Posted on: Friday, January 30, 2004

SOCCER
Kaiser, Kalaheo boys reach OIA semifinals

By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer

Kaiser High School senior Michael Perrino did not play even one second during his Cougars' 100 minutes of soccer against Pearl City last night in the O'ahu Interscholastic Association quarterfinals at Moanalua.

But he made the game's decisive play, sneaking a shot into the lower right corner of the net to lift Kaiser to a 2-1 upset in penalty kicks over the Western Division's No. 2 seed. The Cougars (10-1-1) will play Kalaheo (7-3-2) in Tuesday's semifinals at 'Aiea.

Pearl City (8-2) will play Moanalua (8-2-1) in the consolation bracket Tuesday at Kailua. The Chargers must win two games to earn a state tournament berth; Kaiser, the East's No. 3 seed, clinched its berth with last night's victory.

"Day-in and day-out, our coaches hammer us with drills, including PKs," said Perrino, a reserve forward who was the Cougars' sixth shooter. "We work our tails off, and we knew it'd come down to this."

Not many would have guessed the same with the way last night's game began.

Pearl City scored in the fourth minute on Kyle Kurashima's rebound shot from just inside the goal box. Kaiser answered less than a minute later on Curt Sadd's header near the right post off a cross from the left flank.

The teams then went scoreless over the next 75 minutes of regulation and 20 overtime minutes, forcing the penalty kicks.

"I think after we scored our goal, if we could have held them off a little bit, we would have maintained our lead," Chargers coach Scott Keopuhiwa said. "We just had a little lapse and got disorganized. We didn't play our best game, but Kaiser deserves a lot of credit for that because they play the ball well in the air and we weren't able to break them down like we wanted to."

Each team made its first two penalty kicks, then each missed on its third shooter. After the teams traded the next four kicks to tie it at 4-4, Pearl City missed its shot about two feet wide left. Perrino then slowly walked from midfield to the ball until the referee told him to "hustle!"

"Thanks to my teammates for keeping me calm, because that made the difference," Perrino said. "Once we hit that point (when each team missed), I knew it was gonna be me up there, but my teammates told me, 'It's OK, just keep cool.' Plus I knew I had good guys behind me at 7-8-9. When I was walking to the ball, I looked up to the sky and prayed to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

Cougars coach Herb Schreiner said he's thankful as well.

"Pearl City's a tough team, and we had to come back from playing last night," Schreiner said. "But this team deserves to be in the states. I'm real happy we made it."

• Kalaheo 1, Moanalua 0: Freshman Dylan Eichelberger scored on a short rebound goal in a crowded penalty kick arc in the 43rd minute to lift the visiting Mustangs (7-3-2) to an upset of the East's No. 1 seed.

The Menehunes, who fell to 8-2-1, outshot Kalaheo 7-5 in the second half, including several attempts near the goal in the final 17 minutes. But Mustangs keeper Ryan Kelly made two crucial saves in the 74th minute and Moanalua could not convert a ball near the goal in the 78th minute.

Kalaheo, which was missing several players early in the season because of family trips and academic probation, started out 0-3 with four freshmen in the lineup. But the Mustangs haven't lost since, including a 2-1 victory over 'Aiea in the 83rd minute Wednesday night.

"We had a hard schedule in the beginning and we lost to these guys (Moanalua) 5-1," Kalaheo coach Leo Titcomb said. "But I think we had the advantage tonight because we had nothing to lose."

• CASTLE 3, KAPOLEI 2: Ethan Gonsalves scored two goals and Justin Lau added one goal to lead the Knights (9-1-1) past the Hurricanes (8-3-0).

Rhys Kita scored both of Kapolei's goals.

• MILILANI 5, LEILEHUA 1: Evan Kato, Justin Iha, Justin Ching, Jay Abrigo and Brent Murakami each scored to lead the Trojans (10-0-0) past the Mules (6-5).

Syd Tom scored Leilehua's goal.

• Kapolei seeded No. 3: The Kapolei girls team received the OIA West's No. 3 seed after finishing the regular season 8-2-0. The Hurricanes, who play Roosevelt at Radford at 7:15 p.m. today, were inadvertently omitted from a story in yesterday's Advertiser.

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2456.