Hilo High boys soccer team came home with a trophy to be proud of, but not the trophy.
“The small one is nice but we wanted the big one,” Vikings coach George Ichimaru said.
A historic season – Hilo hadn’t played for the HHSAA championship since 2001 – came to a sour ending Saturday night in Honolulu as Maui’s King Kekaulike turned out to be the team that was fit for its first crown, winning 3-1 in just the second all-neighbor island Division I final in the 48-year history of the state tournament.
On such a big stage, Ichimaru said, it’s the small things that make all the difference. Frankly, he admitted, the BIIF champion Vikings let their emotions get the best of them and lost their cool at times.
“Playing in the state final for the first time, none of us had ever been to this level, it got to us,” Ichimaru said. “I thought the referee lost control of the game.”
Even when Hilo finally did get rolling on Ko’ae Pe’a’s blast with more than 23 minutes remaining in the match, cutting its deficit to 3-1, it was two steps forward, one step back for the Viks. Na Alii goalkeeper Nainoa Pascual grabbed the ball after the goal and Hilo’s Sequoia Cortes-Medeiros and Harman tried to get it from him. Pascual resisted and ended up getting tossed to the ground, and Harman was called for two yellow cards.
That cost the Vikings their leading scorer and it them than with just 10 players on the field as they tried to make a comeback.
And did they try, turning up the heat late.
“Hilo came out with a very strong side, and we definitely had to adapt on the fly,” King Kekaulike Tye Perdido said.
Hilo held a slight 10-9 advantage in shots and took all six of the corner kicks in the match.
One of the Vikings’ first prime scoring chances came within the first 20 minutes on a header by Harman off a corner kick. A few minutes later, Cortes-Medeiros fired just wide left. Its final chance took bounces off Pascual and the crossbar.
King Kekaulike took a 2-0 lead just before halftime. After a yellow card, Bailey Hofmann’s free kick soared past goalkeeper Tysen Kaniaupio, and Ichimaru said there was a miscommunication on the play.
“I just thought we were clinical as a team and that we were quick to every loose ball,” said King Kekaulike’s Owen Riecke, who scored the first goal of the match off a rebound.
Kani Tolentino-Perry, Harman and Kaniaupio each were named to the all-tournament team. Harman, Tolentino-Perry, Michael DeCoito and Cortes-Medeiros could help lead the charge next season for a squad that looses just four seniors.
The Vikings should be loaded next season, but Ichimaru said, “You never know when you’re going to make it back.”
That just one of the reasons he wanted the big trophy.
