Moanalua takes care of business in win over Castle

Krislyn Uyeda slots home her second goal of the game for Moanalua in a 4-0 win over Castle. Greg Yamamoto | SL

Salt Lake - And then there were two.

Moanalua registered a 4-0 home victory against Castle on Saturday night, knocking the Knights from the ranks of the OIA East unbeatens and setting up a potential showdown with Kaiser on January 3 for sole possession of first atop the division standings.

The Knights fell to 4-1, as Na Menehune notched a third straight clean sheet and four of the last five.

Although the scoreline may initially indicate that Moanalua cruised to a comfortable win, that was not the case as the Knights were the aggressors early on.

The Knights came out hot and almost scored the opening goal of the game in the 9th minute. Junior midfielder Brianne Kumashiro played a perfect through ball for sophomore forward Taja Kaaihue-Tollefsen. Kaaihue-Tollefsen, the Knights leading scorer, collected the ball and was on a one vs. one breakaway with Moanalua keeper Marisa Lam. Lam stepped up big and was able to make a sliding save to keep the score tied at 0-0.

After that big save, it woke up the Moanalua team and they started to work the ball more. They created a decent chance of their own in the 13th minute when Riah Echavaria sliced her way through the Knights defense and fired a left footed shot on frame, but Castle keeper Liliana Serrano was there to make the save.

The turning point of the game came in the 16th minute when Castle center back Kaitlin Tani went down with an apparent ankle injury. The injury took the life out of the game and the crowd as they watched Tani get carted off the field. With the injury, the Knights needed to shift personnel around and Moanalua tactically changed to be more offensive.

The Knights again had a breakaway seconds after the restart from injury. Kaaihue-Tollefsen looked destined to score, but Lam and the help of her defense, managed to clear the ball to safety.

The reshuffled Castle defense held on until they were finally beaten minutes before the halftime whistle. In the 34th minute, freshman Jaydah Hayes juked around a defender and crossed a dangerous ball from the left flank. The ball was first miss touched by another defender right into the path of Kaitlyn Ferreria. Ferreria, also a freshman, guided her shot into the top left corner just out of Serrano's reach to make it 1-0.

Shortly after the halftime restart, Moanalua scored again to make it 2-0. Echavaria received a ball in the center of the field, dribbled through a flurry of Castle defenders, and launched a laser shot from over 30 yards out into the top left corner of the net.

Both teams keeped peppering shots at each others' goals, but both keepers were up to the task. On the night, Lam and Serrano made a total of 5 saves each.

In the last 10 minutes, the Knights shifted formation and tried to salvage a result. That resulted in Moanalua capitalizing two more times before the final whistle. In the 76th minute, Hayes crossed in a dangerous ball from the right flank that was buried home by Krislyn Uyeda. Uyeda would find the net again seconds before the final whistle to end the scoring.

Moanalua will look to defend home soil again next week as they host Kalani while Castle will try to bounce back against Roosevelt on Wednesday.