Waianae, Campbell tie

There is a lot more to the Waianae soccer team than Sonest Furtado.

With Furtado away on a vacation, the Seariders fought back from an early deficit to tie Campbell 1-1 on Wednesday night in Waianae.

Furtado leads the OIA with 18 goals and has scored 62 percent of her team’s goals this year. But no big deal, Waianae still has an overlooked defense that has allowed just two goals in eight games and was coming off its first loss of the season, 1-0 to Kapolei.

"Tonight was just hat’s off to their goalkeeper (Jazlyn McCoy)," Campbell coach Brett Kagawa said. "We got our runs and should have put more of them away, but she was amazing."

The Sabers scored their goal 12 minutes into the contest when Aliani Lorenzo dribbled through the middle of Waianae’s defense and threaded a pass to Shatres Ah Nee. Ah Nee easily beat McCoy with her left foot after a dribble. It would be the last time she would beat her, even though she ran McCoy over once midway through the second half and left her limping.

"(McCoy) is really good, I am impressed," Ah Nee said. "I tried and tried (to score), but she is so good."

Ah Nee called the early goal "a relief" and McCoy called it the product of early jitters. Campbell outshot Waianae 19-4, four of them one-on-one with McCoy somehow holding onto blasts from point blank.

"I panicked a lot," McCoy said. "But after a while I learned to wait for her to make a mistake before I went to get the ball."

Campbell continued to own three quarters of the field after that, but the Seariders struck back in the 35th minute when Brittiny Castro got a centering pass off a passive corner kick and beat Brittney Copp from point-blank range for her first goal of the season. The Seariders got few opportunities after that despite moving Sarah Inafuku to midfield and leaving the defense to Cayshia Alappai to stop Campbell’s long passes and McCoy to stop the Sabers when Alappai couldn’t. Campbell also was whistled for a pair of yellow cards, but it made little difference to the Sabers’ attack.

In addition to Furtado, Waianae was missing three other players for various reasons. Campbell took the field without three players, two of them because of concussions and Taylor Cabbab because she is playing in a tournament in Florida.

Waianae (6-1-1) and Campbell (5-1-2) are already in the OIA playoffs, but playing for seeding. The Sabers play Pearl City on Friday, and the Seariders play first-place Mililani the same day. Furtado should be back for that.

"That team is pretty good; they have a lot of speed over there," Waianae coach Vince Ramos said. "My keeper saved us throughout the whole game. She did an amazing job. I just have to give it up to our whole team, though. They did good without (Furtado)."