The Seabury Hall sophomore scored immediately upon stepping onto the War Memorial Stadium turf in the 73rd minute to lead the Spartans to the Division II boys soccer state tournament with a 1-0 win over St. Anthony yesterday.

"No, never,'' Noufer said to The Maui News when asked if he had ever scored a more important goal. "That was within 15 seconds, I think.''

Noufer had played extensively, then came out of the game before he entered again for an injured Jacob Sandoval when the Spartans had a throw-in in their offensive end late in the game.

"As soon as I went in, Brennan Cunningham made the throw-in to Darren (Fryer) and Darren had it at about the 18 (yard line) and I was just standing there unmarked,'' Noufer said. "Darren just passed it back to me, it was bouncing, trapped right (foot), shot left.''

The 12-yard strike beat Trojans goalkeeper Joshua Fukagawa, but Noufer wasn't sure it would find the back of the net.

"I was thinking, 'I'm wide open,' '' Noufer said. "But when I hit it I thought it was going over the net, but it dropped at the end. That helped a lot. Biggest goal of my life, definitely yes.''

The goal left the Spartans at 5-6-1 in the Maui Interscholastic League, while St. Anthony finished 4-7-1. A tie, which looked probable for most of the match, would have forced a playoff game on Saturday for the league's lone D-II state berth.

Spartans coach Bill Cunningham said the Trojans come to play with a bevy of athletes — St. Anthony said goodbye to nine seniors with the loss — and forced Seabury Hall out of its game.

"It is so tough when we come to play St. Anthony because they bring nothing but athletes and energy,'' Cunningham said. "We don't match up well with teams like that because they just come so hard, nonstop.''

Cunningham said either of the MIL's D-II teams would have represented the island well at the state tournament.

"We both can play with anybody,'' he said. "They drew (with) Baldwin and Baldwin is a tough team, contending right now for number one (in the league). We drew withKing Kekaulike and they are in contention as well. Every match is up for grabs in the MIL.''

When the Spartans were forced out of their possession game, the counterattack gave them several chances in the second half to break the scoreless deadlock before Noufer finally did.

Noufer shot wide from 20 yards in the 51st minute, Sandoval was wide right on a breakaway four minutes later and Conner Snow was stopped by Fukagawa on another break moments after that. With 19 minutes to go, Snow had another good chance that went wide left.

St. Anthony coach Cemil Tanju was impressed with the hard-fought game.

"It was a tough game, a very tough game,'' Tanju said. "Of course, we were thinking tie or win. We were a different team than the last time we played Sea-bury (in a 1-0 loss Dec. 5). We had a lot of our kids who were on vacation then back for this game, so we were a different team.''

Tanju also gave credit to the Spartans.

"They are always tough, they have got heart, they always try really hard, they have got good coaches, you never know what is going to happen,'' he said. "They have their secret plays that they are out there trying to do on the field and we just had a bunch of different people than the last time we played them, so I knew it was going to be a tougher game. I hope Seabury goes over there (to state), represents Maui well and kicks some butt.''

Perhaps Noufer put it best as the Spartans get ready for the state tournament, scheduled for Feb. 6-9 on O'ahu.

"Do good, win a few games, do as well as we can, maybe state title, it is D-II,'' he said with a smile.

MIL STANDINGS

BOYS

Division I

W L T Pts

Kamehameha Maui* 10 0 2 32

Baldwin* 8 1 2 26

King Kekaulike 6 2 3 21

Maui High 1 8 3 6

Lahainaluna 0 10 2 2

Division II

W L T Pts

Seabury Hall* 5 6 1 16

St. Anthony 4 7 1 13

Yesterday's Results

Kamehameha Maui 2, King Kekaulike 1

Seabury Hall 1, St. Anthony 0

Tuesday's Game

Baldwin at King Kekaulike, 5 p.m.

End of regular season

GIRLS

Division I

W L T Pts

Kamehameha Maui* 13 1 0 39

King Kekaulike* 11 2 1 34

Baldwin 10 3 1 31

Lahainaluna 6 5 3 21

Maui High 3 8 3 12

Division II

W L T Pts

St. Anthony* 5 7 2 17

Seabury Hall 3 11 0 9

Moloka'i 0 14 0 0

Yesterday's Results

King Kekaulike 3, Kamehameha Maui 1

St. Anthony 2, Seabury Hall 1

End of regular season

*—qualified for state soccer tournament