemer-Dela Cruz cross play that missed the net, eliciting groans from the Kalaheo stand.
The two-on-one defense of Brown worked as Kalaheo relied on Jared Okayama, Bradly Lumabao and Jaron Parongao to contain both Lihu‘e forwards, Brown and Ako.
Lihu‘e turned to Thomas Sciaroni and Alec King-Martin to anchor its defense that kept Justing Garma, Dela Cruz and Pemer making quick passes before being squeezed by the Heat defense.
Enter Ben Smith, who finished his stint as goalkeeper for Kalaheo in the second quarter. The tall forward battled through traffic and closed the door in the fourth quarter when Lihu‘e’s goalkeeper Jordan Serrano came out on a save and Smith banged the ball in to give Kalaheo a 2-1 edge.
The goal sent Kalaheo coaches Tony Garma and Lenn Nitta to send Smith back into the goalmouth as a hedge against the Lihu‘e offense. He remained there for the remainder of the game as Kalaheo locked up the victory when Garma won a footrace with Lihu‘e’s Sciaroni by netting the goal, eluding both the Heat’s goalkeeper and stopper with less than a minute remaining in the match.
“We knew what they were going to do, but with no one on the bench, there was little else we could do,” said Jeff Mendez, the Lihu‘e 808 Heat coach. “But the boys played the best they’ve played this season. They were ready and they knew what they had to do.”
True to the spirit of sportsmanship, both teams cheered each other as medals for first and second place were presented to each player and coach, the players’ cheers being supplemented by appreciative fans and parents.
Earlier, Kamana Lee netted a goal in each half to lead the North Shore Red Bulls to their 2-1 edge over the hard-pressing Kalaheo Cruisers for the Under 12 title.
In the first half, Lee opened the scoring by winning the ball at midfield and beating out the Cruiser defender for the goal.
He opened the second half just under the 10-minute mark by pulling the trigger on a breakaway play.
That play worked on both occasions, as the North Shore forward would lay outside the action in the middle of the field, waiting for a pass so he could beat out the defender.
Coach Tony Garma and Lenn Nitta made the adjustment by moving Jarran Takekuma to guard the nimble forward. That adjustment worked as Takekuma stymied several breakaways at the goalmouth, effectively containing the Red Bull forward.
Trevor Freudig got the crowd excited when he came up the middle on a throw-in and capped the breakaway with a shot to the right pocket with less than five minutes showing in the half to deadlock the match 1-1.
Brayden Antonio used his height to anchor the Cruiser defense along with Tyren Kaneshige, who occasionally would venture into midfield for sojourns into scoring position, and Takekuma who kept turning the ball at the goalmouth.
Tanner Fredericksen and Eli Luellen, both tall men for the North Shore anchored the wings on defense with help from Jesse Gilbert and Jared Schaeffer in the middle.
