HANAPEPE — Kapa‘a Junior Varsity forward Caleb Neumann scored a hat trick, or three goals, to lead the JV Warriors to an 8-0 shutout, Monday during the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation soccer game at Hanapepe Stadium. Playing in biting winds blowing
HANAPEPE — Kapa‘a Junior Varsity forward Caleb Neumann scored a hat trick, or three goals, to lead the JV Warriors to an 8-0 shutout, Monday during the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation soccer game at Hanapepe Stadium.
Playing in biting winds blowing off the Kalaheo plateau, the JV Warriors lost little time asserting itself, taking advantage of the wind and knocking in three goals in the first 10 minutes of play.
Keale Lee, playing the mid-forward position, capitalized on traffic at the Waimea goalmouth to score the first net just three minutes into play. The goal came after Kapa‘a wing Marcus Bloss brought the ball up the right wing and fired from the side, Waimea goalkeeper Noah Alejandro effectively deflecting the shot. But the ball dropped in heavy traffic on the right side of the net and in the melee, the ball squirted to the middle where Lee sank the ball on a relatively undefended net.
Using the wind to its advantage, Kapa‘a boys pretty much controlled the ball, dropping its second goal within a minute of Lee’s score when Neumann went up the middle to challenge Alejandro on a point-blank shot for the second score.
Neumann picked up an assist on the next goal which came at the 10-minute mark when Max Nice picked up Neumann’s up-the-middle charge for the third goal.
Kapa‘a had a goal called back when Ezikio Quintana netted a pass from Bloss who picked up a ball control skirmish mid-field and sent it downfield, the Waimea goalkeeper coming out in the box for the defend.
Game officials deliberated the play and ruled against the goal because of an infraction on the play at midfield, giving Kapa‘a a 3-0 lead at the half.
Coming off the break, the question was whether or not Waimea could capitalize on the wind advantage.
But Kapa‘a tested the Waimea defense, building on the 3-0 lead to add five more goals, including a pair of late-game Neumann nets to wrap up the contest.
Devon Hartsell replaced Alejandro at the goalkeeper post after marking several key defensive plays in the first half and Alejandro joined the defensive backfield along with Noah Penner, Kekoa Cotchay and Haku Barriga, Barriga getting a pair of corner kicks in the waning ticks of the game, but coming up empty.
Kapa‘a’s second half goals came from Noah LaMadrid who challenged Alejandro and won in the 47th minute. His goal was followed by Ezekiel Bagano who repeated LaMadrid’s feat to force a goalkeeper change in the 48th minute.
Eljay Camat scored Kapa‘a’s sixth goal with seven minutes remaining in the game, taking a Cory Fisher assist and nailing the net after Devon Hartsell, the Waimea goalie, went up against Fisher’s shot-on-goal attempt which deflected off the goalie’s glove and into an unchallenged Camat’s path.
Neumann’s back-to-back goals iced the win.
A pair of games are on tap for Thursday when Waimea hosts the Kapa‘a JV girls in a single game starting at 4 p.m. at Hanapepe Stadium while Kaua‘i JV hosts Island School in an exhibition game at Vidinha Stadium starting at 4 p.m.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
