BY MATT GERHART | STEPHENS MEDIA ADVERTISING HONOKAA — A sign at Honokaa High School touts the 2012 as the Year of the Dragon. The timing couldn’t be more perfect for the boys soccer team. Actually, at the rate Honokaa
BY MATT GERHART | STEPHENS MEDIA
HONOKAA — A sign at Honokaa High School touts the 2012 as the Year of the Dragon. The timing couldn’t be more perfect for the boys soccer team.
Actually, at the rate Honokaa is dispatching teams and with what it’s already accomplished, Year of the Dragon 2 might be more like it.
Robert Connors’ goal with 4 minutes remaining Friday lifted Honokaa past Kealakehe 1-0 in an intense matchup of unbeaten Big Island Interscholastic Federation teams.
“I knew with the way the team was playing that (a goal) was going to come,” Connors said of his eighth score of the season. “I could feel it. It was total team effort.”
The Dragons (11-0) dominated at times but nearly suffered the first blemish on an otherwise spotless record. The de facto contest for island supremacy appeared headed for a draw until Connors connected with a header off senior Dylan Shiraki’s throw-in from 6 yards out.
“A tie would have been OK, but I told them good teams find a way to win,” Honokaa coach Maurice Miranda said.
Kealakehe (9-1-1) came into the match averaging six goals a contest, but the Waveriders had few quality scoring chances and mustered only one shot on goal against Maikai Coelho.
During a season of great expectations, defending Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division II state champion Honokaa accomplished its first goal, wrapping up the top seed in the BIIF tournament with its eighth shutout of the season.
If the Dragons continue to flash the strong, all-round form of soccer they exhibited in clamping down on Division I heavyweights Hilo and Kealakehe this week, future opponents will be hard-pressed to keep Honokaa from its next two goals — a third straight league championship and then a repeat at states.
sports@hawaiitribune-herald.com
