Anyone looking for fireworks in Tuesday’s ILH girls soccer championship match at ‘Iolani came to the wrong place.
Kamehameha won its second straight title, but it was a bland outing that the Warriors finally won 1-0 with a 2-1 edge in penalty kicks after 90 minutes of regulation time and 20 minutes of sudden-death overtime.
Chaylea Tome, the Warriors’ goalkeeper, clinched the victory with a diving save on ‘Iolani’s fifth — and final — shooter, Taylor Arakaki.
Earlier, Kaulana Kanno and Kalia Kalua scored on PKs for Kamehameha, as did the Raiders’ Marea Lea.
“I knew if I saved it (Arakaki’s PK), we would win, so I tried my best,” said Tome, who earlier saved a PK by ‘Iolani’s Kaitlin Uemoto. “I tried to read it and I executed what I wanted to do.”
Both teams came into Tuesday’s showdown worn out from playing multiple matches recently. It was the Warriors’ and Raiders’ fourth contest in seven days.
“(The title) is pretty cool for the team,” Kamehameha coach Missy Moore said. “They gave a lot of effort today, especially after battling Punahou on Friday, ‘Iolani on Saturday and ‘Iolani again today. They showed a lot of grit.”
Moore was disheartened by a severe knee injury to the Warriors’ Caili Cain in the second overtime, and she believes it is directly related to the fatigue factor.
“I’m upset about the injury,” Moore said. “Really upset about that. It’s the fatigue. It can’t happen. It’s unfortunate.”
Along with the ILH title — Kamehameha’s seventh since 2006 — the victory gave the Warriors (11-2) a seeded berth and a first-round bye in next week’s Division I state tournament.
Due to the loss, ‘Iolani will be slotted into the first round at states. The second-place ILH finish turned out just fine for the Raiders (9-3-1) the past two years. They went on to win the state crown both times and will try for a third in a row this year.
“It might have looked like we were trying to miss on the PKs, but we weren’t,” Raiders coach Kristin Masunaga said. “That’s something we really need to work on, and we’ll be doing that every single day at practice. We got everyone in today, so everyone got a lot of playing time. We didn’t want to go into the state tournament all beat up. We’re still recovering from Saturday. We didn’t practice Monday. Our ultimate goal is the state championship. The ILH is nice, but it’s not our end goal. We’ll take a state championship over an ILH championship any day.”
Raiders goalkeeper Musuai Isaia, who made one stop during PKs, kept her team in it by hurtling to make a save on a 20-yard tester by Kamehameha’s Anuhea Aluli in the second overtime.
The Warriors’ Caela Kaio, who took over for Tome in goal in the second half before Tome came back for the PKs, leaped to knock down a hard 25-yard shot by ‘Iolani’s Kelsey Takahashi with less than two minutes left in regulation.
In four meetings this season, Kamehameha has three wins over ‘Iolani — 1-0 on Dec. 5, 3-2 in overtime on Saturday for the league’s second-round (tournament) title, and Tuesday’s match. The Raiders, who won the league’s first-round (regular season) championship, scored their only win over the Warriors this season on Jan. 4, 1-0.