Wednesday, January 23, 2002

[ PREP SOCCER ]

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Kalaheo's Lindsey Peck, the top scorer in the East, is focused on helping the Mustangs win an OIA championship.

Kalaheo senior strives for
top of pecking order

Peck had 17 goals this season at a new
position for the Mustangs, who hope to
break through for an OIA title

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By Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.com

Close isn't good enough for Lindsey Peck. Not any more.

As a freshman, she helped the Kalaheo girls soccer team advance to the Oahu Interscholastic Association championship match only to see the Mustangs lose a tight game with Aiea.

Her junior year ended with overtime losses to Kahuku and Kailua in the OIA playoffs. Both games were decided by penalty kicks.

Now a senior and faced with her last chance to hang an OIA or state championship banner in Kalaheo gym, Peck hopes to help the Mustangs win the close games this postseason.

"I'm pretty confident we can do it," Peck said. "We've shown we can do it and this whole season we've been improving."

Peck, one of just three seniors on the Kalaheo roster, leads the Mustangs into the Oahu Interscholastic Association playoffs this week.

The 12-team tournament opens Friday with first round games at Pearl City and Roosevelt and continues Saturday with quarterfinal action at Mililani and Kailua.

Kalaheo went 8-1-1 to win the OIA East championship this season and will take on the winner of the first-round match between Waialua and Castle in the quarterfinals. A win would give the Mustangs a place in the semifinals and a berth in the state tournament. A loss would drop them into the fifth-place bracket needing two wins to gain the league's fifth spot in the state tournament.

"That first night is a key night for us," Kalaheo coach Alan Heu said. "We don't want to have to go in the back door."

For Kalaheo to reach its goals as a team, the Mustangs will need Peck to continue filling the goal in the postseason.

Peck finished the regular season first in the OIA East and tied for second in the OIA in scoring with 17 goals. She scored a season-high six goals in Kalaheo's 11-0 win over McKinley.

Peck played halfback for her first three years of high school, but the Kalaheo coaches moved her to forward this year to provide more offensive punch.

The Mustangs experimented with the move last year, but Peck eventually found herself back in the midfield area. The coaches gave it another shot when practice began in October, and this time the change stuck.

"We convinced her it was a good thing for her to do, and it has paid dividends," Heu said.

Peck enjoys a reciprocal relationship with fellow forward Tina Garcia, who scored nine goals this season to finish fourth in the division. If teams assign a defender to shadow Peck, Garcia can find openings to score. Likewise, Garcia's scoring ability only helps Peck.

"(Peck) is a large part of our offense, but she's not all of it," Heu said.

"We have to be one team, from the coaches to the players, to achieve our goal of getting to the state tournament. It's not going to be just one person to get us there."

Peck first started kicking a ball around when she joined a Kailua youth league at age 5. She joined the Hawaii Youth Soccer Association program in Kailua when she was 8 and has played alongside four of her current teammates every year since.

"It helps a lot because you can read each other's mind and know where they're going to be on the field," Peck said.

Her experience on the field is also evident in Peck's ability to turn a ball-handling drill into a dance.

"One of the coaches was saying when they watch Lindsey do some of these things, she's almost like a ballerina," Heu said. "She has those kinds of movements that are so fluid."

Along with her ball-handling ability, Peck uses her speed to sprint past defenders and toward the goal. She trained with the Kailua AA track club as a youngster under Duncan Macdonald, competing in the hurdle and sprint events. She spent most of the last four years concentrating on soccer but plans to try out for the Kalaheo track and field team in the spring.

"She's able to use her speed and her moves to get around the defender and score," Heu said.

After Kalaheo finished fifth in the division last year, Peck attributes Kalaheo's rise this year to the foundation set 12 months ago.

"Last year we really concentrated on our defense, and this year we've been concentrating on offense," she said. "So now everything's clicking."

But the Mustangs know all too well that solid offense and defense aren't always enough to win in the postseason.

"We've been practicing our penalty shots like crazy," Peck said.

OIA GIRLS SCHEDULE FRIDAY At Pearl City Kahuku (East 4) vs. Leilehua (West 5), 5:30 p.m. Kaiser (East 6) vs. Pearl City (West 3), 7:15 p.m. At Roosevelt Waialua (West 4) vs. Castle (East 5), 5:30 p.m. Radford (West 6) vs. Roosevelt (East 3), 7:15 p.m. SATURDAY Quarterfinals At Mililani Kailua (East 2) vs. Pearl City/Kaiser winner, 5:15 p.m. Mililani (West 1) vs. Kahuku/Leilehua winner, 7 p.m. At Kailua Aiea (West 2) vs. Roosevelt/Radford winner, 5:15 p.m. Kalaheo (East 1) vs. Waialua/Castle winner, 7 p.m. JAN. 29 Fifth-place bracket At Castle Quarterfinals losers, 5:15 and 7 p.m. JAN. 30 Semifinals At Mililani Quarterfinal winners, 5:15 and 7 p.m. FEB. 1 At Castle Third-place match, semifinal losers, 5:15 p.m. Fifth-place match, 7 p.m. FEB. 2 Championship At Pearl City Semifinal winners, 7:30 p.m.

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