LIHUE — Junior center forward Aleigha Scovel and sophomore forward Lyndsie Kashima each scored hat tricks to lead Kauai High School’s varsity girls soccer team in a 12-1 victory over Waimea on Saturday at Vidinha Stadium. “Me and her, we
LIHUE — Junior center forward Aleigha Scovel and sophomore forward Lyndsie Kashima each scored hat tricks to lead Kauai High School’s varsity girls soccer team in a 12-1 victory over Waimea on Saturday at Vidinha Stadium.
“Me and her, we work really well together,” Scovel said about their 3-goal games. “Everybody can shoot, I guess, and put it to the back of the net … I did better than the last game I had.”
With the favorable result, Red Raiders head coach Kevin Devitt said he’s happy to see his team returning to form. In the season opener prior to Christmas, Kauai (1-0-1 KIF) tied with Island School, 1-1.
“We changed some things up in practice after our last game. We settled our nerves down and started to play like we did in preseason,” Devitt said. “Hopefully, it will continue and we’ll keep going in that direction.”
Just before halftime, Kauai junior outside midfielder Kalena Kazen shot a cross from the far side of the penalty box, about 20 yards out, but the ball curled and made its way to the net for her team’s seventh goal.
“I knew that someone in there would get it, or it would be right there (for a goal). I knew it would be either one,” Kazen said. “I remember just seeing it pull into a little pocket. It was really cool.”
Waimea (0-2-0 KIF) scored its only point in the 48th minute. Senior center forward Caitlyn Owen got a few touches on the ball before taking a crack in front of the goal from about 20 yards away.
“The ball wasn’t really settled. It wasn’t in the position that I wanted to kick it. I had to remove it, then shoot it,” Owen said.
Menehune head coach William Trugillo said though the result didn’t favor him and his team, especially his defenders, he did see some improvement in the second half.
“There was a period in the second half where our girls settled down. They stopped worrying about the score. They stopped waiting for the opportunity to happen. They were more aggressive,” he said. “For us, it was a matter of keeping the defense in structure — meaning that our defenders know where to go. Our defenders hung in there. We played the same back four pretty much the whole game. It’s a learning curve for our girls. A lot of our girls don’t normally play. But they hung in there.
“Kauai High is a highly skilled and experienced team. I can’t take anything away from them,” Trugillo added. “They’re a great bunch of girls. They have a great coaching staff. Kevin Devitt has the girls trained well, and they’re in condition.”
Although Devitt was pleased overall, he wished his team kept a clean sheet and not give up the goal in the second half.
“We did OK. I had no problems with the way we played. We just had that one mental lapse in the second half when we gave up a goal,” he said. “I can’t get too upset about that. We were so far ahead, it wasn’t that big of a deal.”
Kauai will play Kapaa (2-0-0 KIF) at Vidinha Stadium and Waimea will host Island School (0-1-1 KIF) at Hanapepe Stadium on Wednesday. Both games are scheduled for 7 p.m., following the varsity boys’ season openers at 5 p.m.
