Kauai girls keep record clean

HANAPEPE — “Whoever wins this game is it,” said Tori Kagawa, a helper with the Waimea boys soccer coaching staff. “Right now, Waimea and Kapaa are tied for first place. Kauai is just a point back, so whoever wins this game is it.”

Kagawa was speaking during the break for the Kauai Interscholastic Federation soccer matchup at Hanapepe Stadium Saturday between the Kauai High School and the Waimea High School teams.

“We’re a young team,” said Kauai girls coach Kevin Devitt. “We found a drill and had the girls work it to develop their focus. They did pretty good. Now, we’re going to start developing their mental game.”

Kauai High School girls, currently undefeated, lost little time scoring toward their 6-0 win, Lyndsie Kashima challenging the Waimea goalkeeper in the first five minutes and coming up with a score.

Kashima finished by leading the Red Raiders with a hat trick, or three goals scored, the second one coming on a cross from Mahina Tangonan and Kashima taking the ball and outrunning a pair of Menehune defenders at the goalmouth.

The score gave Kauai a 2-0 lead at the half where Devitt did platoon rotations to allow all the girls playing time.

Kashima rounded out her hat trick in the second half, netting a goal along with Aleigha Scovel, Wailana Gandeza and Chase Tokita for the win.

“In a way, I’m looking forward to Wednesday’s game,” Devitt said. “This should be a really good matchup.”

The varsity boys’ game score was a 0-0 tie.

Kauai High School will face Kapaa with the varsity girls kicking off at 5 p.m. followed by the varsity boys taking the field at 7 p.m.

The junior varsity squads play Thursday with the girls starting at 5 p.m. followed by the boys. Earlier in the day, the Kauai JV girls took a 9-1 win over the JV Menehune, and the Waimea JV boys blemished the Kauai JV boys’ record with a 1-0 win