Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades … and for BIIF soccer teams at the HHSAA Division I girls tournament.
Waiakea girls soccer coach Steve Petner is willing to make that exception – for this season, at least – after the Warriors’ finished Saturday in fourth place. Playing in the semifinals for the first time, Waiakea lost to eventual champion Kamehameha-Kapalama 3-1 on Friday, then to No. 2-seeded Mililani by the same score the next day in consolation play at Oahu’s Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex.
“We’re really happy with that,” Petner said. “It wasn’t like we were dominated. It’s not like the ball never came across midfield and was in our end the whole time. Nothing but positives.”
It’s not that Petner has low expectations. In fact, quite the opposite. He just knows how seasoned, deep and talented the Oahu powerhouses are year after year.
“They are so fast and so skilled, they get by you and that’s it,” he said. “Everything is high speed for 40 minutes a half.
“I thought we had a lot of players. We took 20, and they up with 30-plus.”
Now the Warriors players know as much, too. They will return a strong corp next season and lose just four seniors, including Kaitlin Beatty who scored a first-half equalizer against Kapalama and made the all-tournament team, and two-way stalwart Keilee Silva. Beatty scored twice in the 3-1 win against Campbell in the quarterfinals, and Silva netted a goal and an assist.
“This experience was the greatest thing that could have happened to them. Those teams are pretty relentless,” said Petner, who credited Terry and James Yamane with being co-coaches rather than just assistants. “Sometimes you might aspire to something, but you really don’t know what it’s like and what you need to get there. But to get there and not get the result, it was different, and hopefully that will be an important thing.”
“You can talk about winning a state championship, but now you know what it entails”
A BIIF team has never played for the big prize, but the league is making slow progress by putting a team in the semifinals the past three tournaments. Konawaena in 2015 became the first BIIF team to advance in the winner’s bracket, and the Wildcats also reached the semifinals in 2019 and 2020.
Thanks to a steady pipeline of club players from Rush, Surf and Chicas, Waiakea is set to return a solid senior class next season in Riley Bockrath, Sienna Beasley, Jayda Cuevas-Varize, Zadelyn Ferreira-Kawai and KK Hashizaki. Cuevas-Varize scored against Mililani in a game that was tied at halftime. Among the leaders of the current sophomore class are goalkeeper Journey Morimoto, Aishlyn Beatty, Shaunte Fernandez and Kiralyn Kuramoto. Freshman Kalia Franklin led the team in goals with eight and midfielder Charlie Silva enjoyed a promising freshman season.
Petner wouldn’t mind if everyone sharpened their technical skills.
“That’s what makes (Oahu) teams play fast. They are technically sound,” Petner said. “They take the ball out of the air, not even the blink of an eye. Our players, sometimes there a litter nervous with the ball.”
While Petner the coach came away pleased with the trip, so to did Petner the preseason schedule-maker. The Oahu powers are more like to answer his calls now.
“People kind of want to talk to you know,” he said.
