By KEVIN JAKAHI
Tribune-Herald sports writer
Christian Liberty sophomore striker Louis Moylan and senior goalie Taylor Benevente made the lion’s share of big plays in the first round of the playoffs on a simmering Tuesday at Amauulu Field.
But their teammate, Nakaya Kerr, was equally effective without scoring or stopping goals in the Canefire’s 2-1 victory over Kamehameha in a Big Island Interscholastic Federation Division II quarterfinal boys match.
CLA (8-3-3) will face Hawaii Prep (9-5) in the BIIF semifinals on Thursday at 3 p.m. at Amauulu for a berth to the Division II state tournament. In the regular season, the Canefire beat the Ka Makani 4-3. Last season, HPA ousted CLA 2-1 in the first round.
The fleet-footed Kerr, a fellow sophomore striker with a team-leading 13 goals, often drew the attention of Warrior defenders, opening up space for others — a nice advantage Moylan turned into two goals.
“They keyed on Nakaya, dropping three guys on him and surrounding him when he was in the middle of the field,” CLA coach Troy Rimel said. “That opened things up for our wings. But we couldn’t get the ball in the back of the net. Their goalie (Pomai Racpan) played fantastic. We took 23 shots.”
Down 2-0 with time running out, Kaua Aganus scored on a header from Elroy Roldan’s long throw-in with four minutes left for the Warriors (4-9-1), who never got another good scoring opportunity again. They earlier missed on a pair of golden header attempts.
The first was Roldan’s header over the crossbar. Then Roldan, a senior midfielder who was out with an injury for much of the season, whipped a long throw-in that found Jairah Chun-Lai in a crowd, the ball landing in Benevente’s hands, one of his eight saves.
“That was right at my fingertips,” Benevente said. “I haven’t been starting for the whole season. It’s my last year. I’ll try to go out with a bang.”
CLA had a goalkeeper platoon, rotating in David Sato, another senior, but gave the starting nod to Benevente, who played the entire game and made one good save after another.
The Canefire showed fluid ball movement, finding the open man, switching fields and running the offense through Kerr as much as possible. And whenever the quick-dribbling striker had the ball, he was a threat to inflict damage.
With seven minutes remaining in the first half, Kerr attacked down the left flank, skipped past a pair of Warriors and fed Moylan a room-service pass to knock in. Moylan slotted it by Racpan, a senior goalie.
Moylan got his ninth goal of the season just six minutes into the second half when he dribbled around Kamehameha’s defense down the left sideline and tagged the back of the net, again.
“It was a good game. We had to play our best game to keep it close,” Kamehameha coach Christopher King-Gates said. “They’ve got tremendous players in Louis and Nakaya. We kept them in control for most of the game, but they earned it.
“We’re a young team, with five seniors. They gave a lot to the team. We’re going to be a lot stronger next year. We lost to Iolani 10-0 in the preseason. We saw progress and improved over the course of the season.”
Meanwhile, Moylan’s enthusiasm peaks when he gets an assist, not a goal. The funny thing is he doesn’t keep tabs of either stat.
“Nakaya has dribbling ability and speed and can shoot with either foot,” he said. “I’m more of a give-and-go guy, pass the ball when I receive it. I’m looking forward to breaking Richard’s career assist record.”
His brother Richard Moylan, a 2010 CLA graduate and who now plays at Cornerstone (Mich.) University, had 46 assists. Louis didn’t have any on Tuesday. He has 13 this season and 11 last year, more than halfway toward brother’s mark.
Louis gave his brother’s assist milestone a quick thought then quickly turned the page. He was already dialed in to beating HPA again.
“We have to come out with a lot of intensity,” he said. “That really keeps us going the whole game.”
