You could flip a coin or you could match Punahou against Kamehameha in Interscholastic League of Honolulu girls soccer. It’s almost always a toss-up.
On Thursday night, the host Warriors (4-0-1) scored with a little more than 10 minutes remaining to pull out a 1-1 tie against the defending league champion Buffanblu (3-0-2). As usual, those two are going to be engaged in a season-long, three-team fracas, with defending state champion ‘Iolani (3-1-1) also looking for any slim window of opportunity to get the upper hand.
Trailing 1-0, Kamehameha stepped up its offensive pressure late in the match and found what it was looking for when D’awncey Jones redirected a bounding ball to a speeding Leah Feato, who slid a low shot wide to the outside corner past Punahou goalkeeper Hailey Asato.
“I’m glad we were able to at least tie it up, for sure,” Warriors coach Missy Moore said. “We had a rough start. Started off slow, and we didn’t settle the ball down like we normally do.”
Moore added that the goal resulted from her squad being “nice and composed.”
Added Jones: “I saw the ball in the air and I knew I had to turn around and try to play it outside because Leah was (coming) in and I believe in her that she can score for us.”
Early in the second half, the Buffanblu grabbed a 1-0 lead on Legacy Kalua’s penalty kick. Make that two penalty kicks, but only one counted. After scoring low and to the left, Kalua had to do it again because one of her teammates crossed the line early. On her second try, she lifted it high and to the left, past Warriors goalkeeper Kendal Stovall.
“I was overthinking in my head on the second one, but once the whistle blew, I just blocked it all out and took the shot,” Kalua said. “I don’t practice going to the right much, so I stayed left and hit it in the air.”
Kalua tried to take some blame for the Warriors’ comeback.
“I was really mad at myself,” she added. “I thought I was the last defender (on Kamehameha’s goal), but I know my team is still good and that we were going to keep the intensity up. The game wasn’t over yet.”
About 10 minutes before the tying goal, Punahou’s Asato made a brilliant save on a Kylie Minamishin screamer from 15 yards out. That attempt, if it had succeeded, would have tied it up. Asato jumped high to bat the ball, but it went up higher and started to come down dangerously. She then turned around and batted it safely to the side.
“I thought that was going in,” Kamehameha’s Moore said. “Such a great shot and a great save.”
Said Asato: “I thought I was going to catch it, and after tipping it, I knew I had to just do whatever I could to try to get it out.”
The Buffanblu tried and failed to go ahead 2-0 despite several nice opportunities by Jamie-Lyn Shimamoto, Emma Gusman and Lauren Mukaigawa.
“We kept the edge in the first half,” said new Punahou coach Shelley Izuno, who took over for Starr Johnson in May. “We came out stronger in the second half, but Kamehameha, they’re always pounding the entire game and all it takes is one and all of a sudden the momentum shifts and you’re trying to get the momentum back.”
Other teams could play spoiler in the ILH, but if that doesn’t happen, the three next big games are: ‘Iolani at Kamehameha on Thursday, Kamehameha at Punahou on Jan. 5, and ‘Iolani at Punahou on Jan. 8.
