Kaiser edges Castle, 1-0, on Srivongsana's goal

CJ Caraang | SL

MILILANI – Freshman Makana Srivongsana scored the game's only goal with three minutes left and Kaiser squeezed by Castle, 1-0, Tuesday night's quarterfinal of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I boys' soccer tournament at John Kauinana Stadium.

The Cougars will play Radford in one semifinal, 7 p.m. Thursday at Kapolei stadium.

Castle will meet Mililani in a fifth-place semifinal 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Moanalua.

It was a strange game in that it wasn't as close as the score indicated. Although it was scoreless for 76 minutes, it was the Cougars taking majority of the shots and playing on the Knights' side of the field most of the time. Kaiser took 13 shots on goal to Castle's three.

"It was kind of an ugly game," Kaiser coach Marco Antonio Gloria said. "We had most of the possessions, we had all the connecting passes. I don't think (the Knights) stringed more than two passes together. I think we had four or five, so I think we did much better."

The Cougars beat the Knights, 6-0, at Kaiser's grass field during the regular season. This time the game was played on Kauinana's artificial surface.

"We're not used to turf," Gloria said. "I told the boys be happy we're going to be playing at Kapolei on Thursday and hopefully Saturday, so we should be much better."

Gloria said his players slipping and were having trouble judging the ball's bounces.

Although Srivongsana is among the state's leaders in scoring, he only played the second half.

"We didn't want to put in all our aces," Gloria said. "We have a pretty even team, so we started rotating, see what's going on."

That kept the Knights off-balanced.

"Second half, they put in a guy they didn't have in the first half, No. 9 (Srivongsana)," Castle coach Marc LaChance said. "They have good forwards. We know that. They score goals all year. That changed it up a little. They shifted formations. We adjusted, they shifted back. It's one of those things. They have

good players, good talent and they have a game plan….They had chances, we had chances."

Srivongsana, third among Oahu scorers with 19 goals, got open on a breakaway before he scored. He moved from right to left and found a gap.

"The angle was pretty hard, but I finished it off," Srivongsana said. "The goalie, he went to the right. That opened up the left side."

Minutes earlier, he had missed a shot from 10 yards, so he was relieved to deliver later.

"I missed the first one," he said. "Pretty easy, kind of like the other one (that he made). The angle was kind of harder, but I just kept trying."

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at [email protected].