PUHI — The Red Raider girls notched four goals in the second half to get their first win of the season. Kauai High School’s varsity girls soccer team defeated Island School, 5-nil, Wednesday afternoon in Puhi. “We played ten-times better
PUHI — The Red Raider girls notched four goals in the second half to get their first win of the season.
Kauai High School’s varsity girls soccer team defeated Island School, 5-nil, Wednesday afternoon in Puhi.
“We played ten-times better than we played on Saturday,” said Kauai head coach Joe Cassler. “We came out ready. We had a good two practices before this. We watched some game tape to see what the problems were that we had. I give it to the girls. They made the adjustments, and we got the result today.”
Red Raiders sophomore forward Kehela Ventura broke the scoreless tie with a strike from inside the 18-yard box just before halftime.
Ventura scored again at the 63rd minute and had a couple of chances at a hat-trick later in the second half.
“I think we did a really good job. We were actually playing as a team, and we had a lot of good communication,” Ventura said.
Ventura added about the team’s four goals in the second half: “He (Cassler) gave a really good pep talk. So, we started to get more into the game and our mindset was better.”
Red Raiders sophomore forward Kayla Kawamura scored twice in the last 10 minutes of the match. Freshman midfielder Kryka Napoleon also scored minutes into the second half.
Kauai (1-1-0 KIF) had the lion’s share of scoring opportunities, having possession for most of the match.
“I think our conditioning came into play. We’ve been working on that all year. I would say we moved the ball really well today,” Cassler said. “We maintained possession. We forced them to chase us today.”
Island School (1-1-0 KIF) didn’t get its offense going until the second half. Even then, scoring chances were minimal.
Voyagers senior striker Ali Temme took a shot from inside the penalty area, but her ball was saved by Red Raiders senior goalkeeper Kaila Shimabukuro.
Temme took another shot from distance in the final minute, but that shot also went straight to Shimabukuro.
“We’re trying to play a nice style of soccer. Doing that, we do sacrifice — keeping the ball on our defensive half a lot,” said Island School head coach Colby Ayonon. “We’re trying to link together passes. We weren’t too successful today, but we didn’t change our game plan. We’re trying to play the way we want to play.”
Ayonon added he believes his team can be better than what the result showed.
“Kauai came to play. We respect them as a team. They’re a good team. We kind of beat ourselves in this game,” he said. “I think we can play to a (much) better potential. It’s just one of those days. You can’t have a lot of these off days.”
Kauai will next play Waimea at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Hanapepe Stadium. Island School will host Kapaa at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Scoring summary
Kauai: Kehela Ventura 2 (39’, 63’), Kayla Kawamura 2 (74’, 77’), Eryka Napoleon (43’)
