Friday, February 27, 1998
By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Punahou's Mia Moe, right, and Baldwin's Keri Ann Suzuki
battle for the ball last night.
Upsets the norm in girls'
By Pat Bigold
state soccer tournament
Star-BulletinIn a bizarre string of quarterfinal games in the 17th Hawaii High School Athletic Association Girls' Soccer Tournament, all four seeded teams were eliminated from contention yesterday.
At Aloha Stadium, top seed and defending state champion Pearl City (13-1-0), No. 2 Iolani (10-1-2), third-seeded Konawaena (12-2-1) and No. 4 Baldwin (14-1-0) went down on a stadium carpet that became wetter as the day wore on. Attendance for the day was 1,029.
''I think the layoff hurt everybody," said Castle coach Mark Kane, whose unseeded Knights upset the Chargers, 1-0, on penalty kicks under the lights.
Kane was referring to the 212 week period between the end of the Oahu Interscholastic Association playoffs -- in which Castle finished fourth -- and the start of the state tournament this week.
The tournament was originally scheduled for Feb. 18-21, but was rescheduled due to complications that arose after the HHSAA sold the rights to Aloha Stadium for last weekend's Mariah Carey concert.
''It's rough to be off that long and come back to play your biggest game of the season," Kane said.
In today's semifinals, Kapaa (8-0-0) plays Kaiser (11-1-1) at 5:30 p.m., and Castle (11-3-0) meets Punahou (11-1-2) at 7:30 p.m.
Castle 1, Pearl City 0 (2OT): Goalkeeper Moani Mundo made eight saves through two overtimes and then stopped three Charger kickers in the penalty-kick phase.
''I wasn't tired, but I was nervous, so I told no one to talk to me," Mundo said.
Tiffany Sabado, Shannon Yogi and Arica Lau scored for Castle in the tiebreaker.
OIA champion Pearl City, which outshot Castle, 21-8, had its share of chances to score.
The Chargers had a chance to win it with less than a minute left in regulation when Michelle Gopwani passed to Jayna Shigemasa in front of Mundo. But a heads-up Castle defensive play cleared the ball.
Early in the second overtime, Lau made a critical tackle on Pearl City's ace scorer, Charity Drumeller, near the goal line.
With three minutes left in that overtime, Mundo tipped a long shot by Pearl City's Tricia Ejima over the cross bar.
''I was so scared it was going to go in and I just lifted my hand up and tipped it," Mundo said.
Moments later, an apparent goal by Daphne Kajikawa was disallowed on an interference call.
''They kicked me in the shoulder and it went inside, so the ref (Jan Allen) said she wasn't going to allow it," Mundo said.
Pearl City coach Archie Chung said he was ''too upset" to talk after the game.
But behind a South African-born goalkeeper, a junior halfback whose father played pro soccer in Spain, and a sophomore forward who led the KIF in scoring, the unseeded Warriors pulled it off in a thriller.
It's the first time since 1994 that a neighbor island team has made it to the semifinals.
Coming off an exhausting double-overtime win against Aiea the previous night, Kapaa was outshot, 17-3, by the previously unbeaten Interscholastic League of Honolulu champion Raiders (10-1-2), but made its shots count.
Crissy Marti, who was carted off the field after being tackled early in the second half, came back after a 15-minute rest and scored the winning goal with 2:19 left.
Marti controlled the ball after it bounced off an Iolani defender, split the defense and beat Iolani goalkeeper Kristin Masunaga from about eight yards out.
The goal came 3:46 after Shari Nishikawa tied the game for the Raiders.
''I'm so happy for her," Kapaa coach Val Ornellas said. ''She played for me as a freshman, then went to Iolani as a sophomore, but came back to Kauai at the end of the season when her living arrangements didn't work out."
Marti said her father, Salvador, who once played halfback in a Spanish professional league, taught her the game.
The prospect of going into another overtime worried senior goalkeeper Joanna Petterson, who came to Hawaii from Johannesburg with her family six years ago.
Early in the game, she dove to stop a shot by Momi Markus, one of her three saves.
''It just touched my fingers and went off the post," Petterson said.
In the second half, she slid out to stop Katie Mau, who had a clean breakaway.
The rain intensified with about eight minutes left in the game, which concerned Petterson.
''I was worried that I might not be able to handle the ball or I might slip and not be able to get up for a shot," she said.
Sophomore Arlene Devitt, who scored the first goal 3:36 into the game, has three goals in the tournament. She scored two in Wednesday's 4-3 preliminary win against Na Alii.
Baldwin, the Maui Interscholastic League champion, got on the board first with a goal by Alana Souza at 2:52, but the Buffanblu scored the next three goals.
Michele Irimata cut the Punahou lead to 3-2 at 53:49, but six minutes later, an ''own goal" knocked in by a Baldwin defender gave the Buffanblu a cushion.
For the second day in a row, the Cougars enjoyed an overwhelming advantage on the attack, outshooting Konawaena, 14-1.
Goalkeeper Napua Kamoku made four saves for Konawaena. Kaiser goalkeeper Meghan Hamilton didn't have to make any.
Still kicking
Castle 1, Pearl City 0 (2OT)
Kapaa 2, Iolani 1
Kaiser 2, Konaweana 0
Punahou 5, Baldwin 2
Kapaa vs. Kaiser, 5:30 p.m.
Punahou vs. Castle, 7:30 p.m.
Championship, 7:30 p.m.
Aloha Stadium
