Kalaheo, Roosevelt play to 3-3 tie

The Mustangs took an early 3-0 lead, but the Rough Riders scored the next three goals to force a stalemate. Leighland Tagawa | Special to SL

It was a tale of two parts.

Kalaheo took an early 3-0 lead before Roosevelt stormed back to tie the game up as the two teams played to a 3-3 tie at the Mustangs' field in an Oahu Interscholastic Association Eastern Division contest Wednesday afternoon.

"It was a very even game," said Kalaheo coach John Nakagawa. "Roosevelt and Kalaheo is always a very good matchup. Roosevelt has skill and speed and we like to try to match that if we can. As you can see it's a bit of a chess match and the score 3-3 reflects that."

Roosevelt, the defending OIA Division II champion, avoided back-to-back losses to start the season and improved to 0-1-1.

Despite losing momentum midway through the game, the Mustangs (1-0-1) were able to prevent the Rough Riders from taking the lead.

"That usually happens when we go up and we get a little bit relaxed a little bit, and they come back and they got energized, so we met their energy and it was really even after that," said Nakagawa.

Roosevelt's Noah Aghdasi, who scored two goals to lead the Rough Riders, said that his team were motivated by some of the Mustangs' scores.

"Our offense kind of got upset with some of the goals that they got. We felt that it was kind of lucky, but we had to fight back. We was either going to go down, or we were going to come back in. It was one or the other, but we'll take the tie."

Chad Morishige also scored a goal for Roosevelt.

Diego Miranda scored two goals to lead the Mustangs in the match. Jonathan LeVine was responsible for Kalaheo's third score.

Kalaheo travels to Kailua on Saturday while the Rough Riders will try to get their first win of the season when they host McKinley next Wednesday.