A second-half goal explosion carried the Hawaii soccer team to a critical Big West win.
After Sunday night’s game against UC Davis was scoreless at halftime, Raisa Strom-Okimoto scored twice for the first multi-goal game of her career and Lei Medeiros added one — just enough as the Rainbow Wahine won a physical battle 3-2 at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium.
“We knew their style of play, so we knew no matter what we had to regroup,” said the senior co-captain Strom-Okimoto. “If something wasn’t happening for us, whenever we got scored on, we kind of … got everyone together, and I think that’s what made the difference between a win and a loss.”
UH (7-5-1, 2-2 Big West) earned a crucial three points toward its goal of the program’s first top-four finish and Big West tournament qualification. Four games remain, including road contests vs. Cal Poly (Oct. 19) and UC Santa Barbara (Oct. 21) up next after an open week.
Strom-Okimoto, who scored in the 47th and 56th minutes against Davis, has eight goals for the season and 18 for her career, tying her with Jennifer Starsiak and Kelli-Anne Chang for sixth in program history.
“She is a game-changer and in my opinion she is the best player in our conference,” Nagamine said. “She is consistently targeted by every other team. They double-team her, they try to foul her tactically, try to take her out of the game and body her up all the time. She’s just like a little juggernaut that just keeps going.”
Medeiros, who scored on a Strom-Okimoto corner kick to make it 3-1 in the 68th minute, has seven goals for her sophomore season. The two have combined for 15 of the team’s 23 goals.
Davis (4-7-2, 1-2) got goals from Alicia Sloss (67th) and Mahlah Catline (75th) to pull within one each time, but the Wahine defense stiffened in the final 15 minutes.
