HANAPEPE — There was no room for a tie in the Kapa‘a varsity girls’ view of the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation soccer match, Saturday at Hanapepe Stadium. It was a must-win for the Warrior girls to trigger a playoff for the
HANAPEPE — There was no room for a tie in the Kapa‘a varsity girls’ view of the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation soccer match, Saturday at Hanapepe Stadium.
It was a must-win for the Warrior girls to trigger a playoff for the KIF girls soccer title against Kaua‘i High School, and Madisson Hinkel’s header of a Cassie Wilson corner kick at the 7-minute mark kept Kapa‘a girls alive in its 1-0 win over Waimea. A Kapa‘a tie, or loss would have given the KIF title to the Kaua‘i girls.
Both coaches were up for the match, Kapa‘a’s Gwen Tamura loaded up her offense anchored by team captain Kekai “Kiki” Gonsalves and Hinkel with support from Kaiemi Moniz, Jamie Brun and further support from her midfielders who were offense-oriented for the game.
Waimea responded accordingly, loading its defense anchored by the San Agustin-Nordmeier sisters, Kaycee and Bailey, sticking like glue to Gonsalves. The Menehune defense got solid support from Alday Molina, Caitlyn Owen and Kayola Cachero-Ramos with overlap from midfielder Ember and sister Tierra Teter.
Menehune goalkeeper Kailani Yamamoto worked tirelessly through the 80 minutes of play, stopping all, but one, Warrior shot on goal attempts as Kapa‘a controlled the ball on the Menehune side of the field for most of the game.
With the win, Kapa‘a and Kaua‘i will face each other Wednesday in a single game starting at 6:30 p.m. at Vidinha Stadium.
The winner gets the KIF crown and the loser has to play in the Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association Division II play-in game on Saturday at 2 p.m. against the O‘ahu Interscholastic League runner-up team. The game will take place at Vidinha Stadium.
The Kapa‘a win streak was kept alive in the second match when the Warriors, already crowned KIF champions, pocketed a 2-0 win on goals from Edsel Lactaotao and Michael Alonzo in a physical matchup where Waimea’s Bradly Lumabao and Erik Siles were carded for unsportsmanlike behavior.
Earlier in the day, the Warrior Junior Varsity girls battled to a 0-0 stalemate over Waimea.
Caleb Neumann scored a hat trick to lead the JV Warrior boys to a 5-0 win over Waimea, which claiming the JV boys’ crown for Kapa‘a. Ezekiel Bagano and Keale Lee got the goals to lead the Warriors.
Over at Vidinha Stadium, Kaua‘i boys scored a pair of second-half goals in its 2-0 win over Island School.
Lucas Gushikuma broke the 0-0 halftime deadlock in the 52nd minute and Chito Aguilar capped the win on his goal in the 71st minute, according to Mark Brandeburg, the Kaua‘i boys soccer coach.
The exhibition match between the Kaua‘i JV girls and Island School girls was moved to Jan. 26 at Island School, starting at noon. The Island School boys will host the Waimea boys starting at 10 a.m.
Kapa‘a JV boys and varsity boys will face Kaua‘i in the final scheduled KIF soccer match Saturday at Vidinha Stadium, the JV boys kicking off at 4:30 p.m. followed by the varsity boys at 6:15 p.m.
