LIHU‘E — Eyeing a second championship in three years, the Kapa‘a Warriors came up one win short of that goal, suffering their first defeat of the season at the hands of the Honoka‘a Dragons, 4-1, Saturday. The final of the
LIHU‘E — Eyeing a second championship in three years, the Kapa‘a Warriors came up one win short of that goal, suffering their first defeat of the season at the hands of the Honoka‘a Dragons, 4-1, Saturday.
The final of the JN Automotive/Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association Boys State Soccer Division II tournament was a back-and-forth affair with Honoka‘a able to bunch its goals together at the Waipi‘o Soccer Complex Main Stadium on O‘ahu.
Honoka‘a (11-2-2) took its first state championship in school history by knocking off Kapa‘a (13-1) for the second straight season, last year doing so in the semifinal round.
The opening half was controlled by the Dragons for the first few minutes, but the Warriors quickly got settled and began to dominate the action.
Lowen Gonzales took a deep strike, which was blocked and followed by Matt Domingcil, whose shot went high of the target. Another chance came when a Kapa‘a throw-in made its way into the box and was flicked on as the goalie came out. A Warrior forward got a soft foot on the ball, but it found the keeper’s arms.
The Warriors were first to the ball and playing the more physical style for a large portion of the first half, but the Dragons struck first in the 29th minute.
Dylan Shiraki tossed a long throw-in deep into the middle of the box. Josh Robinson came sprinting from the left side of the field and contacted a stunning header into the left side of the net, putting Honoka‘a ahead 1-0.
As the prospect of a one-goal deficit was settling in for Kapa‘a, the Dragons struck again in similar fashion.
Just three minutes later, Shiraki tossed another long ball from the sideline into the box. Joel Shoemaker-Hassey made the first touch on the ground and passed toward the center, where Justin Warren cleaned up the play with a one-timer for the 2-0 lead.
“I don’t think the first one did (cause a letdown),” said head coach Kevin Cram. “I think when the second came so quickly, there might have been a little bit of a letdown about the situation. But we were still attacking and creating.”
Kapa‘a almost sliced the deficit in half just before halftime, when Gonzales got a terrific feed from Max Goode at the center of the box, but pushed his effort to the right, no threat to the goalie.
“Even though it was 2-0 at halftime, it didn’t feel like we were out of it because I know the ability of the team,” Cram said.
“Just keep going, just work hard,” he said was the message relayed to his team at halftime. “It’s the last half, the last 40 minutes. If we play like we can, we can get right back in it.”
The Warriors did get right back in it early in the second half as Calvin Rux converted an amazing header to bring the score to 2-1. The cross was served up from a wide angle and Rux made his run, finishing off the high-quality goal to inject life back into his team.
“Everybody was thrilled,” Cram said after the Rux header. “Something that we work on in practice specifically are diving crosses.”
Sensing the match tightening up, Honoka‘a seemed to relax a bit after allowing the score. It was able to control the tempo and keep possession on the outer edges of the field, away from danger areas.
The result was very few chances for the Warriors to make runs at the goal.
Late in the half, as Kapa‘a became more and more desperate, resulting in the field opening up a bit, Honoka‘a put on the finishing touches.
Shiraki, who had assisted on the first two goals, now got himself into the books with a score of his own, heading home a deflected shot off the foot off Chase Moniz for a 3-1 lead in the 76th minute.
The goal capped a great performance from Shiraki, who was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player following the contest. His throw-ins proved to be a vital weapon for the Dragons’ attack.
With the result all but determined, Honoka‘a added another tremendous goal off the foot of Robinson. He re-directed a shot with the outside of his foot to the far post after Warren had flicked the ball to the near post.
The final score was not indicative of the competitive nature of the match, as voiced by the Dragons’ coach.
“That’s a very good team,” said Honoka‘a head coach Maurice Miranda about Kapa‘a. “Big, strong, physical; they threw everything at us.”
The first championship in Honoka‘a history was a great accomplishment for Miranda, who took a moment to think about where his program has come from, stating that “getting to a state tournament was a pipe dream” when he began his tenure at the school 21 years ago. Now the Dragons have made the Division II tournament each season since it began and finally broke through with a title.
Despite the only blemish to an otherwise perfect year, the Warriors won 13 matches and showed the cohesion that comes with having 16 seniors.
“Overall, when you step back and look at where the season ended up, we got to where we wanted to be,” Cram said. “We just came up short.”
Rux and Matt Domingcil were each named to the Division II All-Tournament team following the match.
The team stayed on O‘ahu and players and parents headed to dinner at the Dixie Grill in Aiea.
St. Anthony 2, Hawai‘i Prep 1
No. 4 seed St. Anthony took third place in the Div. II tournament with a 2-1 win over Hawai‘i Prep. Christopher Maeda (49’) and Kyle Orth (57’) scored for St. Anthony, while Kawika Wise (80’) had the HPA goal.
Mid-Pacific 1, Konawaena 0
Fifth place in D-II went to Mid-Pac, as Colin Bullard scored the only goal of the match in just the second minute of play.
Division I
Punahou 5, Kaiser 0
Unseeded Punahou blasted its way to a Division I state championship with a 5-0 win over Kaiser in the night’s final match at Waipi‘o.
Mountan Mitchell had a hat trick (36’, 40’, 58’) to lead the way, while Scott Granger (47’) and Colin Williams (74’) also each scored one for Punahou.
Punahou outscored its opponents 14-1 in its four state matches, just giving up a score in a 2-1 opening-round win over Roosevelt.
It then took out No. 3 Hilo (4-0) and No. 2 Kapolei (3-0) before its final shutout.
Kapolei 3, Kamehameha-Kapalama 2
The No. 2 seed in Division I, Kapolei took third place with a 3-2 win over No. 1 seed Kamehameha-Kapalama. Adrian Yunson had the game-winner, breaking a 2-2 tie with a 73rd-minute score. Jesse George (16’) and Malu Carmack (36’) also scored for Kapolei. Kawai Davis (45’) and Braden Prothero had the Kamehameha scores.
Mililani 1, Hilo 1
The fifth-place match ended in a 1-1 tie as Mililani’s Jake Sagami (57’) and Hilo’s Johnathan Perez (67’) found the net.
Roosevelt 3, Waiakea 0
Roosevelt took home the consolation championship with the shutout of Waiakea. Match details were unavailable.
