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All they needed was a taste, and what a taste it was.
The Hawaii soccer team earned a road sweep of Pac-12 teams on Sunday with a 1-0 victory over Oregon State at Corvallis, Ore., despite playing a woman down for the final 13 minutes of the match.
Junior forward Tiana Fujimoto scored from the 6-yard box in the 24th minute when Krystal Pascua lobbed the ball in from the left side and Alexis Colacchio header-tapped it over. UH (2-2) held firm the rest of the first half and for the entire second period against attacks from the Beavers (1-4-1).
"To come home with two wins is amazing because I don’t think we’ve done that in a while," Fujimoto said in a postgame phone interview. "No one expects us to do it, so it’s even better."
UH coach Michele Nagamine spoke before the trip of her team simply needing a taste of road success to build momentum away from the Waipio Peninsula. The Rainbow Wahine got the success on Friday in a 1-0 win at Oregon; Sunday was that momentum in motion.
It was UH’s first posting of consecutive road wins since 2008, and the first of that feat in nonconference play since 2004. UH had never before beaten Pac-12 teams consecutively, home or away, and improved to 5-25 all-time against the elite West Coast league.
"I had a bunch of emotions just kind of flow out of me," UH coach Michele Nagamine said. "I actually started crying after this game. I was talking to the kids and (I said), ‘I’m just so happy for you that you get to experience everything that we’ve been talking about. It was so emotional for me. We’ve stunk it up on the road for how long. … This group just really, really defies the odds."
UH was 1-8-1 on the road last year and 2-20-1 in away matches going back to late 2010, but is 2-0 this season.
The Wahine were outshot both matches (13-9 Sunday) but found a way to get it done, despite playing 10-on-11 for the final moments.
Wahine junior midfielder Hayden Gibson became the second UH player red-carded this season when she was issued her second yellow card of the match with 13 minutes remaining, on what Nagamine called an "appalling" lack of officiating consistency. A red means an automatic ejection and will also keep Gibson out of UH’s next match at home against Idaho State on Friday.
"It was pretty frantic at first, but we just had to settle down and keep composure," Fujimoto said. "We finished strong."
OSU got a deep shot off UH’s crossbar with six minutes to play, but that was the Beavers’ best look late.
Fujimoto’s first goal of the season was the 12th of her career, moving her into a 10th-place tie on the UH career list with Nicki Arakawa.
UH continues play at home on Friday and Sunday in the Outrigger Hotels and Resorts Soccer Classic against Idaho State and Portland State.
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