KAPA‘A — The Kapa‘a Warriors needed a tie to grab the 2009-10 Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation boys soccer championship, holding a three-point lead over the Waimea Menehune entering Saturday’s season finale. They didn’t settle for the tie and ended the season
KAPA‘A — The Kapa‘a Warriors needed a tie to grab the 2009-10 Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation boys soccer championship, holding a three-point lead over the Waimea Menehune entering Saturday’s season finale.
They didn’t settle for the tie and ended the season in style with a hard-fought 2-1 victory at the New Kapa‘a Town Park.
Kaisen Carrillo notched the game-winner, scoring on a penalty kick in the 67th minute to break the 1-1 tie and propel the Warriors to the season title.
The Kapa‘a Lady Warriors made it a clean sweep in the soccer standings, finishing their 2009-10 championship season in dominant fashion with a 7-1 topping of the Waimea Lady Menehune, Saturday in Kapa‘a.
Waimea held an early lead after Stephanie Rudolph scored the game’s first goal in the 11th minute.
The lead was short-lived as Dakota Barnett evened the match in the 15th minute.
From there it was all Lady Warriors, with Taetra Christensen scoring two goals and Sierra Mayer, Laurie Tamayo, Jessica Lactaotao and Seri Niimi-Burch all notching one goal.
In the boys match, Kapa‘a controlled the tempo and possession in the game’s early stages. Gabriel Aloi had a strong shot on goal from the left side, which sailed just over the Waimea goalie’s outstretched arm, but skimmed just over the top of the goal.
Minutes later, Kapa‘a struck first. Aloi sent a through ball for Brycen Phillips, which Waimea defenseman Moses Fierro managed to intercept. He tried to play it back to his goalie, but Phillips hustled past and snagged the free ball before it reached the keeper. He maneuvered by the goalie and blasted the ball into the net for the 1-0 Warriors lead.
Taylor Langstaff almost added another score for Kapa‘a, blasting a shot from 30 yards out that connected with the bottom of the crossbar and bounced down, but never crossed the plane of the goal and was cleared out by Waimea.
The Menehune made a bid for the equalizer as Jordan Kitabayashi, the team’s free-kick specialist, sent one into the box from midfield. Forward Torrey Santiago got a head on it and flicked it forward, but couldn’t get quite enough angle and the ball hit the side of the net.
After returning from halftime trailing 1-0, Waimea got right back into the match with a bit of good fortune in the 48th minute.
Kitabayashi sent another free kick into the box, which Torren Kimura got a foot on. Unfortunately for the Warriors, the ball spun backwards and ended up in the Kapa‘a net.
With the Menehune needing a victory to even the Warriors in the standings, they were unable to get much rhythm going in the second half with numerous fouls and play stoppages disrupting the action.
After the Carrillo goal, Waimea had a few chances to even the contest and was able to keep possession with more consistency than the first half.
A late Menehune free kick got loose inside the box and was probably on a foot of six different players before the Warriors cleared the ball and escaped danger.
In the other varsity boys match Saturday, Island was a 4-0 winner over the Kaua‘i Red Raiders at Island School.
Michael Chamberlain and Ryan Perez each scored two goals for Island in the shutout victory.
Kapa‘a continued its dominance of the day in JV action, as the JV boys topped Waimea 2-1. Joshua Cram scored both Warrior goals in a short period of time, the first in the 29th minute and the second in the 37th.
Kyle Fleming scored in the 46th minute for the Menehune.
The JV girls were a 2-0 winner over the Lady Menehune, with Rachel Hinkel scoring both goals in the eighth and 62nd minute.
