“The boys rushed the field,” Rimel said. “They were pretty excited.”
By JOE FERRARO
Stephens Media
Thanks to yet another dominating performance, a handful of starters on Honokaa’s boys soccer team may have obtained a better scouting report on the Dragons’ next state tournament opponent than their own head coach.
Senior Chayce Moniz scored his 12th and 13th goals of the season in the first 15 minutes of the match, and sophomore Justin Warren added a goal and an assist as the Dragons defeated Castle 5-0 in the quarterfinals of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division II state tournament Thursday on Oahu.
Defending Division II state champion Honokaa (17-0) will face Interscholastic League of Honolulu champion Mid-Pacific (2-7-2) in today’s 3 p.m. semifinals at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex — the site of the both the Division I and Division II state tournaments.
The Dragons jumped out to a 5-0 advantage in the 45th minute, when a throw-in bounced around in the 18-yard box before junior Clayton Robinson corralled the ball and knocked in his third goal of the postseason and seventh of the year.
At that point, Honokaa coach Maurice Miranda emptied his bench and sent a handful of his starters to take in some of Mid-Pacific’s quarterfinal match against Maui Interscholastic League champion Seabury Hall, a 1-0 Owls victory.
Miranda said his team started slowly against Oahu Interscholastic Association runner-up Castle (5-9) but eventually created scoring chances as it started to utilize the width of the field more.
“Joel (Shoemaker-Hassey) and Nino (Quijano) did a good job of playing it wide and exploiting those (passing) lanes on the outside,” Miranda said.
Shoemaker-Hassey also scored his third goal of the season, taking a pass from Robert Connors and running free toward the right corner of the field before turning toward the goal and beating the Castle goalkeeper with a 15-yard shot in the 41st minute.
Warren assisted on the first of Moniz’s two goals in the 10th minute before burying a shot into the lower right corner of the net in the 36th for a 3-0 Honokaa lead.
Senior Maikai Coelho and sophomore Elzer Maltezo combined to blank the Knights in goal.
Miranda said the Dragons will quickly overlook Mid-Pacific’s poor record, noting the Owls regularly face a tough schedule in the usually competitive ILH.
“They play in a tough division, so you know they’re going to give us a game,” Miranda said.
c Christian Liberty 2, Kahuku 2 (Christian Liberty wins 4-2 in penalty kicks): Senior goalkeeper Taylor Benavente made two spectacular saves in the penalty kicks session, and senior Ian Clark buried the decisive PK, capping a wild match in which the Big Island Interscholastic Federation runner-up Canefire overcame a two-goal deficit and the loss of sophomore Caedan Cambra to a serious arm injury.
Christian Liberty coach Troy Rimel said Cambra broke his arm midway through the first half while playing outside left fullback — the same position junior Ben Wada played in a 2-1 BIIF semifinal win over Hawaii Prep when he suffered a hamstring injury that has kept him out of action since.
“I’m really proud of this team because of the character they displayed, and they keep fighting through this adversity,” Rimel said.
The Canefire (10-4-3) will take on Kauai Interscholastic Federation champion and second-seeded Kapaa (10-1-2) in a 3 p.m. state semifinal.
Christian Liberty got there by hurdling several obstacles.
First, HHSAA officials moved the Canefire and the OIA champion Red Raiders (7-5-1) to a different field after discovering what Rimel said was a “crooked” goal.
Then Cambra’s injury forced the teams to change fields again as officials waited for an ambulance that could cart him away from the complex, but the third field proved comfortable for the Canefire’s offense.
Trailing 2-0 at halftime, Christian Liberty tied the match in a two-minute span, with junior Keenan Freitas scoring on a brilliant header in the 42nd minute and sophomore Louis Moylan bending in a corner kick into the far side netting for his 12th goal of the season in the 43rd.
In penalty kicks, Benavente dove to his left to stop a shot headed into the opposite corner of the net, but the goalkeeper reached back with his foot to deflect the ball over the goal.
“It was amazing,” Rimel said.
Nakaya Kerr, Sequoya Kerr and Moylan all buried their PKs, and Clark’s conversion set off a boisterous celebration.
“The boys rushed the field,” Rimel said. “They were pretty excited.”