Sunday, February 3, 2002
[ HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER ]
The golden sun was fading just as the golden-clad Mililani Trojans were bursting to the Oahu Interscholastic Association boys soccer championship last night. Murakami and Suenaga lift
Mililani to OIA boys crownBy Nick Abramo
nabramo@starbulletin.comDefending state champion Mililani dominated much of the title game against Kaiser in a battle of two unbeaten teams, but the Trojans had to hang tough to hold on to a 2-1 victory over the Cougars at the Pearl City High School field.
The Trojans (12-0) had several strong scoring chances midway through the first half, but didn't break through until just before halftime when Nathan Amous headed a pass to Brent Murakami who drilled a low shot into the low left corner of the net for a 1-0 lead.
"Brent's goal was a real critical goal," said Mililani coach Jeff Yamamoto.
Amous nearly set up Gainor Nitta a few minutes earlier on a give-and-go, but Nitta's rocket went too high. Before that, Murakami threaded a pass between Kaiser defenders to Whitney Shimatsu, but Shimatsu's shot also went over the net.
Early in the second half, Mililani gained a 2-0 lead when Todd Suenaga tapped home Justin Kim's 30-yard throw-in.
The Trojans' control of field position began to erode as the gritty Cougars (12-1) began to pick up the pace.
A through ball got past Trojans goalie Thomas Brown, but the Mililani defenders recovered just in time to sweep the ball away. Moments later, Brandon Self drilled a 35-yarder that clanged off the crossbar.
The Cougars broke though to make it 2-1 on an artistic passing play. Evan Masunaga headed one to Michael Rivas-Micoud, who in turn directed a pass to Landon Beers, and Beers nailed a low shot into the net.
From there, Kaiser continued to hound Mililani but didn't have any glaring scoring chances.
"We needed a competitive game like this to get ready for the states," Yamamoto said. "Kaiser took us out of our game in the second half. We had some players step it up for us tonight, especially (fullback) Chris Castell, who picked up (and cleared away) all the rubbish balls."
Cougars coach Herb Schreiner was thrilled his team kept it close against what he termed the "stronger" Trojans.
"We kept giving them the ball," he said. "And we weren't really playing our game, which is a control game. The boys wanted it so much that they couldn't settle down and play that control game."
Both teams begin preparation Monday for the upcoming state tournament.
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