“It’s OK,” Ah Chong said. “We’re not done. We’re going to states.”
By JOE FERRARO
Stephens Media
KEAAU — Hawaii Prep junior midfielder Emily Evans wasn’t shrugging off the accomplishment at Keaau High’s stadium.
After all, not too many teams can say they’ve won three consecutive Big Island Interscholastic Federation Division II girls soccer championships — a feat the Ka Makani accomplished Saturday, getting second-half goals from freshman Gabbie Ewing and junior Lauren Pries to beat Kamehameha-Hawaii 2-0.
“It feels great. It always feels great,” Evans said.
But Evans quickly turned to a goal HPA (13-1) set at the beginning of the season: making a strong run at a Division II state tournament title.
The state tournament begins Wednesday and runs through Feb. 4 at Oahu’s Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex.
“We want to put this behind us and keep moving forward,” Evans said.
She and the rest of the team still remember the bitter taste left in their mouths after suffering a 1-0 state semifinal loss to Kauai, a match the Ka Makani believed they controlled from start to finish.
“That feeling didn’t feel good, and we don’t want it again,” Evans said.
BIIF runner-up Kamehameha (8-4-2), Honokaa (8-6) and Makua Lani (7-7) will also play in the state tournament, with each team playing a first-round match on Wednesday. Their opponents haven’t been determined, with the HHSAA set to release tournament brackets today.
Like each of the past two years, Ka Makani will enjoy a first-round bye in the state tourney. HPA earned it with its victory in the championship game, where Ka Makani maintained possession on Kamehameha’s half of the field for most of the match. Senior midfielder Katie Case, Evans and Pries often muscled Warrior players off the ball and kept Kamehameha from mounting counterattacks.
The Ka Makani broke through in the 48th minute, when senior sweeper Leeta Grap headed a Case corner kick into the ground right to Ewing, who headed in her ninth goal of the season.
But Warriors coach Sonya Ah Chong credited HPA for its superior passing skills — something the Ka Makani displayed on Pries’ fourth goal of the season.
Operating on the left flank, sophomore forward Nanea Tavares delivered a cross through the goal mouth to a charging Ewing. The freshman then played the ball back to junior forward Rae Kennon, who found Pries near the top of the box.
Pries then pushed forward and buried a shot into the lower left corner from 10 yards out in the 72nd minute.
“They’re well-coached, very aggressive,” Ah Chong said of HPA. “You can tell they’ve been playing together for a long time.”
Ah Chong praised the work of her backline and junior goalkeeper Lehua McGuire, who made six saves against a Ka Makani team that outshot the Warriors 14-3.
For much of the first half, HPA forwards Nanea Tavares and Bri Vallente consistently applied offensive pressure with dynamic runs on the flanks. The Kamehameha trio of Harper Hottendorf, Rachel Robertson and Mikela Cabel did well to keep the Ka Makani’s playmakers under wraps, intercepting crosses into the box and, for the most part, keeping the dangerous forwards from advancing the ball toward the goal.
At halftime, HPA coach Steve Perry asked for persistence from his team.
“We told them to stay with their game and keep plugging away,” Perry said.
Perry said his backline of Grap, Ewing, junior Jazz Fojas and freshman Teia Knoll enjoyed its best game as a unit.
HPA did not allow a shot on goal in the first half.
After the game, however, Ah Chong also turned the page on the BIIF season.
“It’s OK,” Ah Chong said. “We’re not done. We’re going to states.”