For the first time in the history of the HHSAA tournament, two BIIF soccer teams will meet in the championship game after both Hawaii Preparatory Academy and Kamehameha-Hawaii slipped past their semifinal opponents on Friday at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex on Oahu.
The battle between Kamehameha and No. 2 seeded Kapaa was intense as the Big Island Warriors edged out the Warriors from Kauai in a shootout, 2-1. No. 1 Hawaii Prep also won a low scoring affair, beating the Red Raiders 1-0.
Hawaii Prep has beat Kamehameha-Hawaii twice this season — 2-0 in the regular season on Dec. 12 and 2-1 in the BIIF championship game.
Kamehameha and Hawaii Prep will meet at 5 p.m. today and the game will be viewable online on OC16 XCAST1.
“This is a great moment for the Big Island,” Hawaii Prep coach Steve Perry said. “I knew that Kamehameha could get there. They are a good team with a lot of weapons. It is good to know that no matter what happens, two trophies will be coming back to the Big Island.”
Kamehameha coach Gene Okamura added that this moment shows that the Big Island is catching up to the level of the rest of Hawaii.
“The teams are coming to Oahu and they are being successful,” Okamura said.
Hawaii Prep and Kauai battled to a 0-0 first half of their semifinal game on Friday, though Hawaii Prep controlled most of the action. In the second half the ball stayed predominantly on Kauai’s said of the field, but the shots by Ka Makani were going wide.
Finally, with about eight minutes to play, Hawaii Prep broke through with a goal by Emi Higgins. Higgins took a pass from the back and beat her defender, cutting up the middle and sending in a low, hard shot from about 25 yards out. The ball skipped under the Kauai keeper for a 1-0 advantage.
“We controlled the game early on but we could not finish and it was a little frustrating,” Perry said. “Soccer is a weird game sometimes, but I was happy for Emi. She ran the flank and went from 18 to 18 the whole game. She worked hard out there.”
In the other semifinal game, Hiilei Wong-Yuen put Kamehameha on the board in the first half against Kapaa, but the Kauai squad continued to battle and tied the game in the second half. Neither team could put one in the net in the two 10 minute overtime periods, sending the game into a shootout.
The Big Island Warriors dominated the penalty kicks, winning 3-0. JC Kerr, Kekai Wong-Yuen and Layn Taylor Glenn each scored for the BIIF team. Goalkeeper Cyrene Andaya made the save on the first two Kapaa shots. The next two missed their mark.
“Cyrene made a tough save on the first shot and she has been playing pretty well the last three games,” Okamura said. “We struggled a little bit early, but the girls battle for the whole 100 minutes and now we will focus on recovering and keeping our focus for the championship game.”
Kamehameha will return to the HHSAA DII title game for the first time since 2008, when they won the championship. This will be Hawaii Prep’s fifth consecutive appearance in the title game. They have won the last two.
Division I
Hilo 3,
Kamehameha-Maui 2
Jordyn Pacheco netted two goals and an assist as the freshman-laden Vikings reached the fifth-place match with their first victory at the state tournament since 2001.
Pacheco, a freshman, gave the BIIF champion Vikings (12-1-0) a 3-1 lead in the 59th minute when she collected a pass from sophomore Alyeemomi Amaral and scored from 6 yards out. Freshman Miya Clarke worked with Pacheco, adding a goal and a assist for Hilo, which led 2-0 after 15 minutes.
The Vikings will face ILH runner-up Kamehameha-Kapalama (12-2-1) at 3 p.m. today.
First-year coach Vikings Skee Saplan saw the consolation victory as the first step toward a larger goal.
“The girls need to learn to play at a higher level,” he said. “We’re a little behind because it’s little quicker and a little more physical (at states).
“Today’s win shows us what we need to do to get there. I don’t just want to win (consolation) matches. I want to reach the semifinals, I want to reach the finals.”