State Roundup: Baldwin Girls Finish 5th in Soccer

By Rodney S. Yap

The Baldwin High School girls soccer team capped its 2012 season with a fifth-place finish at the Outrigger Hotels & Resorts/Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association Division I Girls State Championships.

The Bears defeated Kealakehe of the Big Island, 5-3, on Saturday at the Waipio Soccer Complex in Waipahu. Baldwin led 2-0 at halftime thanks to goals by Amber-Lei Madriaga in the third minute and Alyssa Ariyoshi in the 12th minute.

In the second half, Baldwin added two more goals in a span of three minutes when Amanda Jorgensen found the net in the 46th minute and Tenisha Ruidas added another in the 49th minute. Kealakehe cut the Baldwin’s 4-0 lead to 4-3 with consecutive goals in the 68th, 69th and 71st minutes. Baldwin’s Sarah Nomura added an insurance goal in the 73rd minute.

Baldwin advanced to the fifth-place game by beating Pearl City 1-0 on penalty kicks (3-2) on Friday. Providing the penalty kicks for the Bears were Madriaga, Jorgensen, and Ashley Barbosa-Briones.

MIL runner-up Kamehameha Maui was eliminated from the 12-team tournament on Friday following a 5-2 defeat to Kealakehe. The Warriors fell behind 4-0 before getting second-half goals from Kylie Yamada and Makana Pundyke. However, it was too little too late.

Pundyke and Lily Higashino provided the offense in the Warriors’ 2-1 win over Kaiser to open the four-day tournament on Wednesday. Kamehameha Maui fell to top-seed Kamehameha Oahu the next day, 5-2. Higashino and Julia Saffery scored for the Maui Warriors.

Kamehameha Oahu claimed the state championship by defeating Iolani, 1-0, Saturday before 2,501 fans and a prime-time OC16 television audience.

Kawaiualani Makue knocked in a loose ball near the left post in the 32nd minute for the game’s only goal.

MIL champion Seabury Hall finished third twice at the First Hawaiian Bank Canoe Paddling Championships held Friday at Hilo Bayfront.

The Spartan girls and mixed crews were one place out of medal contention as crew members from the top two schools only receive individual medals.

Pac-Five girls, Punahou boys and Kamehameha Oahu mixed crew claimed titles in an Interscholastic League of Honolulu sweep

Kamehameha Oahu, which swept all three divisions in 2011, repeated as mixed crew champions, but the Buffanblu boys broke a string of two straight titles for Kapalama, and Pac-Five girls also unseated the defending champions, winning their second title in three years in the process.

Kamaile Lee, Ali Hoeck, Bela Hamilton, Mikela McDaniel, Dylan Ross, Marina Sanchez, Kaulu Lu’uwai and Mikela Wesson made up Seabury’s girls crew. McDaniel, Hamilton and Lu’uwai teamed with Mogul Lu’uwai, Alex Chapple and Alden Simmer in the mixed race. Baldwin finished fifth.

All of the day’s races were close and sometimes too close to call.

In the boys race, MIL champion Baldwin was fifth and Maui High sixth. Punahou won by the slimmest of margins, 3 minutes and 34.825 seconds to 3:34.959 for Kamehameha Oahu.

In the girls race, Pac-Five won the nail-biter over Kamehameha Oahu, 4:01.936 to 4:02.413.

Kamehameha Oahu’s mixed crew turned the table on Punahou in another thriller, 3:43.430 to 3:43.620.

The Maui Interscholastic League will host the 2012 OC16 Swimming & Diving Hawaii State Championships at the Kihei Aquatics Center this weekend. The two-day event starts on Friday with prelims at 9 a.m. Saturday’s semifinals begin at 8:30 a.m.