KAILUA-KONA – From the start, Hawaii Prep made it clear they were going to be attacking early and often.
In their HHSAA first-round contest Monday against the Mustangs of Kalaheo, Ka Makani raced out to a 12-0 start, ensuring there would be no drama as they moved onto Thursday’s quarterfinal round on Oahu.
“We wanted to come out with intensity; we wanted to come out letting our defense make steals and then driving our counter attack,” said Hawaii Prep head coach Greg McKenna. “That was huge; I was super proud of these girls for coming out from the beginning of the game fired up and ready to play.”
Hawaii Prep routinely used a suffocating defense to spark their offense. Claire Hughes and Maile Imonen were the main beneficiaries of Ka Makani’s fast break; Hughes led the team with eight goals on the day, followed by Imonen’s six.
“We’ve got a lot of fast girls,” said McKenna. “We’re super lucky with that, being able to kind of let the horses run… It was really nice to see them come out fired up the first game at states and take it.”
By the time Kalaheo netted their first goal of the day, with just over two minutes to play until halftime, the game’s outcome was all but decided. Hawaii Prep led 7-0 after the first quarter, 12-2 at the half and 19-4 after three quarters of play.
Ali Wawner and Gracie Tadaki each added four goals apiece for Ka Makani.
Awaiting Hawaii Prep on Thursday are the second-seeded Rough Riders of Roosevelt. The OIA Champions and Ka Makani will square off at Kamehameha Schools Kapalama on Oahu at 5:45 p.m.
“Now we’ve got to really tighten up some of those transition plays: how we get the ball down the field after we’ve made a steal,” said McKenna of how the team planes to keep their momentum rolling as they head to Oahu. “We’re going to be swimming with teams on Oahu that are as fast as us. How do we then turn that into productive offense when it’s not the counter-attack?
“We’re super excited to go over there and represent Big Island.”
In the only other HHSAA opening-round contest Monday featuring a Big Island school, Waiakea fell to KS-Kapalama by a score of 21-1.
KS-Hawaii will face Kaiser – who defeated Mililani 14-4 in their HHSAA opener – on Thursday at KS-Kapalama. Start time for contest between the fourth-seeded Warriors and Cougars is scheduled for 3:15 p.m.
