Waipahu builds early lead in playoff opening win over Kalaheo

Greg Yamamoto | SL

Waipahu scored five first half goals en route to a 6-1 win over Kalaheo in the opening round of the OIA Division I girls soccer playoffs.

Six different players scored for the Marauders, three of them assisted goals. The first came just six minutes into the match, when Ceydie Whitfield found Serenity-Nevaeh Sellers-Garrett with a pass in the box that forced the keeper off-balance. Sellers-Garrett calmly gathered and tucked a shot into the back of the net for the game's first score.

"We connected well," said Deizha Lyn Jacinto. "This was one of our better games that we actually connected off the ball."

In the 11th minute, Keene Nakamura drew a foul in the box for a penalty kick and put a strike past the keeper to put Waipahu up 2-0.

The scoring chances continued steadily for the Marauders, as Caitlin Jane Ucol found Whitfield for the third goal of the game in the 16th minute, and Deizha Lyn Jacinto got Ucol on the board in the 24th minute with a nicely placed cross.

The final goal of the first half for Waipahu came in the 36th minute, when a high bounce in the box was misjudged by the Mustangs' keeper and Shylee Nii capitalized, lobbing the ball into the goal for her mark on the score sheet.

"We practiced really hard this week, especially working as a team, so it feels really good to actually put it into the game and get something out of it," said Jacinto.

Waipahu seemed to pull back on the attacking pressure in the second half, but Jacinto made the most of a chance the Marauders had in the attacking area in the 52nd minute, scoring the sixth and final goal for her team with a well placed shot from just outside the box.

Despite the large goal margin, Kalaheo racheted up their attack offensively but were still not able to find any real chances on goal, but that changed in the 67th minute, when Aliya Del Rosario found some space for a shot about 30 yards out and lofted a shot with pace that sailed just over the reach of the keeper for the first goal of the game for the Mustangs, and the first of the season for Del Rosario.

Up next for Waipahu is East top seed Moanalua, who the Marauders faced in the quarterfinal round of the OIA playoffs a season ago. Na Menehune prevailed in that match, 1-0 in double overtime.

Kalaheo's season ends at 4-5-2.