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Thursday, February 15, 2001
Na Alii didn’t Aiea and Kamehameha had more than each other to contend with last night at Aloha Stadium in the opening round of the AT&T Wireless Boys' State Soccer Championships.
lose any power
Stadium power outages force
officials to suspend Mililani-
Kealakehe gameBy Jack Danilewicz
Special to the Star-BulletinThey also had to battle the elements.
After Na Alii's workmanlike 1-0 win amid damp wind gusts and blowing rain, coach John Shirafuji hadn't forgotten the significance of getting the desirable side of the field for the first half.
"The weather played a big part," said Shirafuji, whose team advanced to a quarterfinal match against No. 4 seed Hilo today.
"In the first half, when we had the wind, we tried to use it to our advantage," he said. "We scored early, and that helped us put pressure on them the whole half. The second half was another story. That wind was crazy."
A brief power outage interrupted play with 19:48 remaining in the second half. By that time, Aiea had already downshifted into a more conservative approach in hopes of making Matt Itagaki's goal at 8:42 into the game stand up.
Although the game finished without further complication, the day's final game between Mililani and Kealakehe was suspended at intermission due to three more power outages.
The third one of the game occurred seconds after the completion of the scoreless first half.
Mililani and Kealakehe were to complete the second half of their game this morning.
"Scoring first is a big advantage on a night like that," said Shirafuji, whose team improved to 11-3. "We wanted to be careful not to turn it over in our defensive third (of the field).
"We wanted to clear everything (out of the zone) if we could and stay on the attack a bit and put some pressure back on Kamehameha."
The 10-minute delay came at a time when Kamehameha (9-3-2) was pressing hard to equal the score. Of the Warriors' 12 shots for the night, eight came in the last 12 minutes.
Aiea goal keeper Matt Yoshimura was up to the challenge, however, turning the Warriors away each time.
"We came out kind of slow," said Kamehameha coach Andrew Ah New. "We didn't pick up our man right, and I think their quick score on us really messed up our heads. They were down for awhile, but the kids started fighting back in the last 10 minutes of the first half and in the second half.
"We talked about picking up man (to man) better and about getting some shots at the half. We weren't shooting too much in the first 20 minutes," he said.
Itagaki beat Kamehameha goalie Zachary McAngus low to the right side for Aiea's score. Teammate Jarvis Uehara assisted on the goal by way of a corner kick.
"I was surprised to see the opening," Itagaki said. "They covered everybody, but the center (area). I ran to that spot, and the ball just skipped over everybody. It made one skip off the turf, and I got to it. There was nobody there. There was just a big hole."
Kamehameha's best scoring opportunity came with just under eight minutes to go in the game when Kekoa Smith was on the way to what looked like a clear breakaway.
But Yoshimura came out to challenge the shot and deflected the ball in the air, just long enough to enable Itagaki to clear the zone.
"We've always stressed defense first, and tonight was probably his (Yoshimura's) best game of the year," Shirafuji said. "The whole team showed a lot of heart tonight. Everybody stepped up."
Like Yoshimura, McAngus was also stellar in net, keeping his team in the mix in the first half after yielding the game's only goal. Only four minutes after setting up Itagaki's goal, Uehara had a chance to increase the lead with a scoring chance at close range, but McAngus, moving from his left to right, came up with a big save.
Campbell 2, Hawaii Prep 0:
David Peterson scored in the 23rd minute and Michael Ryman added a goal in the final minute to help the Sabers (9-4-1) win in their state tournament debut.Ka Makani fell to 13-4.
Campbell meets defending state champion Iolani (8-1-3) in the quarterfinals today at 3:30 p.m.
Kalani 1, Kapaa 0:
Alex Fraher notched a goal at 12:05 and the Falcons made it stand up in a hard-fought game against the Kauai Interscholastic Federation champion Warriors (7-2-2).Kapaa committed 30 fouls and received five yellow cards and three reds.
The Warriors had nine shots on goal and Richard Dabbs made four saves for the Falcons, who also played their first-ever state tournament game.
Kalani meets No. 1 seed Pearl City today at 7:30 p.m.
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