HANAPEPE — The Waimea High School girls soccer team scored its first goals of the season, Tuesday by beating out Island School girls, 3-1 during the Kauai Interscholastic Federation girls soccer match contested at the Hanapepe Stadium.
After being shut out, 3-0 by Kapaa High School on Saturday, the Menehune found the net on a penalty kick by Jenessa Freitas in the 11th minute after Freitas was fouled in the goalbox at the contest that launched at 4 p.m. due to the no-night games because of the endangered seabird fledging season.
The lead stood for nine minutes until Wailana Marvin knotted the game 1-1 for Island School on a run up the middle through traffic at the goalmouth.
“We did well in the first half,” said Island School coach Colby Ayonon as the break settled on the 1-1 deadlock. “Almost all of our girls are here, today.”
Waimea came back in the second half to add two more goals, one by Hunter Akita from the right pocket in the 60th minute, and iced the win with a Jasmine Semblante net in the 74th minute.
“This was okay,” said Zenda Octavio of the Waimea coaching staff. “But there’s still a lot of room for improvement.”
Ayonon said the lapses in the Island School defense was costly.
“We just put our heads down for a moment, and they got two quick goals on us,” the Voyager coach said. “Waimea is a tough team — you can’t give them anything because they’ll take advantage of it. They also have good shooters who can hit from 30 yards out.”
“We need to work on transition, be quicker,” Ayonon said. “Coming off the loss to Kauai High School last Saturday, the girls’ mindset was on defense. We need to have a more offensive attitude.”
Island School next hosts Kapaa, Saturday starting at 10 a.m. at the Island School field.
The boys enter the arena, Saturday when Waimea hosts Kauai High School starting with the girls matching up at 10 a.m. at the Hanapepe Stadium.
The junior varsity boys soccer team will take the field starting at noon, followed by the varsity boys soccer team starting at 1:45 p.m.
Prior to the start of the varsity boys’ game, Waimea soccer coach Kapono Chong said there will be a short remembrance ceremony honoring former coach Mark Kennett who passed away in November.
“We plan to do a short announcement, then play the song ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ which is an anthem for Mark’s hometown soccer club, Liverpool,” Chong said. “All people whose lives have been touched by Mark to come out on the field during the song so we can a big group photo. This should all happen around 1:30 p.m., prior to the start of the varsity game.”
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
