Moanalua finds a late equalizer to tie Castle 1-1

Moanalua's Rylie Echavaria (16) and Castle's Brianne Kumashiro battle for a loose ball in midfield during the first half at Na Menehune's field. Leighland Tagawa | SL

SALT LAKE — Na Menehune left it late to secure a 1-1 draw at home against the Castle Knights Saturday night.

Both teams remain at the top of the Oahu Interscholastic Association's Eastern Division standings with an identical record of (3-0-1).

The Knights got their goal early in the first half. After winning a corner kick, Brianne Kumashiro whipped in a ball to the back post. Hailee Hanaike inital header went off the crossbar, but she buried home the ball on her second attempt to give Castle the 1-0 lead. Hanaike leads the Knights with 6 goals scored.

This was the first goal conceded by Moanalua so far this season.

In the second half, Na Menehune played with a sense of urgency and put a lot of pressure on Castle's backline and goalkeeper. However, the Knights were up to every challenge that came their way.

The game looked destined to end 1-0, until Moanalua was gifted a lifeline.

With minutes to go, Moanalua sent in a long ball that carried over the heads of the Castle backline and one of their forwards was in on breakaway. Castle's keeper stepped up and made a diving save, but mistakenly grabbed the ball outside of the 18 yard box. The keeper got a yellow card and the Knights had to send in their backup keeper.

Facing a 5-man wall and the pressure of keeping her team's undefeated record intact, Rylie Echavaria steped up and smashed home the ball into the roof of the net to tie the game for Na Menehune. Echavaria now has 2 goals on the season.

Na Menehune will look to get back in the win column when they travel to face Kaiser next Wednesday at 7:00 pm while the Knights will return home to host Kalani on Wednesday as well.