Lady Knights’ Soccer: It’s All About Creating Opportunities
By Jack Danilewicz
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Del.icio.usIn a balanced league like the Oahu Interscholastic Association East Red, it’s hard to view any school’s soccer schedule as being favorable.
For his part, however, Castle coach Mark Kane didn’t mind catching Kaiser and Kalani in back-to-back encounters.
While both welcome back stellar teams this winter, preparing for the Knights’ game with Kaiser over the weekend was good preparation for this Saturday’s 4:30 p.m. showdown at Kalani.
“Both have strong possession offenses,” Kane said of Kaiser and Kalani.
“They move the ball well. When they get into our defensive third (portion of the field), we need to pack it in and use our defense to create some scoring opportunities for our offense. They’ll come at us, and we want to be able to counter attack.”
As was expected before the Knights embarked on pre-season play, defense remains Castle’s forte. Kane’s defense features three-year starters Crystal Kekauoha, Emily Pak and Britney Honma, as well as junior Johnelle Franks, who is entering her second season as a member of the starting lineup. Also back in the fold, after a one-year hiatus from soccer which saw her concentrate on basketball, is senior goalkeeper Sarah Phromisiri.
Castle took a 2-2 mark into its regular-season opener Saturday, having already played one of the more demanding schedules around, with games against Baldwin and Kahuku, as well as traditional West powers Pearl City and Mililani. Those encounters should serve Castle well late in the season, according to Kane.
“We wanted to get a good measure of ourselves, especially with the West teams, which we don’t get to see until the post-season, and we did fairly well.
“We were hit by the injury bug, and we had a few kids with the flu and with colds, but now we’ve had a whole week (off), so we’re healing up.”
Despite splitting its early pre-season games, Castle was hard-pressed to score goals, tallying just two, both of which came against Baldwin. (The Knights won a scoreless game with Kahuku in a shoot-out.)
Offensively, the Knights’ attack is centered around senior mid-fielder Tami Kalaiwaa, a three-year starter, and sophomore forward Shelby Furtado.
“Our defense is mostly keeping us in it - that’s the part we’re doing well,” said Kane, whose team finished behind Moanalua and Kaiser (with a 5-1-4 record) in the East last season.
“Our offense is still finding its way. We’ve created some good opportunities. I’m hoping we can be more consistent in creating opportunities. That’s going to be the key for us - creating those opportunities. We’d like to be a ‘possession team’ that controls the ball.
“Our veterans are still carrying the team; they keep us moving in the right direction,” he added.“We have our experienced players and our inexperienced players, and they’ll start to come along after a few games. By the playoffs, we should have all of our ducks lined up.”
Following Saturday’s Kalani game, the Knights hit a difficult stretch, which will see them play Kailua Dec. 13, Moanalua Dec. 16 and Kalaheo Dec. 20.
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