OIA Girls Water Polo
Rough Riders hold off Hurricanes, 11-7, to stay unbeaten


  



WAIPIO — Roosevelt used a suffocating defense and got a match-high five goals from Taylor Brooks in its 11-7 win over Kapolei in a battle of unbeaten teams Wednesday afternoon at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center at Patsy T. Mink Central Oahu Regional Park.

The Rough Riders built a 9-3 lead through three quarters before holding off a late rally by the Hurricanes to improve to 7-0 with one game remaining in the first round of the Oahu Interscholastic Association season.

"I think we did really good especially since we've been having a lot of switching out between our newbies, our freshman and our new incoming sophomores and juniors, and I think we did really well," said Brooks, who now has 17 goals on the year. "I think we did a lot better communicating and I'm really excited for the rest of the season going into the second round."

April Gomes added three goals, Rayna Miranda chipped in two more and Sarah Yasuda had another score to round out the scorers for also for Roosevelt.

Mailani Wendt led the Hurricanes (5-1) in the loss with four goals. Jasmyn Palombo, Taylor Goeas and Angela Silva also had goals for Kapolei.

The Rough Riders' press defense frustrated the Hurricanes for most of the afternoon, which allowed Roosevelt to attempt nine more shots on goal than Kapolei did.

"Basically our defensive plan with pressing is the first thing we have to do is prevent a shot, next is to prevent a pass and the next is stealing the ball," said Brooks. "Our goal is just to press and not commit a foul, just run clock."

The closeout speed by the Roosevelt girls got to Kapolei early as the Hurricanes committed eight of their 25 turnovers in the first quarter and had just two shot attempts heading into the second stanza.

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"We started off slow, if we work on a few pointers we'l be right there with them when we get them again, hopefully we get them again in the playoffs," said Kapolei coach Dexter Lee.

"They got really good team speed," Lee added. "Their fastest kids are as fast as mine, and their two to four next best are all good level high school swimmers. They beat us up and down the court and they beat us on defense. We still have some room though, there's hope us."

Lee's optimism comes from a second half change that sparked a fourth quarter comeback by moving starting goalkeeper Goeas into the field and bringing in backup Tehani Tarape in goal. The move allowed Wendt, who now has 30 goals on the season, to get more scoring opportunities up close.

"That's the light in the tunnel for us," said Lee. "I can take my goalie out and not worry too much. Taylor is a great offensive player, so we want her in the field. We got a lot of good stuff coming out of this game."

The game was scoreless for the first three minutes before Kapolei called timeout. The Hurricanes however came up short on the following possession as Roosevelt was able to force a shot clock violation.

"We dropped a play, unfortunately the first pass went bad," said Lee. "The girls in the pool ran the play, but the ball wasn't there so it turned against us. Just an untimely bad pass."

It was a turnover that ultimately led to Roosevelt's first goal of the game. Brooks found the back of the net at the 3:26 mark of the period to give the Rough Riders a 1-0 lead. Brooks scored again 89 seconds later to double up Roosevelt's leader.

Wendt put Kapolei on the board from six meters out with 9.28 left in the quarter to make it a 2-1 game heading into the second period.

Roosevelt's defense continued to pester Kapolei as the Rough Riders denied any Kapolei score in the second stanza. April Gomes, who is Roosevelt's second-leading scorer of the season with 16 goals, scored twice before halftime to give the Rough Riders a 4-1 lead at the break.

The offense started to open up for Kapolei in the third quarter, but so did the Roosevelt attack. The Rough Riders scored five goals in the third quarter while the Hurricanes netted just two.

Both coaches agreed that depth played a factor in the second half.

"A lot of our games we just try to swim and get the other team tired," said Roosevelt coach Susan Nishioka.

"My bench is not that deep with swimmers," added Lee. "They got tired and we weren't getting up as high."

Kapolei rallied with four goals in the fourth quarter, but it was too little too late and the Rough Riders were able to hold on for the win.



Reach Michael Lasquero at [email protected].




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