LIHUE — Kauai High School’s Dodger Middlebrook had a hat trick, or three goals scored Wednesday night to lead the Red Raiders to a 4-2 win over the Kapaa High School varsity boys, said Kauai coach Martin Steinhaus on Thursday
LIHUE — Kauai High School’s Dodger Middlebrook had a hat trick, or three goals scored Wednesday night to lead the Red Raiders to a 4-2 win over the Kapaa High School varsity boys, said Kauai coach Martin Steinhaus on Thursday night.
Results of the varsity boys game were not available at press time. Steinhaus said Tyron Libarios completed the Kauai win after the varsity girls fell 1-0 to Kapaa on an own goal.
Thursday night, Steinhaus and Tido Clovis coached the JV boys to a 3-1 final over the Kapaa JV — the Red Raiders’ win coming behind two goals from Mosiah Bautistall and a second-half goal from Jonathan Benitez.
“This was an exciting game for us,” Steinhaus said. “There were some mistakes, but there were some bright spots. The idea is to let the boys play and learn each other. I think they are progressing well. They are playing a lot better than the first time we were on the field.”
Kauai made its mark early when Bautistall found the net on a corner kick within the first five minutes, the ball soaring over the heavy traffic at the goalmouth before being snagged by the net on the opposite end of the goal.
Kapaa stalemated the contest in the 22nd minute when Ryan Banasihan got past the Kauai defender just outside the goal box and rocketed the ball past the outstretched Kauai goalkeeper.
The deadlock was broken four minutes later when Bautistall broke down the right sideline and launched a rocket from about 30 yards out in the 26th minute for the 2-1 bulge at the break in the crisp Vidinha evening.
Benitez punctuated the second half defensive slugfest on a goal in the 56th minute.
Earlier in the evening, Cheyann Fujii netted a hat trick and Mia Takekuma found the net twice to lead the Kauai JV girls to a 5-3 edge over the Kapaa JV girls. Fujii netted two goals in the first half for the 3-2 bulge at the break.
Kapaa stayed with the JV Raiders on goals from Talynn Nunes and Maya Loughead in the first half.
Fujii completed her hat trick in the second half, and the JV Raiders got a goal from Takekuma for the final scores.
Leilanna Wong found the net for Kapaa in the second half.
Kapaa next hosts Waimea on Saturday starting at 10 a.m. for the JV boys. The Kauai JV girls will play Kapaa JV in an 11:45 a.m. contest because Waimea High School did not field a girls JV team.
