KEAAU — In lieu of more soccer heartbreak, George Ichimaru got hugs, and more than a few.
As a boisterous Hilo High cheering section counted down the seconds until the party officially started, Ichimaru turned and embraced his assistants. After the Vikings received their medals and as the feeling was still sinking in, Don Memmer, the architect of what was heretofore the Vikings’ last BIIF Division I boys championship, came down from stands and gave Ichimaru a hug. Memmer echoed a word that has been in vogue the past two weeks at Paiea Stadium: finally.
Ichimaru, who always tried to say the right things after championship defeats, at first didn’t have much to say: “A loss of words.”
“It’s well-deserved for this team. They bought in, they believed in themselves, they believed in this system,” he said. “They left it all out on that field tonight. …
“They all came together, and that fire in their eyes when they came out for that first day (of practice),” Ichimaru said, “you could just see it and feel it. It lit a spark under us.”
One week after Waiakea’s girls claimed their first soccer crown, the Vikings’ 3-0 win against Kealakehe in a physical encounter brought the school its first title in 11 years, reversing a trend that had seen Hilo suffer comically bad luck in the title match.
“I think we knew it had been a while,” junior Michael DeCoito said, “but we had to focus on the right now.”
The Vikings had seven runner-up finishes since 2011 — five times at the hands of the Waveriders. Ichimaru had coached Hilo to five second-place finishes, all in closely contested losses, though that doesn’t do the situation justice. Defeats in 2015 and 2016 at Kealakehe came after the Waveriders scored go-ahead goals in the final 15 minutes, and those were the easy ones to take. In 2017, Kealakehe broke a scoreless tie with about 4 minutes remaining; Hawaii Prep beat Hilo in the 2019 final only after the match went to a shootout; and Waiakea earned the 2020 title in overtime.
“They don’t know the history, they made history tonight,” Ichimaru said. “They’re in the record book, that’s all that matters. It’s been a very long time, I’m glad to bring it back for Hilo High.”
Maybe Kani Tolentino-Perry was the good-luck charm. The sophomore scored a goal to put Hilo up 2-0 with 13 minutes remaining on a play that started when Ko’ea Pe’a took a free kick from the left side after a Kealakehe yellow card. Tolentino-Perry ultimately succeeded where his brothers – Kalei (Class of 2017) and Haku (2020), each an all-star in his own right – hadn’t.
What did he have that his brothers didn’t?
“I had the team. We had a strong team this year, and we believed we could win, we believed in ourselves,” Kani Tolentino-Perry said. “The first 10 minutes of the game, (Kealakehe) came out hard, and we adjusted.”
If there was any sort of here-we-go-again mentality starting to creep in for Hilo, it subsided in the 14th minute when Kyler Rivera let fly a free kick from near the left sideline, 30 yards from of the end line. The Waveriders goalkeeper appeared to come out to try and grab the ball before a Hilo player got a touch on it, but the ball sailed over this head and into the net, much to the delight of the Vikings’ partisans.
“I love it,” Tolentino-Perry said of the support. “Hilo High, I love it.”
DeCoito made it 3-0 with just more than a minute remaining, stealing a throw from the keeper and firing the ball back into the net from more than 25 yards out.
That put the exclamation point on a match that was intense from start to finish and downright ill-tempered at times. Multiple cards were handed out to both teams, including an ejection for the Waveriders (7-3-1).
“Very intense,” DeCoito said. “I think that’s to be expected. Everyone is psyched to be here.”
Tysen Kaniaupio kept a clean sheet as Hilo (10-1) again made sure dangerous Kealakehe striker Mathew Enriquez didn’t dent the scoreboard. Enriquez scored a BIIF-best 24 goals in nine matches not involving Hilo, which beat the Waveriders 2-0 in the regular-season.
“It was there time,” Kealakehe coach Hayato Fukumitsu said. “I’m happy for George.”
The Waveriders will host an HHSAA first-round match Monday, Feb. 28. The quarterfinals begin three days later at Oahu’s Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex, which is Hilo’s next stop.
Amid all the postgame hugs, assistant coach Kalei Tolentino-Perry marveled at the abilities of his brother and the accomplishment of he and his teammates. Kalei lost four consecutive title games to Kealakehe before his standout soccer career took him to San Jose State and then UH-Hilo. In his first year assisting Ichimaru, he reminded the team that they could make “something very, very special happen.”
“I can at least say I have one of my brother’s (titles). But, of course, it has to be the youngest one.”
