KEAAU – The thriller occurred in late January 2019, but Aidan Santos can rattle off the vital details of his last BIIF soccer match like it was yesterday.
A BIIF Division I boys semifinal pitted Waiakea and Hawaii Prep in Waimea, and Santos, then a Warrior punctuating a fine freshman season, played a central role.
“John (Grover) scored a penalty kick, Jake (Schneider) equalized it (for HPA),” Santos recalled in a matter-of-fact manner. “I scored to go ahead and we went to half. Tage (Boyette) scored a PK (for HPA), and we went to golden goal, and Conor Hunt scored the winner (for HPA).”
Then Santos waited to get back on the soccer field. And then he waited some more.
First he sat because, by rule, he had to after transferring to HPA, a private school. Then he sat like everyone else because of the pandemic.
So, with HPA providing an ending and a beginning, Santos is as happy as anyone that high school soccer, even in an abbreviated form, is back.
“It feels amazing,” he said. “Having sat out my sophomore year, it really provided fire for me to come out my junior year and just perform.”
That fire was on display early and often Friday as he scored a hat trick in Ka Makani’s 8-0 win against Kamehameha at Paiea Stadium. Granted these are not BIIF matches – Santos will have to wait another year for that – but “a match is a match. I just love the sport so much,” he said.
“This year is a little different, we only have a set number or matches, but I try to look at it as we’re playing, so no matter what we have to win and do the job. I’m very happy for the opportunity that we’ve been given to be out here and play.”
Conditioning played a key role in the lopsided result between two prideful programs.
“It’s on me, I didn’t get them ready to the point where all of them could last the full 80 minutes,” Kamehameha coach Kevin Waltjen said. “I should have had them better conditioned and hydrated. It’s on me.”
During normal times, he would have run his team through a summer league and beyond to ensure their physical fitness.
As it was, the Warriors were playing for the first time during this modified winter season being hosted by the two private schools. Not only were Ka Makani (2-0-1) playing for the third time, but they have also spent more time on the practice field, HPA coach James Berry said.
But at least for a half, the match featured the intensity one would expect from the two rivals. Kamehameha was hanging tough down 2-0 at halftime, but Santos’ goal seemed to open the floodgates as the Warriors gave way to fatigue and cramps.
“Kamehameha’s boys came out fighting, I respect their efforts,” Santos said. “They played really solid defense. Once one of their players cramped and went down, I think the game kind of changed. There was a little less intensity, and things opened up a little more.”
“I just got really good service,” he said of a hat trick that gives him four goals on the season, including one that powered a 1-1 draw against a Kona club team.
Justin Heilmann scored his second and third goals, and Carl Boberg, Noah Balaam and Noah Furchner added one apiece.
Berry’s original plan was to make HPA’s state Division II championship victory last February against Kapaa the final match of a two-year stint.
He was set to move to the mainland before the pandemic changed those plans, but Berry’s tried his hardest not to let the pandemic alter the way Ka Makani go about their business.
“So far every game they’ve given us what we’ve asked of them,” he said. “Small adjustments, and we get better and better every game we’ve played. We’re hoping to get a little better the next game (March 4 against Kamehameha in Waimea).
“We know that second half wasn’t the real Kamehameha.”
Waltjen and son Logan – a senior who’s balancing the college soccer offers he’s received against his desire to study engineering – are the last remaining links to the Warriors’ state title-winning team in 2018. Kamehameha repeated as BIIF D-II champs in 2019, but it lost in the semifinals in 2020 and failed to reach the state tournament.
Even if this were a normal season, Kevin Waltjen said it would be building year for the Warriors.
It definitely is now with just two games scheduled.
“It has to be about development,” he said. “It’s something, for the guys that are seniors, at least they get something. It’s something to get the kids out there again.”
He praised his team’s defense and passing, to a point, and saw bright spots ahead for the program.
“There were four or five freshmen, you’re going to see their names show up,” Waltjen said.