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Leighland TagawaFebruary 11, 2024, 7:01am
Sat, Feb 10, 2024 @ Waipio
WAIPIO - Island School wins their first ever boys soccer championship 1-0 against Kamehameha Schools Hawaii in the Motiv8 Foundation/HHSAA Division II Boys State Championship Title game Saturday night.
"It shows character that they believe and trust in each other," said co-head coach Sean Magoun. "They played hard. That's what you got to do at the end of the day."
KS-Hawaii, who were the two-time defending Dvision II champions, started the game off with the better chances on goal.
In the 9th minute, Warriors midfielder William Henderson stole the ball away from the last defender, and was in free on goal, but blasted his shot way over the bar. Henderson finished as the top goal scorer in Division II with 18 goals this season.
The Warriors threatened again in the 25th minute, when winger Micah Chung found Henderson in space in the middle of Voyager territory. Henderson took a couple touches and fired a wicked shot that curved just wide of goal.
The Voyagers started putting shots on target toward the end of the half. In the 29th minute, Island School keeper Micah Lindman hit a long ball that traveled close to 60 yards in the air and bounced to midfielder Ignacio Elzardia. Elzardia hit it on the half volley but right at KS-Hawaii keeper Jacob Aiona. Elzardia hit another shot seconds later, but Aiona was there to make the save again.
With two minutes left, Island School's Hannessy took another corner and this time he found the head of Hunter Kerry. Kerry, a freshman, aimed his header toward the bottom right corner, but again, Aiona was there with a diving save to keep the Warriors in it and leveled at halftime.
The first chance of the 2nd half came in the 47th minute, when Kerry won the ball off a KS-Hawaii defender in the corner. Kerry found Mikey Melvin around the penalty spot. KS-Hawaii center back Connor Gonzalez came up clutch with a diving challenge that deflected Melvin's shot over a diving Aiona, off the crossbar, and then cleared away by a secondary Warrior defender.
Island School continued to pressure and nearly scored again in the 58th minute. Eddie Silliman played in forward Sawyer Rogoff, who beat the last defender, but he did not have the best connection on the shot and was saved comfortably by Aiona. Aiona made a total of 4 saves on the night.
However, Rogoff and Island School would find the winning goal not even a minute later.
"I see my friend Titus (Schweitzer)," said Rogoff. "He bypasses the left defender and comes down the line, curls it in, it goes right past the centerback's, right past the goalie's goals gloves, and it hits me in my chest, it hits the ground, and I bang it as hard as I can into the back of the net." Rogoff, a senior, finishes the season with 6 goals.
There were some shouts for a hand ball on Rogoff's goal by KS-Hawaii, but there was no change and play continued on.
Although down, the Warriors continued to fight. In the 67th minute, Warriors forward Gabriel Arquitola forced Lindman into a one-on-one save. Lindman made a total of 7 saves tonight.
With 2 minutes left, the Warriors continued to mount immense pressure on the Voyagers and nearly found their equalizer.
In the 78th minute, Henderson played a nice through ball into the path of Lucas Kay-Wong, who was charging toward goal. Voyager senior centerback William Buford was all that stood between Kay-Wong and his goalie Lindman.
"I saw him (Kay-Wong) running and saw number six (Henderson) get ready to pass it," said Buford. "I knew I had to just get in that space and when he took a hard touch, I just went in and it worked."
Motiv8 Foundation/HHSAA Division II Boys State Soccer ChampionshipAll-Tournament TeamDivision IIWilliam Buford, Island SchoolIgnacio Elzardia, Island SchoolDaniel Hanna, PAC-5Javin Hennessy, Island SchoolIkaika Havas, Island SchoolWilliam Henderson, Kamehameha-HawaiiLucas Kay-Wong, Kamehameha-HawaiiThurston Laa, Kamehameha-HawaiiSawyer Rogoff, Island SchoolKalai Romanchak, Seabury HallTitus Schweitzer, Island SchoolGoalkeeper: Jacob Aiona, Kamehameha-HawaiiMost Outstanding Player: Micah Lindman, Island School
This was not the last time Buford's number would be called on before the final whistle.
In the dying seconds of the match, KS-Hawaii won back-to-back corner kicks. On the last corner, Kay-Wong hit the ball in and defenders were scrambling to clear the ball. The ball clears right to Kanoa Honda and hit a left footed effort toward goal. It look destined to go in, but Buford made the play of the game by making a diving header on the ball. The ball went out and away from the open net to preserve the win for Island School.
"I noticed that every single one of the Kamehameha (Hawaii) players were up," said Buford. "Everyone else was marked, so I knew that I had to line up on the line of the goal. The ball happened to come to me and everything just worked out."
Besides coming up big tonight, Buford has been an ever present force in the center of the Voyager defense this season according to his coaches.
"‘Big Willy' as he's called', he's been an absolute wall," said co-head coach Mark Are of Buford. "He's actually a left back last year and the past year and we put him in a position (center back) that he actually hasn't played before."
Although they were unable to win a third Division II title in a row, KS-Hawaii coach Greg Minato was optimistic about the future of his program.
"We're coming back here next year," Minato joked.N"o, I have a good core coming up from the middle school and most of them are club players. So I will be getting a good returning group and group coming up next year. We plan on coming back. We always strive to come to states. I'm sad that we didn't win it, but I am happy that our kids tried their hardest."
This was a game of redemption for Island School as they lost in the semifinals two years ago to this same KS-Hawaii team.
"This year, I had a dream the night before we got here," said Budford. "We beat HPA, we beat PAC-5, and then we won the championship. We've been working for it. Ever since me and the rest of the class of 2024 were sophomores. We wanted it so much and this was the last ride and we did it. Better late than never."
Besides winning their first ever boys soccer title, this is also Island School's first finals appearance in any sport. The school, which started playing in the Kauai Interscholastic Federation (KIF) in 2000, only has a total high school student population of 182.
"It just shows the commitment of academically minded students that are also great athletes and that's really the by-product," said Magoun. "People that want to work hard are driven and want to go places and do things. This is certainly not the last to come through representing Kauai or Island School, but just the beginning I hope."
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