KEAAU Playing with an advantage in pace and possession from the start, the University of Hawaii at Hilo women’s soccer team closed out a successful home debut at Kamehameha Schools’ Paiea Stadium on Saturday afternoon with a 1-0 win over Chaminade (0-3).
The Vulcans women (2-1), made it a sweep in the second game, keyed by a first half goal from freshman Madison Gates in the 29th minute on a gift tap-in from point blank range, off a pass by senior Abcde Zoller, who had entered the game 10 minutes earlier and gained possession of a loose ball near the goal line. Zoller then spotted Gates, made the clean pass and it was knocked it without being touched from about eight yards directly in front of the goal.
“Credit should go to Abs, probably,” Gates said. “She got a thorough ball to me, and I was right by the goalie, I kind of slotted it into the corner. When it came to me, it was like all I could see was the goalie, but it got by her and then rolled in.”
The win, accomplished in front of a crowd larger than any saw the Vulcans play a year ago, left the UHH women 2-1 as they prepare for the conference opener on the road in northern California next week.
“It’s always good to win, but we can, and should, play a lot better than that,” said UHH soccer director Gene Okamura. “We had pretty poor organization defensively, so we didn’t play the game we wanted but we got the result we wanted.”
Okamura wanted more, but Michelle Richardson, head coach of the Chaminade women’s team, saw a big difference from a year ago.
“Very noticeable, yes,” Richardson said, “he has some new players that are lifting them, but he has also changed the style of play to fit the players more than before — that’s the mark of a good coach.”
Everything about the setting was a marked improvement over the tiny, rough surface the Vulcans played on last year on the outfield of the old baseball stadium, which was narrower by about 20 feet and not quite as long. The artificial surface raised the level of play with truer bounce that makes it a faster surface.
The shutout win was the second consecutive clean sheet for goalie Jenna Hufford.
“I had Lindsey (Poulsen, former Vulcans’ soccer player battling cancer), on my mind and I will every game, I’m playing through her this year,” she saod.
Hufford had few issues in the match until a collision with about 12 minutes remaining that was nearly disastrous after she picked up a loose ball and prevented a goal, then, in a crowd, the ball popped out.
“That was nuts,” Huffed said. “I grabbed it, then somebody tripped me from behind, I fell down and she fell on my face. I couldn’t get up, I had no idea where the ball was.”
Fortunately for the Vulcans, it wasn’t in their net.
HAWAII HILO 2, CHAMINADE 1 (OT): They worked hard for the result and finally, the Vulcans’ men’s team was rewarded with an overtime victory on goals by opportunistic junior Evan Bacani to give them their first victory of the season in their final (1-3), non-conference match.
“I thought the result was fair,” said Gene Okamura, who coaches both men’s and women’s teams, “I’n glad they got the win, I felt they deserved it.”
The Vulcans controlled possession for about 70 percent of the time, sharing the ball and probing a Silverswords (0-2) defense that started two freshmen in the back. Hilo finished with a 12-7 advantage in shots.
The winner came in the 99th minute with approximately 12 seconds left in the first overtime session and was scored out of a scramble in front of the Chaminade goal.
“We came out hard in the second half and I felt like we didn’t let up,” said Bacani. “It was a 50-50 ball and (Jake) Sagami came out with it and sent it over to me, I got to knock it in.
“This is a good start for us (at KSH),” he said. “This will help us get some confidence back and we can start building some momentum.
Holding a lead at the half, Chaminade went into a defensive shell in the second half with all 11 players on its side of the center line, but the Vulcans kept posing questions for the defense and finally broke through in the 69th minute when freshman Daniel Baumgartner took a deep ball inside the penalty box, tapped it back to Bacani who made no mistake and put it into the net to get the Vulcans even and record his first goal of the season.
The Silverswords were the benefactors of smash-and-grab type goal in the 14th minute on one of their first forays out of their own end when the UH-Hawaii back line found itself out of position and Yoshinori Tamukai took advantage of the situation, threaded a pass to Micah Mokuleahua who drilled it into the pup right corner of the goal from 25 yards out on the middle of the field.
Goalie Joshua Jasper had no chance of a save and Chaminade’s first shot provided a 1-0 lead.
The Vulcans open the Pacific West Conference season Thursday in San Rafael, Calif., against Dominican, with the men’s match at noon, followed by the women’s game.
