Iolani's Tanner Shimomoto (8) celebrates with teammate Cole Motooka (19) after scoring the first goal of the game. Michael Lasquero | SL

Purchase image 1 of 1

Sat, Dec 17, 2016 @ Iolani

---

Mid-Pacific

0

Iolani

4

Final	1st	2nd	OT	2OT	PK	Tot
Mid-Pacific (4-6-2)	0	0	-	-	-	0
Iolani (10-3-2)	1	3	-	-	-	4

T. Shimomoto (2)   T. Ebisuya    A. Liu

Tanner Shimomoto scored two goals and Iolani beat Mid-Pacific Institute, 4-0, Saturday in Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I boys' soccer at Kozuki Stadium.

The Raiders (2-1-1), who led 1-0 at the half, blew the game open with three goals in the first 25 minutes of the second half to hold off the Owls (1-2-0).

Iolani had the kind of offensive spark it needed after being shutout the past two games in a 2-0 loss to Punahou and a scoreless tie with Pac-Five.

"We've been having a tough time scoring goals, so today, coming out and scoring four goals took a little bit burden off of us," Iolani coach Chris Lee said.

Shimomoto gave the Raiders an early 1-0 lead, scoring off a break at about the 14-minute mark. But the Owls hung tough the rest of the way before some controversy about a minute before the half. The Owls were poised to take a free kick, after a foul on Iolani, but that never materialized. There apparently was some back-and-forth talking and possible shoving, as the officials huddled to figure things out. Instead of play resuming with apparent time left, halftime was called.

"Because of what was going on, he called the half, rather than playing it," Lee said of the officials' decision. "Just keeping it cool."

"I have no idea," MPI coach Kurt Kagawa said of the decision. "That's something the refs know better than I do."

The second half went without incidents, except that the Raiders found the goal three times. Shimomoto scored at the 50^th minute and two minutes later, Tyler Ebisuya followed with another goal to make it 3-0. Thirteen minutes later, Alex Liu scored from about 30 yards to make it 4-0.

"We were able to find our middles and move the ball," Shimomoto explained of the team's second-half scoring. "We were able to stretch them out and move (the ball) around and it opened it up spaces for our attacking players to get through. I think we tired them out a little bit toward the end of the second half."

What did not help the Owls was losing forward Payton Boyd in the early minutes of the game. He had an ankle injury, Kagawa said. Boyd was able to get into a golf cart that took him off the field.

"Payton is one of their key players," Lee said. "Losing him early, they didn't have as much threat in the attack because he wasn't there."