LIHU‘E — The Kapa‘a Warriors girls soccer team hoped its preseason experience would help them come out of the gates fast in the KIF season. It worked. The Warriors beat the Waimea Menehune, 2-0, Wednesday afternoon at Vidinha Stadium with
LIHU‘E — The Kapa‘a Warriors girls soccer team hoped its preseason experience would help them come out of the gates fast in the KIF season.
It worked.
The Warriors beat the Waimea Menehune, 2-0, Wednesday afternoon at Vidinha Stadium with both of the Warrior goals coming within the opening minutes of the first and second halves.
After playing three games in a tournament on O‘ahu last week, Warrior head coach Lynn Minei said her team needed to start more aggressive from the opening whistle. Four minutes into Wednesday’s game that aggressiveness paid off when Cassie Wilson netted a goal off of a Taylor Ochoa pass to give the Warriors a quick 1-0 lead.
“We has those preseason games and we saw what we were doing wrong,” Minei said. “We needed to get a kickstart and they took it to heart.”
The rest of the first half was locked in the middle of the field with Kapa‘a dominating ball control but unable to increase upon its lead.
Rachel Hinkel changed that minutes into the second half. Coming down the right side of the field with space, Hinkel launched a deep crossing shot off of her right foot that sailed into the far top corner of the Menehune net giving the Warriors a 2-0 lead.
The ball rested on Warrior feet for the remainder of the game. The Kapa‘a girls won most of the battles to the ball and the Menehune struggled to mount an offensive attack.
Waimea’s best chance at scoring came midway through the second half off of a corner kick. The ball bounced through a group of players in the box and past the Kapa‘a goaltender, but was quickly swept away by a defender before the Menehune could capitalize.
“We just weren’t as aggressive today,” Waimea head coach JJ Simbre said.
On Saturday the Menehune dropped a 3-1 match to the Kaua‘i Red Raiders, but Simbre was impressed with his young team’s style of play. Not so much on Wednesday.
“We played good on Saturday and then today nothing was working,” he said. “Kapa‘a won every ball. They were first to the ball each time. We didn’t even move.”
A bright spot for the Menehune was the play of goaltender Sondra Jacinto. Jacinto was peppered with shots through out the match and made some impressive saves to keep the Menehune within striking distance.
Jacinto’s effort wasn’t strong enough to stop the Warriors though. The Kapa‘a girls are eager after last season, Minei said, and so far, she likes what she sees.
“They did wonderfully,” Minei said. “We are doing it right at practice. The girls want to do it this year.”
