It’s three down and one to go for Campbell.
The rollicking good times for the upstart Sabers continued Friday night in a 3-0 victory over third-seeded Konawaena that put them into tonight’s Division I final of The Queen’s Medical Center/HHSAA Girls Soccer State Championships.
Campbell (12-4-1) has never won a state title and can get it done by beating ILH champion Kamehameha at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium.
“We don’t feel any different than any other game,” Sabers coach James Curran said. “Our heads are down and we’re telling the ladies they gotta keep working. You know, nowadays things get on social media. We can’t let (getting this close) affect us. We haven’t achieved anything yet.”
The Big Island champ Wildcats (12-4-1) were coming off a mega upset of two-time defending champion ‘Iolani on Thursday, but could not continue the magic. Campbell is the tournament’s new world-beater, having eliminated two seeded teams in a row. On Thursday, the Sabers — a fifth-place finisher in the OIA — upset second-seeded Aiea. Three nights earlier, the girls in orange and black got the state ball rolling by beating Kamehameha-Maui on the Valley Isle.
“I’m super proud of everybody,” Campbell midfielder Jourdyn Curran said. “We’re going to need to focus, because (Kamehameha) is going to be hard. We’ve got to work together and hold it down. Our defense has been holding it down. We were composed in this game, possessed the ball and saved our energy. We could have finished (plays) better and our intensity level could have been higher.”
It didn’t take long for the Sabers to take control Friday. In the ninth minute, Curran threaded a pass through two defenders to Hokulei Ishikawa on the right wing, and Ishikawa didn’t waste the chance, depositing a low shot into the low left corner.
Curran made it 2-0 in the 34th minute on a penalty kick, booting a low shot inside the left post past goalkeeper Kyanah Blas, the hero of Konawaena’s upset of ‘Iolani on Thursday.
Cassidie Andrews notched the Sabers’ third goal with a shot into the open net after Blas came out and misplayed a Campbell through ball.
Konawaena’s dreams of bringing the koa trophy back to the Big Island were dashed. The Wildcats will meet King Kekaulike in today’s third-place match.
“People were saying we were fatigued (with only 16 players on the roster), but we train hard to be able to last all 90 minutes,” Konawaena coach Kaua Wall said. “From the beginning, we just couldn’t get the ball on the ground, couldn’t possess the ball and couldn’t get into the rhythm that we usually get into.”
Kamehameha 6, King Kekaulike 0
The locomotive otherwise known as the Warriors from Kapalama keeps on chugging.
Kalia Kalua scored three goals and assisted on Leila Kahoana’s goal via a corner kick. Carley Park and D’awncey Jones-Black also notched goals for ILH champion and top-seeded Kamehameha (12-2), which will be going for its first state title since 2014 and ninth overall tonight. The opponent will be Campbell, which has knocked off two seeded teams in a row.
Maya Hagiwara, who scored three goals for the Warriors in a quarterfinal victory over Mililani on Thursday, assisted on one of Kalua’s goals.
Na Alii, the tournament’s fourth-seeded team and the MIL champions, fell to 9-2-2.
