‘Iolani’s Jonah Kawamura scored twice in the first five minutes off assists from Brendan Parke, who added two goals of his own early in the second half in a 4-0 win over visiting Kamehameha on Saturday to win the ILH D-I tournament title.
The Raiders clinched a state tournament berth and will play at regular-season champion Punahou on Tuesday for the overall league crown.
“We’ve just recently been hitting our stride as a team offensively and defensively and I feel any team we go up against we have a good shot to make something happen,” said Kawamura, a sophomore.
‘Iolani went 0-1-1 against Punahou in the regular season.
“You always expect ‘Iolani-Punahou games to be really tough matches, and the ILH championship is on the line for both teams and also the seeded berth, so I expect a good game,” Raiders coach Chris Lee said.
‘Iolani dominated the game by stringing together passes and mixing in a few long balls.
“They were relentless, their transition was extremely quick, their speed was evident,” Kamehameha coach Uri Barron-Silva said.
The Warriors (2-5-5), who had five freshmen and five sophomores on their roster, managed only two shots on goal. Isaak Tanaka started in goal for ‘Iolani and was replaced by Akira Hanrahan in the 67th minute.
Kamehameha finished fourth out of four teams in the regular season but made it to the tournament final after upsetting Punahou 2-1 on Friday.
Barron-Silva said his players participated in the Pearl Harbor 5K and 10K Runs earlier in the day Saturday. He said it was mandatory for PE class and “unrescheduleable.”
“It was ridiculous. This will never happen again,” Barron-Silva said.
Barron-Silva did concede it had little impact on Saturday’s outcome.
“Hat’s off to them. They would have beaten us regardless,” he said.
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