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Hawaii Prep’s Sihkea Jim is a righty, but you can call him “lefty” now because he used his left foot when it mattered most.
Jim picked up a loose ball 25 yards out, pivoted and drilled a low, hard, left-footed shot off of Saint Louis goalkeeper Markus Foehr and into the goal to give Ka Makani a 2-1 overtime victory in the Division II final of The Queen’s Medical Center/HHSAA Boys Soccer State Championships on Monday.
“I tend to go to my right, but this time I saw opportunity and took it to my left and just hit it,” said Jim, a sophomore center fullback who works on shooting with both feet equally, after the dramatic victory at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium. “Honestly, coming out to high school I didn’t think about soccer state champs or anything like that. I just thought I would come out and show what I’ve learned and it ended up showing right here as state champs. Our friends and our families are always supporting us, just always helping us.”
And so the hardware continues to pile up at a faster rate than ever before at the small private school — and budding soccer factory — in Waimea on the Big Island.
It’s the second boys state title in a row for Hawaii Prep, whose girls team won its fourth straight state championship Feb. 4 on the same field.
“The boys played even harder this year,” Ka Makani coach Rich Braithwaite said. “We were so ready.”
Top-seeded and Big Island Interscholastic Federation D-II champion Ka Makani (13-0-1) took a 1-0 lead in the physically played contest in the 22nd minute on Noah Wise’s goal. Saint Louis (8-7-1) didn’t find any rhythm until the second half, when things started going the Crusaders’ way.
Joshua Roberts’ 35-yard high stinger 18 minutes after halftime showed that Hawaii Prep might be vulnerable. The ball went through the hands of goalkeeper Stormer Horton, but fell sideways harmlessly to the ground.
Matt Watkins tied it up 1-all for Saint Louis by beating Horton with a direct kick in the 68th minute.
The second-seeded Crusaders came close to getting a game-winner late in regulation, but Nicholas Lamanna’s left-to-right cross missed connecting with a rushing Skyler Goo by a foot at the far post.
“We made history by winning the ILH, but we’ve got to work harder,” said Goo, a sophomore forward/midfielder. “We didn’t come out the way we wanted to, but definitely played a good second half and that brought us back up.”
On the other side of the field, just before the whistle to signal the end of regulation, Foehr dove to his right to shoot down a point-blank blast by HPA’s Toby Balaam.
Jim’s game-winner came three minutes into overtime.
Teammates and coaches worked to console Crusaders fullback/midfielder Noah Alejado moments after the loss, and he still had tears in his eyes 10 minutes later.
“We wanted it so bad,” Alejado said. “It was a good fight. Hawaii Prep, man, they’re the best team out there, obviously, because they won. Lot of emotion right now. These are times we can learn from. This is what makes us men.”
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