Leong's hat trick powers Kaiser past Castle

Kaiser's Alyssa Leong accounted for three goals in a win over Castle. Greg Yamamoto | SL

Alyssa Leong notched two key second half goals, and three in total, to lift Kaiser to a 4-2 win over Castle on a blustery evening at Kaiser Stadium.

In a battle between the two remaining teams without a loss in the OIA East, it was the Cougars who dictated much of the pace of the game throughout.

The main initator of that was more often than not, Leong, who got Kaiser on the board first, pushing a shot past the charging Knights' goal keeper in the 27th minute.

Coming out of the halftime intermission, it was the Cougars who struck again in the 48th minute, as Mikayla Smith lofted a free kick over the keeper's head to make it 2-0.

Despite the margin, Castle responded, and did so in a hurry.

In a three minute span, Kaiser saw its two goal lead completely evaporate, as Bethanee Hanaike sailed a shot from the right edge just over the keeper for a score in the 50th minute, and followed that up with a second goal in the 53rd, as she muscled a shot through a pile of players to equalize the score.

Undaunted, Kaiser continued to push the ball in their offensive half, with one sequence resulting in a yellow card awarded to Leong after getting tangled up with a Knights' defender.

That continual pressure being applied to the Castle back line ultimately paid off, however, as Leong was fouled in the box in the 57th minute, resulting in a penalty kick that she deftly placed into the right side past a diving keeper to push the Kaiser back into the lead.

The finishing touch on the match came for the Cougars in the 64th minute, as Caitlin Segawa lofted a pass down the middle and over the Castle defense, with just enough air for the speedy Leong to chase down.

The result? A one-on-one with the keeper that ended with Leong's hat trick.

Leong's three goal performance also pushed her into a tie with Pearl City's Caylie Uyema for the most scored in the OIA thus far with 13.