KEALAKEKUA — Rain poured down at Konawaena on Saturday night as the Wildcats and Hawaii Preparatory Academy Ka Makani girls slipped and slid all over Julian Yates Field on the way to a 3-3 tie in a BIIF match.
“It was a battle, which is always is with Konawaena,” said HPA head coach Steve Perry. “I thought we played 80 hard minutes and we hadn’t done that in a while.
Hawaii Prep managed to take an early lead in the game, but as the weather got worse, a young and pesky Konawaena squad got better.
The first half opened with a lot of midfield play. HPA managed to gain a slight edge in each battle, pushing the ball onto Konawaena’s side of the pitch and earning two early opportunities to score on corners. Emi Higgins took the kick on both tries. On the first attempt, Rowan Kotner went up for a header but the ball sailed high. On the second try, Payton Au came in for the header, but couldn’t get all of it, sending the ball out of bounds.
Hawaii Prep finally found the back of the net midway through the first half when Tove Fostvedt put the ball into an empty goal. Teah Van Bergen broke free through the middle of the pitch on a through ball, which pulled Konawaena keeper Kyanah Blas out of the net. Van Bergen attempted a shot, which was deflected to Fostvedt, who put the ball in the far right corner for a Ka Makani 1-0 lead.
Konawaena started to push the ball up as the opening half ticked away. About 10 minutes after the HPA goal, the Wildcats tied the game when Karenza Chavez wandered inside the 18 and put the ball past Ka Makani keeper Maia Mills.
Konawaena started to gain more possession time as the half drew to a close but neither team would score again before halftime.
Coming out of the break, Hawaii Prep gained control once again as the rain, which started as a trickle, began to pour out of the sky. It was only a matter of time before Higgins broke free down the sideline. That moment came eight minutes into the second half. Moving the ball quickly, Higgins passed her defender and took a shot from the right side of the 18, and the ball bounced off the legs of Blas and into the goal.
The pitch started to get really messy midway through the second half as players on both teams lost their footing on the wet grass. With 21 minutes to play, Konawaena nearly tied the game when Jaydyn Hanks took a wide kick from the right side. From nearly 30 yards out, Hanks sent a hard shot sailing to the far upper corner. At the last second, Mills managed to leap up, and with one hand, knock the ball away to preserve the HPA lead.
That lead would soon vanish when a corner kick by Zane Garigan found the head of Nanea Wall, who put the ball in the back of the net to tie the game at 2-2 with only 10 minutes to play.
Just one minute later, the Wildcats took the lead when some nice passes by both Keliya Kimitete-Pias and Wall, put the ball at the foot of Nalani Wall, who pushed it with the outside of her right foot past a diving Mills and into the Ka Makani goal.
Finding themselves trailing as the game neared its conclusion, the HPA girls continued to fight, finding the equalizing goal with seven minutes to go. Battling for possession with a Konawaena defender, Higgins sent a desperation shot toward the net from far out. The play looked like it would be easily defended by Blas, but in the wet conditions the ball slipped by her to tie the game at 3-3.
The Wildcats had a great shot to grab the lead late, when a handball was called inside the box by Hawaii Prep, resulting in a penalty kick. Chavez took the shot, but the ball sailed high and wide.
With one last opportunity to score, Konawaena’s Nalani Wall took a shot from the left side of the 18, but Mills managed to block the ball with a diving stop and the game ended moments later in a tie.
“The beauty of this game is that anything can happen at any time,” said Konawaena coach Guy Miranda. “We had our chances to win it, we just could not pull it off.”
Boys
Hawaii Prep 5, Konawaena 0
The field didn’t get any less wet in the boys games. As the puddles grew larger, Hawaii Prep dominated, controlling the possession and spending most of the time on the Wildcat’s side of the pitch.
Ka Makani’s Riley Hiatt scored the first goal of the game midway through the first half, but not before Konawaena keeper Alan Cancino-Magana made several saves, including a couple of diving plays, to keep HPA out of the net early on.
Even though his team would get the loss, Cancino-Magana continued to make tough save after tough save to keep the Wildcats in the game as long as he could.
Because of the Konawaena keeper’s play, the game remained 1-0 at the break.
In the second half, Hawaii Prep’s Chris Whitfield found the back of the net with 30:27 to play to put Ka Makani up 2-0.
Konawaena had its best opportunity to score at the midway point of the second half when Hunter Lewi broke free up the pitch on two separate occasions. Both plays gave him a 1-on-1 with the HPA keeper Stormer Horton. On the first play Lewi hit the ball straight at the keeper. On the second attempt, Horton came out to make the block near the edge of the 18.
Over the final 16 minutes of the game, HPA put the ball into the back of the net three times. Jake Schneider had two of the goals. Noah Wise scored one. Schneider had a chance at the hat trick, but a penalty shot was blocked by a diving Cancino-Magana.
The score could have been more lopsided if not for the wet field, which prevented two HPA breakaways. On both plays the Hawaii Prep player went flying past the ball as it came to a sudden, and unexpected stop.