King Kekaulike was supposed to play Kalani on grass, but the matchup got moved to turf. Na Alii were just glad the contest wasn’t played on paper.
After relocating from the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex to Waipahu’s football field because of weather conditions, the visitors from Maui pulled off a massive 2-1 upset over the no-longer undefeated OIA champions in the HHSAA boys’ soccer quarterfinals.
“They played really well. They brought 100 percent heart to the game and put everything on the field,” King Kekaulike co-head coach Tye Perdido said. “We did really well as a squad, sticking to our plans and roles and responsibilities. As a coaching staff, that’s all we can ask of them.”
Kalani (12-1-1) entered as the No. 2 seed in the tournament. King Kekaulike (9-0-3) finished as the MIL runner-up despite having no losses but a lower point total than tournament No. 4 seed Baldwin, a team Na Alii defeated 3-1 earlier in the season.
King Kekaulike was the aggressor in the early minutes, with multiple opportunities to score, but was kept at bay by Kalani goalkeeper Sena Morimoto, who entered Thursday having allowed just one goal all season with 12 clean sheets.
That changed in the 26th minute when Kade Taniguchi caught Morimoto off guard with a goal just beyond the right side of the penalty box, giving King Kekaulike a 1-0 lead it took into halftime.
“I saw the back post get kind of wide open, so I decided to take a shot, take a risk. It ended up paying off, so it was great,” Taniguchi said. “For us, it actually raised the intensity. We were able to push on through to the rest of the game.”
Despite the early goal, Morimoto still had six saves in the first half. Na Alii had nine shots on goal in the first period, while the Falcons totaled just three.
Na Alii nearly doubled their lead in the 47th minute, but Conor Prados’ volley bounced right off the crossbar. They got another score in the 70th minute when Jerycho Medeiros stunned Kalani with a strike some 30 yards away, putting King Kekaulike up 2-0 with 10 minutes remaining.
“Some of us have played that keeper before. Not in high school, but for club. We always want to test the keepers,” Medeiros said. “Throughout the second half I was trying to just find an opportunity to hit it.”
Kai Sigler scored for Kalani in stoppage time and the Falcons had a last-gasp opportunity to tie things up in the final seconds, but to no avail.
After winning its first HHSAA title in 2013, Kalani’s hopes of winning state crown No. 2 came to an end on Thursday. To coach Michael Ching, who was at the helm during the team’s memorable run five years ago, the program remains in solid shape.
“I told the boys that I’m very proud and we had a great year. We went to Japan and we won the OIA championship,” Ching said. “It’s always tough to lose, but when you get beat, King Kekaulike was just better than us today.”
“It doesn’t necessarily end here. We have a lot of juniors and we only lose around three or four seniors that started. We’ll use this as motivation to be back.”
Throughout the match, Na Alii appeared to be better conditioned than their competitors despite playing on Monday, whereas the Falcons received a bye. Kalani made 14 substitutions, although Ching attributed that more toward “trying to find a key spark.” King Kekaulike utilized just three.
“We feel great,” Taniguchi said. “We just had that mind-set before the game that we’re here to win and that’s pretty much it.”
Baldwin 2, Kapolei 0
Christopher Barry and Daniel Souza scored in the second half as the fourth-seeded Bears (9-1-1) defeated the Hurricanes (11-4).
Hawaii Prep 2, ‘Iolani 1
Jacob Scheider and Conor Hunt scored as No. 3 Ka Makani (13-0) beat the Raiders (8-3-2).
Alex Lu scored for ‘Iolani.
Punahou 3, Mililani 0
Lucas Milne, Micah Williams and Max Moonier scored in the second half as the top-seeded Buffanblu (12-1) defeated the Trojans (11-2-1).
Division II
Kamehameha-Hawaii 6, Kalaheo 1
Six players scored for the top-seeded Warriors (12-1) in a victory over the Mustangs (5-7-1).
Nainoa Kalaola-Maruquin, Christopher Knell, Jonathan DeMotta, Buddy Betts, David Erskine and Richard Lindsey scored for Kamehameha. Maxx Waynant scored for Kalaheo.
Kapaa 6, Waipahu 0
Joshua Layaoen had a hat trick as the second-seeded Warriors (7-2-3) beat the Marauders (4-8-1).
Gabe Franklin and Riley Pezario also scored for Kapaa, which also scored on an own goal.
McKinley 2, Honokaa 1
Kotasu Minawa and Arsany Sokar scored for the third-seeded Tigers (5-8-1) in a victory over the Dragons (7-6). Isaac Aguilar scored for Honokaa.
Pac-Five 6, Seabury 1
Aiden Spagnoli scored two goals as the fourth-seeded Wolfpack (4-7-2) defeated the Spartans (1-9).
Pac-Five also got goals from Coe Trevorrow, Hunter Thompson, Logan Cooper and Cole Ewalt. George Jansen scored for Seabury Hall.
