Kapolei's Kayla Alcott tries to dribble the past Aiea's Taylor Simpliciano. Jim Lebeau | SL

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Cait Perry scores in 1st half Jim Lebeau | SL

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Tue, Dec 27, 2016 @ Kapolei

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Aiea

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Kapolei

1

Final	1st	2nd	OT	2OT	PK	Tot
Aiea (10-4-3)	0	1	-	-	-	1
Kapolei (7-5-3)	1	0	-	-	-	1

C. Perry (30')   B. Yamada (60')

KAPOLEI — Given the circumstances, this one sure felt like a win for Aiea coach Ben Villaflor.

Despite playing without three of its starters, Aiea was able to overcome a poorly-played first half to tie Kapolei, 1-1, in a key Oahu Interscholastic Association Western Division game at Kapolei Stadium Tuesday night.

Na Alii (5-0-2) remain five points behind division-leading Mililani (7-0-1) in second place the standings with the tie, while the Hurricanes (4-2-1) sit in fourth place.

"We're still undefeated," Villaflor said. "A lot of our girls got injured this season, our bench is three freshmen, a couple of girls were sick today, too, so definitely we come away from this one with a good feeling."

Kylee Griep (knee injury), Keolani Sayles (illness) and Brooke Shimabukuro (family trip) all did not play for Na Alii. In their stead, Villaflor used a number of freshmen, including Jenna Turne and Taryn Matsumoto.

"They had some big shoes to fill as freshmen and we don't have a JV, so everybody comes straight to varsity for us, but they definitely stepped up for us," Villaflor said.

It was a somewhat similar story across the pitch on the Hurricanes sideline.

"Half the team was sick and then I guess they gave the sickness to the other half of the team," Kapolei coach Brian Beck said. "The hard thing is that we have yet to play with a full team and I know that happens from time to time, but we haven't had our full team the entire year. We're always missing somebody or something."

Beck said that senior forward/midfielder Alyssa Yoshida, the West's leading scorer with 13 goals on the season, was among those battling illness Tuesday.

"Alyssa was puking before the game," Beck said. "I was surprised Alyssa stayed on."

Yoshida did not score for the third consecutive game, but helped set-up Kapolei's goal in the 30th minute. She made a run down the right flank before finding Cait Perry in the box, who one-timed a shot from about 12 yards out with her right foot into the right side of the goal.

"I knew Alyssa was going to get it all the way to the back line, so I was followed her because she was going to beat those defenders and she did and she just hit a 45 and I placed it," Perry said of her sixth goal of the season.

Beck said the Hurricanes worked on creating that situation against Na Alii defense in practices leading up to the match.

"That's one thing that we knew that Aiea was vulnerable to, so I was just so happy to see that something that we did in practice actually occur in a game, so we're happy for that," Beck said.

The score held until the 60th minute, when sophomore Brianna Yamada scored the equalizer from about 15 yards out for her third goal of the year.

"I just saw Nicole (Olanda) take the ball down the line and I was able to get up into the box and she was able to bring it back towards the bottom right corner of the goal and I was able to finish," Yamada said.

Aiea extensively used a high-line trap on defense, which led to 13 offsides calls against Kapolei.

"Kapolei likes to play very direct, so we just pressed up our defensive line and we were able to get a bunch of offsides calls on them," Villaflor said.

The Hurricanes were flagged for being offsides six times in the first half and seven times in the second.

"That's really tricky, because I think they knew that our forwards were dangerous and so instead of playing deep and hesitant, their coach had them stepping up, so they trapped us on that offsides and I think we had a few missed calls as well, but that was frustrating," Perry said.

Beck said he felt a few of the offsides calls were questionable, but credited Na Alii for a solid game plan.

"We talked about it at halftime and we told them what to do, to dribble through it and we were successful a couple of times," Beck said. "A cople of times it was like one step, two steps (offside) and it's hard. When you're playing an offside trap, the referees have to be consistent and so sometimes you've just got to realize sometimes they are (onside), sometimes they're (offside), but it just seemed like we were (offside) all the time tonight."

Aiea got itself more offensive looks in the second half when it shifted Jordan Hill, an Azusa Pacific-commit, and Olanda, the team's leading scorer.

"Jordan is coming off an ACL surgery and she's just recovering, so she's not able to get that step off, so we dropped her into the midfield and pushed Nicole up top and that's what gave us more of a threat up top," Villaflor said.

Yamada said it was even more simple than that.

"It was pretty much just our energy," Yamada said. "Our energy was really low in that first half and in the second half we were able to pick up the speed and possess more and settle down and compose ourselves."

Kapolei had 12 shots on goal — nine of them coming in the first half — to 10 for Aiea.

The Hurricanes had several shots ricochet off the crossbar early on. Yamada fired off three shots on goal in the first four minutes. In the 24th minute, Michelle Bonafacio dribbled through Aiea's back line and got off a left-footed shot from about 10 yards out, but it bounced off the crossbar.

Aiea had a chance to take the lead in the 76th minute when Katie Hamilton put on a shot on goal from about 25 yards away, but Kapolei goalkeeper Sam Corney made a save. It led to an Aiea corner kick, which was served nicely into the middle of the box by Olanda, but Hill's shot went over the goal by a few feet.

Na Alii, who opened the season by winning their first five matches, will face a pair of tough opponents next week in reigning Division I state champion Pearl City Tuesday and Mililani Friday.

The Hurricanes, who were seeking to snap a two-match losing streak Tuesday, will visit Waianae Tuesday and host Pearl City Friday.