By MATT GERHART Tribune-Herald sports writer ADVERTISING HONOKAA — A sign at Honokaa High School touts 2012 as the Year of the Dragon. The timing couldn’t be more perfect for the boys soccer team. Actually, at the rate Honokaa is
By MATT GERHART
Tribune-Herald sports writer
HONOKAA — A sign at Honokaa High School touts 2012 as the Year of the Dragon. The timing couldn’t be more perfect for the boys soccer team.
Actually, at the rate Honokaa is dispatching teams and with what it’s already accomplished, Year of the Dragon 2 might be more like it.
Robert Connors’ goal with four minutes remaining Friday lifted Honokaa past Kealakehe 1-0 in an intense matchup of unbeaten Big Island Interscholastic Federation teams.
“I knew with the way the team was playing that (a goal) was going to come,” Connors said of his eighth score of the season. “I could feel it. It was total team effort.”
The Dragons (11-0) dominated at times but nearly suffered the first blemish on an otherwise spotless record. The de facto contest for island supremacy appeared headed for a draw until Connors connected with header off of senior Dylan Shiraki’s throw-in from 6 yards out.
“A tie would have been OK, but I told them good teams find a way to win,” Honokaa coach Maurice Miranda said.
Kealakehe (9-1-1) came into the match averaging six goals a contest, but the Waveriders had few quality scoring chances and mustered only one shot on goal against Maika’i Coelho.
“They beat us to the ball all game long and really destroyed our game,” Kealakehe coach Urs Leuenberger. “Our midfield got shut down. We held strong, especially our defense, but we couldn’t create quality chances in front of the goal.”
During a season of great expectations, defending Division II state champion Honokaa accomplished its first goal, wrapping up the top seed in the BIIF tournament with its eighth shutout of the season.
If the Dragons continue to flash the strong, all-round form of soccer they exhibited in clamping down on Division I heavyweights Hilo and Kealakehe this week, future opponents will be hard-pressed to keep Honokaa from its next two goals — a third straight league championship and then a repeat run at the Hawaii High School Athletic Association tournament.
Once Honokaa got into rhythm with it possession passing game midway through the first half, the Dragons carried play, holding a 14-4 advantage in shots. Junior Nino Quijano and senior Chayce Moniz both grazed the crossbar with shots
Senior goalkeeper Kawela Benson kept Kealakehe in the match, twice robbing Moniz and aggressively leaving the goal to snuff out set pieces and throw-ins.
“They play true to character: We possess the ball, support each other and play good team defense,” Miranda said. “Sometimes we had triple-teams on defense, and that’s the sign of an unselfish team, that they want to defend and win the ball.
“We’re a bunch of crazed dogs when we play defense and try to win the ball, then we turn into cerebral, smart, composed soccer players when we have the ball. They’ve been playing together so long, they understand that.”
Miranda’s been coaching much of the team since well before high school — dating back to American Youth Soccer Organization play — and he trusts his players to make their own calls on the field.
Of Honokaa’s three inside midfielders, Moniz was the most active offensively most of the match while Connors played more of a defensive role. That changed with about five minutes left, when Connors “got a feeling” and moved up, telling Moniz to drop back.
The foul-filled match featured a little bit of everything.
At one point in the second half, the referee went to Miranda and asked him to calm the crowd after it whipped itself into a frenzy after Shiraki was given a yellow card.
The crown quieted for a bit — until Connors re-energized it to keep Honokaa’s perfect season intact.
“We’d love to play Kealakehe 13 times,” said the senior, who couldn’t recall such a fun atmosphere for a home match. “This is our team since we were little, we’ve all been playing together so long. This is our year, so we had to step it up.”
Kealakehe still can finish ahead of the Vikings (11-1-1) and garner the top seed in the BIIF Division I semifinals if it wins its remaining matches against Makua Lani and Hawaii Prep and allows five goals or fewer.
The Waveriders have yielded only five goals total this season.
“This was a touch match and it will make us tougher,” Leuenberger said. “We’re still on top.”
