HANAPEPE — Waimea High School boys soccer team’s Makoa Vanaman got a goal, Saturday during the Kauai Interscholastic Federation soccer matches contested at the Hanapepe Stadium.
In fact, Vanaman finished with a hat trick, or three goals scored, to lead the Menehune men to a 6-0 win over Kauai High School in the first of the boys soccer matches.
“I believe this is his first goal,” said Waimea coach Kapono Chong-Hanssen. “And it’s his first hat trick. We played him on defense last year, and for this year, moved him to offense.”
Vanaman, modest on his honor, said, “It feels good to start the year on a strong foot. Yes, it is my first goals after being moved from a sweeper last year to striker.”
Vanaman struck his first goal from the corner in the 17th minute, two minutes after Zack Costales broke the ice with a goal in the 15th minute. He followed the first goal in the 28th minute to give Waimea a 3-0 lead at the break.
“This was our first game of the season,” said Kauai coach Guga Tosi. “We never know what to expect when you play for the first time. Waimea is a physical and vocal team, and we learned in that first half. We let them get to us.”
Vanaman opened the second half on his third goal that came in the 67th minute. The Menehune continued to churn as Ky Niccore found the net in the 71st minute followed by Braden Lumabao icing the victory in the 73rd minute for the 6-0 win.
“I’m pleased with how the offense performed,” Chong-Hanssen said. “We had three preseason games to work things out and establish our style. Last year, we didn’t do preseason and just had to go with what we had. This was our first game, and with the service for Mark Kennett, it was pretty hard. But Mark was with us, today, too.”
Tosi said he, too, was pleased with how the Red Raiders came back in the second half.
“The boys came to themselves,” Tosi said. “We had to put in our second goalkeeper after Tai Panit got injured. That was hard to put in a goalkeeper who is still learning, but the goals we let go were goals any team would’ve allowed. This was very positive. We showed them that we’re not going to get run over.”
Earlier in the day, Kauai High School girls took a 2-0 win over the Menehune behind a pair of breakaway goals from midfielder Mia Takekuma.
Jojo Banasihan, Haweo Akeo, and Joey Sams found the net to lead the Waimea boys junior varsity to a 3-1 edge over the Kauai High School boys JV who got its goal from Jason Hoff.
Waimea next hosts Kapaa on Wednesday with the varsity boys launching at 5 p.m. followed by the varsity girls’ game starting at 7 p.m.
Kauai High School will host Island School at Vidinha Stadium with the varsity boys kicking off at 5 p.m. followed by the varsity girls starting at 7 p.m.
