KEAAU – As Hawaii Prep poured it on against Kamehameha, one onlooker wondered aloud about the rules of the pool: Is offside a penalty in water polo?
No, it’s an open swim, and if Ka Makani looked like they were cherry picking Saturday it’s because they were so uber-efficient on the counterattack.
Hardly resembling a team that missed most of the past two seasons because of the pandemic, HPA zipped passes to players swimming free to all corners of Naeole Pool, making a BIIF statement of sorts with a 16-7 victory at Naeole Pool.
“Our focus always starts on defense,” coach Greg McKenna said. “The hard defense created offensive opportunities. We’re fortunate, we got a few water polo players that (are) swimmers.”
“Our objective is to make a steal to set up the counterattack.”
Ka Makani (3-0) were one to two steps ahead of the Warriors (2-1) in jumping out to an 11-0 halftime lead. After one second-quarter stop, HPA sent the ball back to goalkeeper Lia Singh, who popped a quick pass on the flank to Ali Wawner, who alertly found Claire Hughes swimming all alone on the Kamehameha goal, giving her team a 7-0 lead.
“There are so many reasons for those counterattacks,” senior Gracie Tadaki said. “It’s just reading the pool and seeing where everyone is.”
When HPA doesn’t come up with a steal, she said it knows a shot attempt is going to go one of three ways: goal, save or off the mark. Either way, Tadaki said, the mindset is the same: “You want to be able to switch back as fast as you can to get on offense. That’s when you get those advantages, and that makes it a lot easier for us to score.”
McKenna likened Singh to a quarterback who has good vision and can see the pool and find open receivers. The team, he said, is built around its four seniors: Hughes, Phoebe Wyatt and Kia’i Tallett included.
“We’re able to lean on the seniors to lead a big group of juniors,” he said. “They are able to support a bunch of girls who have gotten excited and interested in water polo.”
One of them is freshman Maile Imonen, a swimmer who scored five goals. Wawner put home four, Hughes and Lia Craven recorded hat tricks and Tadaki had one. Singh stabbed away a shot from close range by Ka’iulani Rocha to keep Kamehameha off the scoreboard in the first half. Waiahuli Akau scored three goals for Kamehameha, Lainey Eckart collected two and Kacelyn Kubojiri and Oliliu Wise had one each.
The number of losses Kamehameha’s program suffered from 2010-19 under former coach Dan Lyons can be counted on one hand. None of those losses were as lopsided as this one. The only time the Warriors failed to win the BIIF title during that 10-year span came in 2017 when HPA broke through.
Ka Makani appear poised to do it again.
“Every year is a new year,” Tadaki said. “It does feel really nice, just the fact two really good teams were going against each other, and they played a really hard game. It’s nice that we were able to do it as a team.
“We’re finally able to get back in the groove like it was my freshman year. It’s nice to be back and see everyone.”
Earlier, HPA beat Waiakea 17-4, getting five goals from Hughes – four in the first quarter – and four apiece from Imonen and Wawner. Tadaki and Craven had two each. La’akea Nakoa-Oness posted a hat trick and Abigail Keith had one goal for the Warriors. Waiakea (1-2) captured its first win of the season in the last of three games, a 17-2 victory against Keaau. Nakoa-Oness had six goals, Grace Nichols scored four times, Maili McKeague had a hat trick, Kema Todd-Waiden scored twice and Keith and Ava Aiona each found the back of the net once. Ailidh Carroll and Jenesse Trusdell scored for the Cougars (0-3).