Hawaii Prep edges KS-Hawaii, 1-0, for third title


Hawaii Prep players celebrate their third consecutive Division II girls soccer state championship. CJ Caraang | SL

WAIPAHU – Different island, same result.

Top-seeded Hawaii Prep Academy edged Kamehameha-Hawaii, 1-0, in an all-Big Island Interscholastic Federation meeting Saturday night to capture its third consecutive The Queen's Medical Center Division II girls' soccer state title.

It was the first all-Neighbor Island D2 finale at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex.

Ka Makani (12-1-1) beat the Big Island Warriors (9-5-1) for the third time in three meeting this season. Hawaii Prep won the regular season, 2-0, then won the BIIF tournament title, 2-1.

It turns out this title game was as stressful as the BIIF title game.

"They ended up getting a PK (penalty kick) with two mintues left," HPA freshman midfielder Emi Higgins said of the BIIF title game. "And they missed, so we kind of felt like they're a really good team and might have won. We beat them twice, so this game was like, ‘Oh, won, now they really want it.' But I'm glad we could pull this out."

This time, the Warriors pushed Ka Makani to the 75th minute, when Jordan Zarate scored on a 10-yard header off of Higgins' corner kick.

"I was just trying to focus on hitting it right," Higgins said of her corner kick. "That was crazy. I'm glad she was there."

Added Zarate: "It was a perfect corner. I just had to get my head behind it. It had enough speed and power on it that if I placed it right it was going right in."

Hawaii Prep had nine corner kicks, but the Warriors managed to clear eight of them.

"Set pieces are always great," HPA coach Stephen Perry said. "Jordan did a great job getting into the air for that."

Ka Makani managed 12 shots on goal, but KSH goalie Cyrene Andaya made five saves. The Warriors took nine shots and HPA keeper Taimane Kamata had three saves.

"They played a hard, physical game," Perry said of KSH. "They got to a lot of first balls. That kind of kept us on our heels, so we had to kind of adjust. It wasn't really working through the middle as much as we wanted, so we started going up to our forwards more."

This was HPA fourth consecutive title game appearance. It lost to Mid-Pacific in 2013 before running off three in a row, tying the Owls for most successive titles.

"We've been through for of these games in a row," Perry said. "It was a battle. We knew, beating a team for a third time in one year is not easy so I give (our girls) a lot of credit. We battled."

The Warriors threatened a number of times, but Ka Makani knows defense and cleared the goal area often.

"They're always real organized," Warriors' coach Gene Okamura said of HPA defense. "Steve (Perry) does a good job of that."

Both schools are the only Big Island teams two win state titles in girls' soccer. Kamehameha won in 2008.

 

 

 



Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at [email protected].