HILO – It seems almost silly to mention now, but first-year Hawaii Prep coach James Berry did have some worries entering the season that his message and style might get lost on a veteran Ka Makani squad that already has one co-state Division I boys soccer title under its belt.
Berry was familiar with most of HPA’s roster through club play, and even those that didn’t know him have shown little in the way of a clash of opinions.
“So far, so good,” Berry said as dusk fell Friday at Hilo Bayfront.
The long-term outlook is better than good after HPA dissected Hilo High 5-1 with machine-like precision, a BIIF D-I result that likely speaks more to Ka Makani’s formidable nature than any weakness in the Vikings.
In what is a nice problem to have, beyond wins and losses, Berry likely will have to find ways to challenge his players all season long.
“Finding that competition to play against without leaving the island, and Hilo was a good one,” Berry said. “Providing pressure on ourselves by playing a more compact game, pressuring into their half or allowing them to drop into ours just to put ourselves under pressure to make sure we can hold that.”
The teams are at different developmental stages.
Ka Makani (2-0) came in after winning HPA’s preseason tournament last weekend and they beat Keaau on Wednesday. The Vikings (0-1), who were missing a few players, hadn’t played since the Big Island Candies tournament before Thanksgiving, and coach George Ichimaru said he has a smaller roster than usual, not enough to play an intra-squad scrimmage.
“The mentality that they came into the game with was more than we had expected,” Ichimaru said. “They tried their best, they tried to hang on. This is only the first step.”
He said he was encouraged Hilo kept HPA off the scoreboard as long as it did, but when the dam breaks against HPA, it swarms. Ka Makani got two goals from Jake Schneider and one apiece by Toby Balaam, Noah Balaam and Noah Furchner.
“Connectivity,” Berry said of his favorite aspect of these 80 minutes. “The last couple of weeks we had been pushing hard at training, connecting at midfield, connecting to the lines faster. Today, we were very successful connecting to the lines. One didn’t end up with a goal, but we connected all the lines.”
Beyond the Vikings, Berry is also looking forward to home-and-aways with Kealakehe and Waiakea. HPA visits the Waveriders on Wednesday.
Kyler Rivera scored of a rebound of Riley Patterson’s blast on a free kick in the second half as Hilo avoided the shutout.
On Tuesday, the Vikings visit Waiakea – sight of the Warriors’ win against Hilo in the 2018 BIIF semifinals.
Asked if HPA was a good test for Hilo before taking on its rival, Ichimaru said, “More like a final exam.”
“This is a good reflection of how hard we need to work to get where we need to be,” he said.
Girls
Hawaii Prep 1, Hilo 1
Makana Blake scored in the 64th minute from 15 yards out after taking a right-to-left pass from Alianna West, and Ka Makani (1-0-1) came away with a hard-earned draw on the road.
The matchup of cross-divisional BIIF powers went to the half scoreless before Jordyn Pacheco netted her third goal of the season in the 45th minute, a 10-yarder in which Hollie Saplan drew an assist.