5 KIF players make state soccer all-tourney team
HONOLULU — Five Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation girls soccer players — four from Kaua‘i High and one from Kapa‘a High — were named to the Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association Division II All Tournament team.
The announcement by the HHSAA was made Saturday following the finals of the NIU Health Urgent Care+ HHSAA girls soccer championships, where the Division II top-seeded Kaua‘i High squad dropped to the No. 2 spot following a heart-breaking 1-0 loss to No. 2 seeded Pac-Five, whose winning goal came off the foot of Solala Nasu on a free kick in the 43rd minute. Nasu was named most outstanding player on the All Tournament team.
Kaua‘i High School goalkeeper Jaeda Planas shared outstanding goalkeeper honors with PacFive’s Kayla Arucan.
Red Raider Coral Turner, scoring the winning goal in Kaua‘i’s 1-0 win over Kamehameha Schools-Hawai‘i, was named to the All Tournament team, along with Keira Caoagas and Shania Kelley.
Hanna Wamsley, from the Kapa‘a Lady Warriors, who scored two goals against Leilehua High School in Kapa‘a’s 8-0 shutout during the tournament quarterfinals, is the fifth KIF representative to the All Tournament team.
Of the remaining five spots on the team, PacFive filled four of the slots, with Nanea Wong Yuen of Kamehameha Schools-Hawai‘i filling the remaining spot.
The PacFive players include Ashlyn Dowda-Gates, Leila Leano, Mia Hironaka and Riley Sagapolutele.
En route to the final, the Raiders had not given up a single goal and had scored six. Kapa‘a was even more explosive, scoring 18 goals while playing four games in four days, also giving up only a single goal, in the semifinal loss, 1-0, to Pac-Five.
Waimea also represented the KIF on O‘ahu, a 3-1 winner over Nanakuli before losing to Pac-Five in the quarterfinal. They lost in the fifth-place semifinal game to Leilehua, 4-3.
Next on the soccer docket, Island School, earning the No. 2 seed in the NIU Urgent Care+ HHSAA Division II boys soccer state championships, will take the field on Thursday, March 3, against Waialua High, during the quarterfinals at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex near Waipahu on O‘ahu.
The Division II top seed is Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy, the No. 3 seed belongs to LeJardin, and the No. 4 seed is Radford High School.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.