Crisp Kamehameha accelerates into state final

Coach Missy Moore has been here before. Her Kamehameha Warriors of 2019 have not.

We’re talking about the Division I final of The Queen’s Medical Center/HHSAA Girls Soccer State Championships. It’s Saturday night at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium. The Warriors got there by dispatching fourth-seeded and MIL champion King Kekaulike with a convincing 6-0 semifinal victory Friday night.

One more win, on Saturday against an upstart Campbell squad, will give ILH champion and top-seeded Kamehameha its ninth state championship and first since 2014. Moore was part of two of those titles, in 2012 and ’14.

Both teams, Kamehameha (12-2) and unseeded Campbell (12-4-1), appear to be peaking. The Warriors, as usual, had to survive the ILH league campaign, winning it for the second time in a row to get to states. Now, it’s two straight dominant victories at states with one more obstacle in the way.

Moore and her squad won’t be taking the Sabers lightly. They know Campbell, even though it placed fifth in both the OIA West and the OIA tournament, is in the final for a reason.

“I think we can’t just think we’re going to win it,” striker D’awncey Jones-Black said. “We have to go hard all the time. That’s what I try to do … I try to motivate the team that we’re not done with business yet. Honestly, Campbell is overall a well-rounded team. They can possess, they can be physical and they can capitalize, so I think we just have to stay strong with how we play.”

For the second match in a row, a Kamehameha girl scored three goals. In a 3-0 quarterfinal win over Mililani on Thursday, it was Maya Hagiwara who got the hat trick. On Friday, it was speedy right wing Kalia Kalua.

“When I see her around school, I can tell she’s very hungry,” Jones-Black said about Kalua. “She’s been eager to score and I just knew she was going to finish all her opportunities tonight.”

Jones-Black, one of the team leaders, gave props to the back line, which is led anchored by Hayley Silipa, one of the center backs, with lots of help from others.

“The center backs really connect and read each other well,” Jones-Black said. “And our outside backs tuck in and play as a unit.”

Jones-Black scored a high-energy goal on Friday in which she dribbled from the Kamehameha end down the left side and motored through the last defender to push a shot in.

“I was looking for options to connect, but there wasn’t anything, so I was just taking it full speed and saw that she was the last defender to beat,” she said. “So, I just had to beat her.

“This year, our team has character. We have all different types of girls. Freshmen and sophomores have stepped up and we needed that; we’ve never had the lower class step up and bring it.”

The Warriors seniors were eliminated in the quarterfinals twice before — when they were freshmen and juniors.

“We’re still growing as a group, for sure,” coach Moore said. “The win over Mililani gave us confidence, and tonight to finish our opportunities in the first half and to finish the game like we did, with everyone getting on the field, is huge for us. It’s such a collaborative, team effort.

“Campbell is a very good team,” she added. “We played them twice in the preseason. The games were close. I don’t remember the scores because it was so long ago. It feels like it was last year. They are a very aggressive and physical team. We know it’s going to be a physical game. We’ll keep fighting and play the best soccer that we can. We are not going to underestimate them one bit. We have to finish it.”

HHSAA D-I Tournament

HHSAA D-II Tournament