Bears claim MIL girls soccer championship
Kamehameha Warriors take second
Photo by Alyssa Urayanza
Clara-Josephine Medeiros (17) heads the ball into the goal. Unfortunately, she was charged with a handball and the goal did not count. The final score for the game was 2-1 with Baldwin up by one.
The Kamehameha Warriors and Baldwin Bears battled it out on the field Friday night during the 2015 playoffs at King Kekaulike High School. Both teams gave it their all, but the Bears barely came out on top with a close score of 2-1 and secured the first seed in the state tournament.
“They wanted it. They wanted it just as bad as us. You know, it is what it is,” head coach Steven Mau said. “They got us by one, you know, but I believe we should have won it, too, and I believe we deserved it, too.”
The Bears’ Kacy Navarro scored the first goal of the game in the thirteenth minute, followed by Kamehameha’s Clara-Josephine Medeiros with a free kick in the twenty-first minute. Medeiros scored again on a header in front of the Bears’ goal, along with Quinn Williams on a follow-up shot, but both goals did not count due to a hand-ball call and another foul.
From the very beginning, the teams clashed with each other resulting in three players getting yellow cards in the first half. By halftime, the score was tied at 1-1 with the Bears receiving sixteen free kicks and the Warriors only nine. A free kick is received when a foul is committed by the opposing team.
“They played direct soccer. Direct soccer meaning that they hit the ball long and go run up on it, and go get it,” Coach Mau said. “We got caught up in their game. Our tactical positioning on the field, per se, and our first-to-the-balls wasn’t there because they were tiring us out.”
The tie was broken early in the second half by another goal from Baldwin, putting them in the lead by a single point. Despite being down by one, the Warriors kept up the resistance and managed two close shot attempts, but to no avail.
“In the last couple minutes we were just scrambling, and it was pretty much just kickball all around. Maybe if we stuck a little more together, if we had settled down, I think it would have been better,” senior Tynell Ornellas said.
“I think we’re going to build from this. I think this is a good, humbling thing for us, so that when we get to states, we work hard, and we work hard throughout.”
As the clocked ticked on, the game came to an end, and the Baldwin Bears emerged victorious as the new Maui Interscholastic League Champions.
“As a competitor, as an athlete, you get down on yourself when you don’t succeed. But these girls, they put their heart on the field today. As a player, as long as you [leave] everything out on the field, [you won’t lose], ” Coach Mau said.
The team will play their first state game on O’ahu February 13.
