HHSAA Girls Soccer
No. 6 Kaiser cruises past King Kekaulike


Kalani Takase | ScoringLive
February 8, 2018, 3:37pm

  

Thu, Feb 8, 2018 @ Waipio

Kaiser

4

Kekaulike

1

Final 1st 2nd OT 2OT PK Tot
Kaiser (13-5-0) 3 1 - - - 4
Kekaulike (7-3-2) 1 0 - - - 1
Kaile Halvorsen (74')   Taylin Park (18')   Maya Mau (2')   Shaley Mercado (39')   Teani Arakawa (31')


WAIPAHU — Four different players scored a goal as No. 6 Kaiser downed fourth-seeded King Kekaulike, 4-1, in the quarterfinals of The Queen's Medical Center/HHSAA Division I Girls Soccer Championships at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium Thursday afternoon.

The unseeded Cougars, who finished second in the Oahu Interscholastic Association, improved to 13-3 with the win and will face Pearl City in a 7 p.m. semifinal Friday.

Na Alii, the Maui Interscholastic League champion, fell to 7-2-2 and will play in a 3:30 p.m. consolation game Friday.

Junior Maya Mau, usually an outside forward, scored the game's first goal just two minutes in.

"Maya's goal was huge for us. It was unexpected because she's playing in a different position than where we normally have her," said Cougars coach Noelani Bio, who noted an injury to midfielder Jazlyn Swartz necessitated the move.

"She had to fill that spot at the last minute, so I think that (goal) gave her huge confidence after that," Bio said.

Taylin Park's goal off a Kaile Halvorsen assist gave Kaiser a two-goal lead at the midpoint of the first half.

King Kekaulike's Teani Arakawa scored in the 31st minute to get her team on the board, but Kaiser's Shaley Mercado scored just before halftime to make it a 3-1 lead.

"It's crazy because you always see this in soccer games where 2-0 being the lead and then it being the worst-case scenario because once they score and it's 2-1, it's like now you're kind of on your heels and they kind of put us on our heels once they scored — and this is all happening in one half — so once Shaley put in that third goal to make it 3-1 before half — I mean, like seconds before half — that kind of sealed the deal for us," Bio said.

Conversely, Na Alii coach Gundi Dancil said the goal was a backbreaker for his team.

"Their third goal, right before halftime, that was big because we could have gone into halftime with a little cushion of (being down) 2-1 and we had the momentum after we had scored, but then at that last minute we just had that little breakdown, but Kaiser is a good team," Dancil said.

Halvorsen added a goal in the 74th minute, her team-leading 30th on the season, to close out the scoring.

"They've got good, fast girls on their team," Dancil said of the Cougars. "Unfortunately, we couldn't string our passes together. That's where our strength is, in passing the ball around."

Madison Mora made three saves in goal for the Cougars, while Shayli Pontes registered four stops for Na Alii.

King Kekaulike, which lost for the first time since Dec. 30, was making its first state tournament appearance since 2013.

"Prior to that we were here for like a 10-year run, but it's good to be back and we have a young team here that hopefully we can take what we learned here and continue to grow," Dancil said.

Dancil has been with the program since its inception in 1995. Bio, a 2005 Baldwin graduate, was reunited with Dancil and Na Alii assistant Ken Hayo.

"I played against Gundi when I was in high school, he was coaching at King K," Bio said. "Kenny was my club coach and I traveled with him on a club team that he coached before, so we got to catch up a little bit. It's crazy because I don't think that they even knew that I was here (on Oahu) coaching and then to see me after all these years, it's kind of surreal."

Kaiser, which defeated Aiea 1-0 in a first-round game Monday, will be making its first semifinals appearance since 2013.


Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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